The train is a small world moving through a larger world - Niraj Kumar

PART 2: CONNECTING THE DOTS

Being us has its own privileges and in no time was lost in figuring out that the only train will meet my requirements is 22652 Palakkad Chennai Central Express for it not only reaches before 04:30 hours in the morning but also dropped me at Chennai Central instead of Chennai Egmore or Tambaram , like many other trains coming from various parts of Tamil Nadu.
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Coming to Ticketing, I logged into to book Tatkal tickets but as it always is, the IRCTCs way, the Tatkal tickets were Waitlisted even before completion of booking in second attempt, first being failed transaction from a Payment Getaway When IRCTC closes all the doors, Indian Railways opens another door. It happened incidentally that 2A tickets moved to booking status 'RAC 12" for some time and calculating my own confirmori abilities, I grabbed that opportunity.

The tickets were confirmed with RAC with a Side Lower Berth being allotted as is for RAC passengers, my bags packed and soon it was time to depart from Kodaikanal towards Palani Railway Station. Bathing in the beauty of the hills, I was looking forward for the journey next day.

Palani is a beautiful Station with 3 Pkatforms with Good Views. I reached the station with 15 mins to spare. As there were no pkatform displays, with help of IRI, located my coach position.

My train 22652 came into view soon after lead hy ED P4 #22256 and dead GOC 4D 40476 (which eas detached at Dindigul Jn during our reversal). We halted for 30 odd mins for crossing with 16344 Amritha Express bound for Trivandrum Central. Despite ICF rake, the coaches were well maintained and clean. AJJ WAP P4 22792 took charge of our Train till Chennai.

The Journey was uneventful thereafter with my RAC seat getting confirmed onboard after Karur. The Train ran way ahead of time all the way and reached Chennai Central bang at 03:45 hrs, 20 mins before scheduled arrival. It would be pertinent to appreciate the super quick rake reversal at Dindigul Jn for a spare power was arranged and Train departed in less than 15 mins

I was watching the time ticking away slowly for I had 2 hours to kill before I would be riding on the latest sensation of Southern Railway, 20607 Chennai Central – Mysuru Vande Bharat Express. I kept looking at the indicators for Platform allocation (though I knew that VB would be placed on PF 1, courtesy IRI). At about 4:30 hours, the platform was officially allocated and by the time I reached towards Platform 1, the rake was already placed.

I had booked my tickets at the first instant when I knew I had a chance to ride the Vande Bharat Express. It then had 250 odd seats available in CC while EC was in Waiting List. Meanwhile our dear old Mysuru Shatabdi showed some 300 odd seats available in CC. Despite all of this availability I was allotted an aisle seat by IRCTC. At the time of charting, Vande Bharat Express had some 50 seats available which were all booked almost 30 minutes before departure (which I came to know from Onboard TTE when I met him to ask for vacant Window seat). Mysuru Shatabdi closed its gates with 500 plus seats totaling in all 3 classes put together.