24 hours in Rajdhani Express

It's been almost fifteen years since I've done a train journey ( recent Nilgiri express from Ooty being the only exception), leave alone a 24 hour train journey.

Seems like another world experience.

Swaroop and I were planning a trip to Delhi, a plan that's been afoot for over a month. We were trying to coordinate our respective flights from Bangalore and Hyderabad, and suddenly he says, "Smitha akka, I'm thinking of doing one way by train, I'll still reach same Saturday morning as you" , and I could sense my antennae quiver. Didn't take me long to say 'know what...maybe me too, in fact, if it's Rajdhani I can hop into the same train at Hyderabad' . And that's how it started. 

No easy task.

First off, I couldn't get tickets. We were planning well in advance, yet my ticket from Hyd was wait listed......a chance we couldn't take.

And I found that strange, not just because of the travel time of 24 hours, but also because train fare from Hyd to Delhi is actually more than flight. Indigo was at Rs.4300 and Rajdhani was at Rs. 4440. Yet I couldn't get tickets.

By then the bee was buzzing in the bonnet, so what to do. Swaroop was sweet enough to go to the reservation office at Bangalore to explore workarounds, and find one he did. The counter clerk said, 'book from Bangalore, and ask her to board at Secunderabad'.  And another surprise, the fare from Bangalore to Delhi was actually lower than Hyd to Delhi inspite of a 1/3 plus distance. 

The system is so weird and knocked out. After all this, we found that the bogie was practically empty. A scattering of people. It's sad they make it so difficult.

Anyways, that didn't stop us, maybe even added, to us totally enjoying the 24 hours in the train ( 38 for Swaroop who was travelling Bangalore - Delhi)

The Rajdhani is a beautiful train...... with nice big windows that allow for a wonderful view, great food, squeaky clean loos, nicely maintained compartments, clean window panes.........it was lovely.

Evening tea came with a samosa, yummy sandwiches, freshly made sonpapdi, and fried peanuts.....full timepass munching. Dinner started with steaming hot soup and breadsticks, with main course of salad, roti, chicken curry,  dal and ghee rice, and oh yeah, ice cream too. One of my most enjoyed vanilla ice creams.  In fact both of us enjoyed the ice cream so much that we get two more. They definitely do a great job with food.

While I was fully equipped with music and a good book, I touched neither.......just the window was enough. And we had my favourite berth, the side lower berth. Curtain drawn you can literally shut out the rest of train and disappear into your own world.

The landscape at one point seems monotonous, especially so the long stretch through Maharashtra, but once we get to Madhya Pradesh you see the difference. There's mountains and tunnels and some forest. Rajdhani has only major stops. Kazipet, Bhalaspur, Nagpur, Bhopal and Jhansi. Otherwise you see it zip through all other stations.

At Kazipet, I went off into a reverie of sorts, some memory trigger which takes you back into childhood, and lots of lovely associated thoughts. And the mountains and lakes whizzing past seem to just aid that reverie space and make it that much more beautiful.

Like when my dad later asked how was the long train ride, I was like "It didn't seem long at all....time just went by so beautifully". In fact Swaroop was like, 'if I didn't have to be back at work, I'd have even gone back by train', and I second that :)

It's like this dream space where you can totally engage into life, within yourself and without, with none of the usual life of detail interruptions..... a space worth seeking out when we can.

Some pictures from the train ride:

Diksha and Sameer came to drop me off early in the morning, and she got to say hi to Swaroop too.

I was so excited seeing the windows getting cleaned :)

Diksha and me saying our adieus

That's the route it takes, a full on south through to north India

The window from the inside. In fact soon as Swaroop got in at Bangalore, that's the message he sent me 'we have lovely big windows' :)

A pretty view

Crossing a bridge

Inside the bogie

This was soup before dinner

Swaroop engrossed in the outside

Couple of sunset pics

Next morning, Hazrat Nizamuddin Station, New Delhi, bustling with activity at 6.30 am, and we stepped into the fog and nip of the just setting in, Delhi winter.

Thanks Swaroop for that brilliant and hatke thinking, and inspiration too. (when I first checked tickets and found it so expensive, I voiced aloud "guddu, it's actually more expensive than flying, and twenty four hours" and he's like "but it has a long great view smitha akka", and that's all it took).

Next time you have such whacky ideas, tell ok :)