Shatabdi Exp - janam-janam ka saath hai, agle shatabdi tak - Ananya D'Souza

Link to 1st and 2nd part - click here
Part 3
Secundrabad - Mumbai
After arriving Secundrabad by Satvahana Exp at around 1215 hrs, I had almost 2+ hr to kill before my Shatabdi trip to Pune was scheduled. Was feeling hungry so kept my bag in the cloak room and ventured out of Secundrabad PF 1 and went to Alpha...
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hotel in front of it, about which I have heard from friends and also read some reviews. Being in Hyderabad and biryani is something which you can't ignore. Many people ordering the same. But I am not a biryani person and thus I ignored it succesfully and comfortably. After having a nice lunch, time was to head back to the station. As I reached the station Secundrabad nizamuddin Duronto was standing on PF 1. Since I had no luggage with me then, decided to explore the loco of duronto. Before moving, I clicked a shot of the duronto and just as I moved towards the loco, it honked and started pulling the load of nizamuddin duronto. I didn't even clearly saw the loco. Anyways, looked around and saw a prepaid AC waiting room. Paid Rs 25 for 1 hour and entered the room. The room was neat and clean with aound 20-25 chairs and had attached toilets and bathrooms. A LED TV was playing some telugu movie channel. There were more than adequate no. of charging points. I also plugged in my mobile and left it to charge and took a nap. After refreshing, I left the room and collected my bag from cloak room and waited for 12025 to arrive from Pune. The train arrived on time on PF 1 and quite a good number deboarded it. After all deboarded, now the waiting passengers started boarding their respective coaches. As the passengers boarded the OBHS and sweepers started their work. The coach was being cleaned and mopped. The window pane on PF side was cleaned. After all this, air freshner was sprayed. At dot on time the train started. Within this 20-25 min TAT, train was sufficiently clean. We crawled towards our next stop Begumpet where a number of people boarded the train. By this the occupancy was almost 50%. I was on a 3 seat row and my next adjacent 2 seats were empty. I thought if this remain empty till Solapur, then I can have some 3 hrs sleep. The train picked up speed and WDP 4D went mad. Continuous honking and acceleration. At this point of time the complementary Rail neer for which we had already paid was given. We passed some empty rake trains like Jaipur - hyderabad - Jaipur which was parked quite far away from its originating point. Similarly when we entered Vikarabad, rake of Hyderabad Pune was parked there with a WAG 9 at its helm. It was surprising to see that a train was parked about 1 hr away from its source. Very less passengers were here to avail its services. Before arriving Vikarabad, we were given snacks which consisted of a kachori, moong daal, caramel popcorn and tea kit. No bar one chocolate. The kachori was hot but not crispy. It was somewhat not cooked properly, maybe cooked on high flame and then heated in an oven. As the passengers had their snacks, next halt Tandur went by in no time. The train teared through the deccan plateau as the intensity of sun rays weakened. Witnessing a beautiful sunset was disturbed by co passenger when he decided to pull the shades down. I was angry but waited for a while. After around 10 minutes I released the shade from its hook and it went up with a loud sound as it reached the top of the window. The passenger sitting in front looked back and looked slightly angry
for my act . Till then I had already hooked myself and my phone to the window. I saw him from corner of my eyes. I ignored him as I think window seat is for enjoying the view outside, not for pulling down the curtains and sleep. As we moved forward, a pair of lines appeared from left and the time suggested we are approaching WADI. We arrived WADI where Jayanti Janta Express from CAPE was standing on adjacent PF and waiting for an OT from us. At WADI some vada pav vendors got inside the coach to sell their signature dish of maharashtra. I took 2 for 20. The food for the train was loaded here. As the train moved, the vendors deboarded and moved towards jayanti janta for new potential relishers of the dish. After leaving WADI, I paid attention to the dish I had recetly bought. 