The Chronicles of Chaos Part 5 - Royal Rajasthan

Part 5 - Royal Rajasthan

…continued.

An epic journey done! From the Northeast to the Northwest. Hurtling across the great Gangetic plains from the foothills of the Himalayas, we were now on the other end of Bharat, the state where the brave Rajput clans ruled and made a name for their valour and bravery. In this state of the Rajas, we descended having conquered the plains and ready to embark upon our next adventure – the Metre Gauge Mavli to Marwar section down the Khambli / Goram Ghats. But, our initial plans of taking the morning service to Marwar was up in smoke as we were late by 6 hours. The next train was at 12:30.

This delay again was God-send as we decided to head to Nathdwara, to pay our humble obeisance to Lord Shrinathji and board the passenger from there itself. When we asked the railway staff in Mavli about the crowd levels in the afternoon service, pat came their reply, "Aap andar cricket khel sakte hain". Nice! We hired a cab to Nathdwara. As we crossed the level crossing towards Nathdwara, the layout brought back pleasant memories for me from my childhood - BG and MG tracks running parallel to each other. Something I had not seen ever since I watched and travelled on those cute MG trains and EMUs in Chennai. A few kilometers later, we halted for a pit stop to have some garam chai and kachoris. The chacha who ran the shop had a very friendly and affable personality. He made the tea with a huge smile and his bright turban certainly added colour to the day. 

Upon reaching Nathdwara, we rented a room to quickly freshen up and proceeded to have darshan of Shrinathji. We had a Divine darshan of the Lord, coinciding with the auspicious day when Lord Krishna accepted the humble offering from his friend and devotee, Sudama! We felt blessed indeed and got rejuvenated for the journey ahead. After another quick stop enroute to spend some time with the holy cows at a Goshala, we reached Nathdwara station. Upon confirming with the staff that the train was indeed running, we bid adieu to the cab driver.

The Nathdwara station is very quaint, and despite having a BG platform, it is very much reminiscent of the MG era, showing who rules the roost here. A lone BG train comes to Nathdwara, once a week from Okha, while the MG trains do 2 services a day in either direction. Even the BG platform is rather isolated from the MG platforms. The friendly Station Master cum ECRC issued us the tickets. Each of us bought an individual ticket for posterity.

We clicked a few pictures of the MG rolling stock fresh out of POH, ready to head to Mavli. With points set, semaphore arm down and the tooting of the loco was heard at a distance. FL YDM 4 6739 pulled in with 3 railfans photographing it like the celebrity it is today. The SM told us that the card tickets would be issued at the stations ahead by the guard. Wanting a piece of the souvenir ourselves, I ran to the guard to buy the tickets. The guard raised eyebrows but nonetheless handed over the tickets to us. We positioned ourselves in the first coach to enjoy the chugging and smoking of the cute beast and he did not disappoint. The departure from Nathdwara was accompanied by the beast growling away with the emission of much smoke, which would have caused an increase in carbon credit for us, much to the chagrin of a Scandinavian brat.

Slowly rolling over the arid landscape on either side, we came across plenty of cattle, nilgai and even peacocks crossing the tracks at will, avoiding a few runovers in the melee, thanks to the alertness of the LP in applying emergency brakes. The rake itself was very well maintained, with dry and clean toilets and were surprisingly watered too. A sight better than what awaited us later that day. The coaches even had strategic skylights thus ensuring a bright and airy interior. But with different ramification in the monsoons.

Charbhuja Road promised to be a long halt as we had a crossing with the morning service from Marwar here. Feeling puckish, we asked the LP about lunch options. He suggested we go to the market outside the station to pick up food. The shop had Hot Samosas, Fafda and Jalebis with kadhi and fried chillies for the sides. With concerns over food alleviated, we rushed back to the station, to see that the pairing train had arrived and we were good to go. 

Merrily trundling away, with the rhythmic "Thadak Thadak" adding to the live music as we polished off the food, we reached Khambli Ghat. A long halt ensued, to ensure that the brakes were in working condition. 

Descending the ghats slowly but steadily, the landscape seen was simply stunning. The Aravalli in her full glory covered with trees, and the valleys below offering a beautiful view of a lake provided astonishing vistas of nature. Langurs were giving constant company to us on either side. There were two halts enroute at the catch siding, where the LP alighted, checked the points with the pointsman and then proceeded. The massive viaducts, the two tunnels and plenty of curves meant we were glued to the doors the whole time. In what seemed like no time at all, we were at Goram Ghat and a further descent began that culminated at Phulad, where we would reverse to head towards Marwar. 

The evening sun offered us some stunning snaps, as the train bathed in the golden glow of the west bound Sun. A pack of mawa was picked up here, but sadly remained unconsumed till the very end. A couple of cups of tea gulped down and we were off again towards Marwar. The guard joined us in the coach now and we had a healthy chat on the future of the line, what with the GC about to skirt the mountains and to take a new alignment altogether. 

