Vaishali Express - जितना सुंदर तुम्हारा नाम उतनी सुंदर तुम्हारी चाल - be my valentine - Rahul Vatsa

It was a thoroughly enjoyable and exhilarating RF experience as 5 Kolkata based admins and ardent railfans viz. Sabyasachi, BG, Arkya, Souvik and PKV converged at Santragachi Station at 5.30 pm today evening. The plan for the RF session had been hatched earlier in the morning and all 5 were game enough to participate at such short notice. Absentee invitees were admins Bibek and Gaurav due to pre-occupations.
The railfanning experience at SRC lasted for almost an hour and included a visit to the famous but now hyacinth clogged Santragachi waterbody (jheel in Bengali) which is home to thousands of migratory birds in the cooler climes of December and January.
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original plan was to move to Shalimar by the EMU local departing from SRC at 6.15 pm but the wise 5 had not reckoned that that service is restricted to only 6 days a week with exemption on Sundays. But undaunted the fivesome made their way to SRC by a late running 18008 Baripada-Shalimar SIMLIPAL EXPRESS, which left SRC at 18.30 and reached SHM at 6.45 pm, 45 mns late.
The grossly underutilised SHM terminal with 2 platforms looked sleek and unlike its appearance 4 years ago, had a fully covered shade over the platform area. What was noteworthy was that a Q of more than 200 in strength had formed for boarding the UR compartments of the biweekly 16324 Shalimar-Trivandrum Express, scheduled to depart later in the night at 22.45 hrs. But before that an as yet unheard of 19659 Shalimar-Udaipur Express was set to leave at 20.25 hrs. The plight of general passengers Q-ing up 4 hrs in advance for a measly bit of space in the UR bogie was unenviable and almost pathetic. But that is the face of stark reality.
Back to SRC by the 7.05 pm Shalimar-Mecheda EMU and from there to Howrah by the 7.45 Midnapore-Howrah FAST EMU. Railfans also like other human beings do experience the pangs of hunger. It was little wonder then that the next object of attention for the evening was the sumptuous fare on offer at the FOOD PLAZA in the old complex of Howrah Station. Following a hearty bite, it was time at 8.30 pm, to disperse after the customary GOODBYES and thanksgiving, not to forget the promises to renew the experiences after the shortest possible interval of time. The nitty-gritty of the railfanning experience will follow in due course of time, duly embellished with pictures and videos. For the moment it would suffice to affirm that it was yet another evening of TRIBUTE to the human ties that IRI.COM has enabled its members to build, resulting in a unique and memorable communion of hearts. More details will follow from the participants as soon as time permits them to share their impressions with all of you.