20 rs was too much for those small pavs and cold vadas. Anyways, had it and was happy to see that no one occupied the adjacent two empty seats. After it went dark, now time was for some sleep. Premium trains allow for some nice sleep as there are no vendors with chai chai, samosa, pakoda, etc etc. The train arrived Solapur 15 min late. To my dismay, here the train became cent percent occupied and thus my 2 adjacent seats were also. After Solapur departure, we were served food. I didn't understand that when food was loaded at WADI then why they served after Solapur? Instead, they could have loaded food at Solapur and server hotter plates to passengers. The food was good with lot of tamarind juices in paneer masala, still it tasted good. After dinner, Amul ice cream of vanilla flavour was given. The ice cream cup was collected after few moments followed with a norm of premium trains i.e. the tip. The attendant accepted happily with a smile whatever the people put in tray. First my plan was to stay at Pune PF till morning and then take Sinhagad exp next morning to Pune. But I was dead tired sitting 15 hrs in CC and needed some sleep. Checked if tickets are available in Pune mumbai leg in any night train. 2 seats were available in Gadag CST Exp in 2ac. Booked in that. Got seat 13 in HA 1. Was happy to get a Lower berth. After dinner most boring part of the journey was there. Sleep. Woke up hearing the hustle bustle of passengers only to find that the train was about to reach Pune. The train arrived Pune on PF 6. IRI showed my next train was scheduled to arrive on PF 2. I went to the waiting room and waited there for some time. At around 1 AM I went to PF 2 where the Jayanti janta exp, which we Overtook at WADI was standing with some parcel being loaded and unloaded into its SLR. The VSKP LTT Exp arrived on PF1. Three trains, Hyb-cst Hussain sagar, cst -Hyb Hussain sagar, Gadag csmt exp were scheduled to arrive with Cst hyb hussain sagar at PF 6 and other two on unkonwn PF. After Jayanti Janta departed, announcement for CST bound Hussain sagar and gadag exp started with former on PF 3 and latter on PF 2. Hussain sagars (both for CSMT and HYB) arrived simultaneously on their allotted PFs. After around 5 min my train, Gadag CSMT exp arrived with a WDP 4 in LHF mode. HA 1 coach stopped few metres ahead from what CGS showed. A passenger deboarded from HA1 with attendant helping him with his luggage. I entered the coach and attendant came behind following me. My seat was vacant with used bedroll present there. The attendant collected the used one and provided me with a new set of 2 bedsheets, 1 blanket, 1 hand towel. I took a quick look of coach. It was very nicely maintained and cleaned. The window was also clean. There were 4 charging points present in my 4 berth cabin. The cooling was apt. I spread my bedsheet and went to sleep. I woke up only at Dadar where the train had got almost empty. Only I was present in 2ac part and a couple was in 1 ac part. Here I saw a charging point present on SU also along with SLB. Means each passenger had his own charging point. I put my charger in 2-3 points and I found all of them working. I then used the washroom and found it to be in almost unused condition. The floor was dry, with the toilet spic and span. The hand wash and tissue paper were present in their place. I was impressed by this train's maintainance. Keep it up CR. After refreshing myself I stood at the door. The train had departed from Dadar by then. The cool early morning breeze hit my face and it was so nice. I was still feeling sleepy and the cool breeze tempted for some more. But that couldn't be done. So I splashed some water on my face which helped to get rid of sleep and then I was again at the door. I saw we were Overtaking some train. I was able to see its ECoR marking but couldn't make out its destination marking. I guessed it was Gitanjali. Only when we moved closer to the loco of that train, I saw my guess was coreect. It was indeed the famous CSMT HWH Gitanjali express, whose rake was being shunted for its early morning departure. After overtaking it, we slowed down and Kurla WDS 6 caught up with us and we had a parallel run for a couple of minutes. After crossing Masjid we both got red signal. We halted for more than 15 mins with Gitanjali getting the Amber first and few moments later we got it too. In few moments I was at the iconic Railway station station of India and the station I like the most, the grand Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus AKA Victoria Terminus, with the latter name being more used by the people associated with public transport services in mumbai.