Part 2 :
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Part 1 : /blog/post/823009
Part 2 : /blog/post/823009/2
Part 3 : /blog/post/823009/21
Part...
more...

4 : /blog/post/823009/38
Part 5 : /blog/post/823009/46
Part 6 : /blog/post/823009/69
Part 7 : /blog/post/823009/78
Part 8 Concluding Part : /blog/post/823009/86
Aug 2 2013 :
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The D-Day. Woke up early. Ran through the morning stuff very briskly and quickly. Got the Kids in time for school and off to work with a spring in my step. The first four hours of work was dedicated to finish the work for the entire day. Post lunch our confusion started. We were supposed to board the Chennai - Vasco express that night from YPR. All of us had booked from YPR even though KJM was close to us to ensure we get the YPR quota of 72 berths. And bingo we all got placed in S5. Anyway, now we have 3 groups of people
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Group 1 will board at KJM
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Group 2 will board at YPR
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Group 3 will get the sleeping bags and tents on rent and board at YPR
I am a regular traveller on the SBC - MAS - SBC line for more than a decade now and I know the pains of travelling on a Friday night to City Railway Station or KJM railway station. It is bumper to bumper traffic all the way from 4:30 pm onwards. Not wanting to take a chance, I decided to take the opposite direction and board the MAS - SBC ICE from Whitefield till KJM or the MEMU just before that. As luck would have it, even this route was congested and it took me almost one hour to reach Whitefield station, which usually takes around 30 mins. However looking at the opposite direction, I think I made the correct decision.
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A colleague of mine was stuck up at Hope farm not knowing how to reach WFD station. After my expert tips, which included a "since you are very late and may miss this last train to KJM, get under the bridge and cross the tracks and the station would be on your right", I assume that my colleague would call me once reached. As time passed and no calls received, I decided to call up and found out that my colleague just dumped me and took the MEMU to KJM :D. Later I came to know that she had crossed the tracks in entirety including under the goods train stabled on the PF1 loopline under the bridge and not finding the station on the other side, again crawled under the goods train, managed to spot the station and just managed to enter the MEMU as it took off. I ended up giving her a nice helping of my irritation especially on going under the goods train. However to get back in the spirit of the travel, it was lost in due course, but I still cannot digest the fact that she had crossed it twice with heavy backpacks. Thank goodness nothing untoward happened. My ICE came 20 minutes behind schedule and dropped me at KJM PF No 4 where I met the first half of the crew, which is 8 members including myself.
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In our short stay @KJM, Sanghamitra , TPTY - YPR ICE, YPR - HWH came and went. Did not notice any road numbers. TPTY-YPR was a WAM4.
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We left KJM a solid 50 minutes behind schedule led by ED WAP4 and waited at Banaswadi for another 40 mins to let the YPR Puducherry GR to pass. After an eternity which lasted close to around 80 mins we reached YPR a good 30 mins behind schedule. Since we were in the YPR quota coach, we had the entire coach to ourselves upto YPR. As soon as we reached YPR, the entire coach got filled up in a matter of minutes. 64 of the 72 berths were reserved for the people like us who were going to CLR. You can imagine the time taken by people to settle down with their tents , backpack , food and sleeping bags. I got my dinner there and surprisingly the Veg Biriyani was quite good. By the time we could all settle down, the train was all set to take us towards Tumkur and was already moving out of the platform
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We decided to run through the train end to end and returned in 30 mins just to figure out that there were around 400 folks in the train going to DDS and almost 100 of them wanting to pitch up the tents at DDS and our unanswered questions came back to haunt us again. Another 30 mins of indecision and we decided to retire for the day as it will be a hectic day tomorrow. So once again as the train accelerated past Tumkur, I slept with the same unanswered questions, but the wild instinct remained.
To be continued ...
End of Part 2
Part 1 : /blog/post/823009
Part 2 : /blog/post/823009/2
Part 3 : /blog/post/823009/21
Part 4 : /blog/post/823009/38
Part 5 : /blog/post/823009/46
Part 6 : /blog/post/823009/69
Part 7 : /blog/post/823009/78
Part 8 Concluding Part : /blog/post/823009/86