BENGALURU(SBC) AND ITS BETTAHALASURU(TLS)
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I was surprised by the eeriness of the road I was walking on, it appeared like I am in the middle of a no man’s world although I at that point was merely 19 kms from the heart of the IT hub of India-Bengaluru. I was trying to find Bettahalasur Halt(TLS) Railway station amidst seemingly well grown scrubland and what appeared to be a fairly decent road with no apparent reason for existence. I was around that area for a meeting at an Air Cargo Warehouse, which also...
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seemed to exist at a place like that for no logical reason i could think of. Having packed my bags and a little something to nibble at if hungry, I embarked on this journey from my office at 09:30AM in the morning hoping to reach this meeting place by 11:30AM, located at a distance of 30kms as the crow flies. This is how we roll in Bengaluru, I guess.
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But who was I kidding, the traffic God’s of Bengaluru had other plans and presented every bus or cab I took with bountiful traffic almost as a reprimand for me to have even hoped to travel 30kms in 02 hours. That was when I decided that there is no way in hell I am taking either a bus or a taxi on the way back home at Indiranagar, two metro stations away from the Metro and IRI Railfan terminal of Byappanahalli(BYPL). The purple line of Bangalore Metro originates here, with the metro station being right next and connected to one of the IRI celebrity status awarded station of BYPL. This railway station and to an extent in recent days, the metro station too, had undoubtedly witnessed the highest amount of Admin meets in Bangalore ever. This is where the iconic(I guess it deserves the mention) admin meet of 2012 happened where more than 10 admins came together and most ended up being the best of friends or the other way round and still continue to do so. BYPL for me and certainly for a lot of SBC admins has lot of memories and nostalgia attached to it, inspite of passing the station or meeting there quite often.
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This day, the 15th of November 2017, all I had to do was somehow manage to get into a train and reach BYPL. I called my most reliable trip planner (Ultra Short or Super long, or unlikely to happen, he is the go to man), fellow admin, Tejas for his wise thoughts which i promptly received. Yelahanka, i was told, was the biggest station nearby, about 10 kms from the place my meeting was at and the nearest station was BettaHalasur, on the Kolar-Chikkballapur-Yelahanka-KSR Bengaluru line. Having finished my meeting, i stepped out to find a cab, none of which were even remotely close on either ola or uber, the warehouse was literally the only landmark around that place and even the security guard was not aware of any railway station nearby.
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Trusting the wisdom of Tejas and the accuracy of my phone, I looked for any signs of existence of Bettahalasur on Maps after which it promptly did point to an unsettling location couple of kilometres away. With no other alternative, I began to walk in the direction of the station. The maps showed the railway Permanent way was crossing the road about a kilometre ahead, i did not know if it was a RUB or a level crossing but I decided to give it a shot anyway. Thus began my long walk on an eerie stretch of road with no vehicle or signs of humanity in the vicinity.
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Little did I know that the next 30 minutes of my life would end up being one of the most challenging times, physically and well, just physically...to be continued! Thanks for reading