It turned out to be one of the busiest in my life. The day started off early morning 5:15 am for a planned trip to Chennai. I had to catch the Train @ Krishnarajapuram Railway station @6:53 am. I hadn't any clue that the day would start with three hours and half hours waiting for the train @ Krishnarajapuram Railway station (6:45 am until 10:30 am). I had to stand and wait for the entire 3 and hours as there wasn't any space to sit and the station was crowded to its capacity. The news started to spread that the train would be delayed by 3 hours and the Shatabdi Express from Bangalore to Chennai had derailed @ Bangalore City station. It was Republic day and the news of Train derailment indicating that this could be handy work of anti-national elements. I never wanted to quit the journey in spite of this news and this thought didn’t even occur once during the 3 and half hours of waiting time.
Finally when the train did arrive to my surprise even the reserve compartment was totally full... Me having one small bag in one hand and a carton box in another hand I found it very difficult to board the train. It was difficult to get a place to stand was difficult, as the train moved managed to hang on to the footsteps of the coach. There was also an announced @ the train station the train would stop @ Whitefield, Malur, etc. It was evident that the express train was converted to a passenger train for today. I prepared myself to accept the fact that it would stop at most stations en route to Chennai as it was the first train to get out Bangalore of that morning.
I had to hang onto the footsteps until Bangarpet junction to get inside the coach and claim my reserved seat... I had only taken Badam milk and four biscuits before boarding the train and was so crowded and awful that I chose to have the lunch after reaching Chennai. The train reached central @ around 4:30 PM that evening and it took around 40 minutes for me reach to my Brother in laws place in MMDA. The first thing I did was to wash the face and hand before I set on course for the first meal of the day. Then I decided to take a fresh bath before we proceeded to Panagal Nagar, T. Nagar. We returned from T.Nagar back to the home at around 6:30 PM. Meanwhile we had decided to Visit Tiruvannamalai for the Thai Pournami (Full Moon day) Girivalam (walk around the hill barefoot).
We left home around 7:00 PM to CMBT bus stand. We took a bus around 7:30 PM to Tiruvannamalai. This was the second Girivalam with by Brother in law in a row. The last Girivalam that we performed in December was the best time I had clocked for the Girivalam (exactly 3 hours). The bus had stopped on the Madras-Madurai highway for snacks. It was time for us to have the Vada’s and the Banana fruit that we had packed for the journey. I had managed to take a little nap for couple hours in the total 5 hours of journey toward Tiruvannamalai. We were happy as the bus had reached Tiruvannamalai faster compared to last time.
We arrived in Tiruvannamalai as @ 00:15 am on 27th Jan 2013. We set on the Girivalam and were expecting to complete the Valam in 3 hours as we had done it the last time. However we had observed that around 1:30 am that we have covered only 3.5 KM of the total 14 KM Girivalam. We should have covered 5 KM of the valam by then but that was not the case. What was the difference? The last Girivalam was faster because it was not crowded and maybe it was less crowded because we had started that valam around 2:30 AM. We decided to increase our speed to make up for the loss of time. As it was crowded it was not easy for you to step up the speed and maintain a momentum. We had to crisscross the fellow devotees in "S" shape and at times your speed is reduced before you could overtake devotees. But somehow we managed to gain speed and maintain our tempo all the way across and we finished the Girivalam @ 3:45 am. That meant we had completed the valam in 3 hours and 30 minutes, it could have taken close to 5 hours if we hadn't increased the speed of our walk.
As we reached the Tiruvannamalai train station we were in discussion whether to go by train or by bus. We had early decided that I shall proceed to Bangalore straight and my brother in law to Chennai to reduce the journey time otherwise I had to make. Therefore I had cancelled my reserved train ticket from Chennai to Bangalore later that day. We decided to take the train from T.V Malai to our respective place. There isn't any direct train to these locations but it had connectivity. We both had to go to Katpadi Junction and from there we would get the trains to our location. We decided on the train journey because last time when we had taken the train journey to Chennai it was very comfortable than the bus. We boarded the Rameshwaram - Thirupathi express @ T.V Malai around 4:35 am. We could manage to get places for us to sit for the short journey of around two hours. As we reached Katpadi we learnt that the next train to Chennai was @ 7:30 am and to Bangalore @8:00 am. We chose to fresh up and take a cup of Badam milk. I bid adieu to him as he boarded the Trivandrum Express and set his journey back to home.
I wasn't expecting that my train would be delayed for another 15 minutes but that was ok compared to the three plus of waiting time the previous day. I waited for the train to arrive and the train arrived @ around 8: 25 am that morning. What I didn’t realize is that this train would be crowded and would stop at so many places. At the time of booking for superfast express he had indicated the connecting train is @ 9:00 am. I chose to board the early Kakinada - Bangalore express to avoid waiting for another 40 minutes and with an intention to reach home early. It turned out to be a wrong decision as the train was only getting crowded as it stopped in subsequent stations and nobody getting down. I had to travel the entire journey standing near the boogie entrance. As the train reached Jolarpettai Junction my Brother in law called me to say he has reached Chennai and it was comfortable as he had got a place to sit. However I was anticipating the arrival of Krishnarajapuram even though it was another 2 hours before the train arrives. It was the day realized how people actually could squeeze themselves into boogies there was no body getting down until we reached Bangarpet [the first station in Karnataka in that route] and only to board at every station. I could manage to hold on to the spot as I was standing near the footsteps of the train in the entire journey. The train reached Krishnarajapuram train station @ around 12:10 pm that day giving me a sigh of relief. I headed straight home and chose to take a bath before I could have the first meal of the day. I don't know how I managed to go through this but straight after my lunch as I was set to watch the India-England 5th ODI match I had dozed and don’t know when I slept. I needed it badly as I had slept only for couple of hours the previous night. Wow, the journey turned out to be completely a new experience and it turned out to be the busiest travelling weekend of my life.
No comments:
Post a Comment