Overall, the travel was god. Major attraction was a chance to view dense deep forests of Madhya Pradesh. Food services are a big disappointment on Holiday special trains - no pantry car and no good food available on demand by IRCTC.
I opted for services of travelkhana.com which was satisfactory and good in quality. However it is limited to few stations only.
Once train crossed Itarsi, you really struggle to get even decent snacks on stations enroute. Ballarshah Junction offered few options such as Puri-sabzi, idli, wada, bread omlete etc. - all...
more... of which was cold, except puri sabzi - which was fresh.
So, one need to carry good amount of packed snacks to travel on this train/route.
Train reached Secunderabad at 2:55 AM, 1 hour before schedule arrival of 3:55 AM. Coach attendant woke up all passengers since everybody expected it to reach SC by 4 AM only.