We reached Marwar at 18:15, where the morning service from Mavli with YDM4 6738 was berthed on the loop line. Our rake was stuck on the platform till the next morning as there is only one loop line at the station. With few night shots taken, we took the rather very high footover bridge to the waiting room on Platform 1. As we were over the bridge, 22452 Chandigarh Bandra Superfast arrived. A train close to my heart, for it took me to my first ever IRFCA Convention. Back then, it was an ICF rake, but now, it was a swanky LHB rake, but it's aggressiveness is not lost. On the first platform was another "Convention Special"- the Ranakpur Express. The TC asked us to present our tickets and promptly we produced both the card and paper ticket, much to the bemusement of the TC. We proceeded to the Sleeper class waiting room for some much deserved rest before heading out for some dinner. Phones and power bank charged, we headed out into a market close by to gorge on some delectable Dal Baati Churma and Rotis, before ending the meal with a kulhad of hot milk served fresh off the kadhai. We walked back to the station, awaiting the arrival of our Ahmedabad Agra Super Fast Express. An Alco horn was heard at a distance. It was the Swarna Jayanti Rajdhani that was to pass through the station, at MPS. A sight not to be missed, I ran to the top of the FoB, just in time to capture the Rajdhani zooming past with a single Alco in lead. This was the first of the two times I would capture an Alco hauled Rajdhani during our trip.

Our train too arrived shortly on platform 1, with Abu Road WDP 4D at the helm. We occupied our berths, this time in sleeper class, after bidding goodbye to Akshay, who would rejoin us in Delhi after changing trains at Agra while we would disembark at Jaipur. The LHB rake was sadly in bad shape, with the toilets clogged and doors broken. We felt that the little MG train was better maintained. A quick nap is the biting cold followed. We were in the Pink City even before the crack of dawn and the beautiful station building was promptly photographed. We had a couple of hours to bide in the heated waiting hall.

Little after 05:00, we headed to platform 2, having properly woken up with a pretty good hot chai. The loco was another offlink for us (3 out of 5 so far). BGKT WDP 4B 40085 in LHF was to haul our Double Decker, India’s most popular, to Delhi Sarai Rohilla. This is a longish train with 13 double decker coaches and 2 executive class coaches. Our request for C5U had been granted all we got was a middle and aisle seat combo. Nonetheless, we settled down in two window seats by the trackside. The train left on time and as we reached Jaipur Gandhinagar, there was a huge crowd waiting for us. The coach became full and Abhilash had get back to his aisle seat but thankfully, my window seat was to be empty. 

The vendors started selling their wares of water, tea, coffee, (yes, I finally got Coffee in Rajasthan), soup and breakfast. For the freezing weather, the soup was just what the doctor had ordered, and we had a couple of cups each. A breakfast of cutlets and tasty omelettes served with brown bread, a chiplet of butter and boiled peas followed. I was nothing down the station timings and trains crossed in my diary, which promoted a curious look from my co-passenger. I explained about IRFCA to him and he was not sure if I deserved a bed in Agra’s 3rd most famous structure after the Taj Mahal and the Fort. Thankfully, I did not tell him about our previous experiences, else he would have dragged us there for sure! The infamous North Indian fog prevailed and delay was building up. At Delhi Cant., the rake of the Buddhist Circuit Train was stationed. We pulled into Delhi Sarai Rohilla, delayed by an hour.

We now had a task on hand to cancel one of the tickets from the earlier NFR plan. A bit of struggle later, we found the PRS counter that was thankfully empty and even more grateful that our losses were limited to only the clerical fee on the cancelation. A taxi was booked for the Oyo room in Paharganj. He came after some confusion about the location. Upon reaching the property, we were disappointed to see that it was nothing like what was shown in the Oyo app. We canceled the booking and after checking couple of equally bad hotels, we got a deluxe room at Zostel for a very reasonable price. By now we got the news that several metro stations Delhi, including Rajiv Chowk, were closed due to miscreants creating nuisance. So we decided to stay put in our hotel.

Akshay meanwhile had reached Agra and had missed the Karnataka Express to Delhi. His next train was the Shridham Express from Jabalpur. He had managed to squeeze his way into the UR coach and got a seat for himself till Nizamuddin from where he planned to take a EMU or the trailing Kerala Express to NDLS. Me and Abhilash headed out to a nearby eatery for lunch where we had some amazing rajma chawal with boondi raitha and papad. A great combo in the chilling weather, ending the meal with hot Gulab Jamun. 

Akshay too reached the hotel. We relaxed for some time before heading to Connaught Place for some shopping (I was persuaded). On finding out that the Rajiv Chowk Metro Station had been opened, Abhilash made a quick dash in a Yellow line metro to Gurugram in the neighbouring state to catch up a childhood buddy after 20 years. Akshay and I roamed around CP, picking up a jacket and gloves at Palika Bazaar before looking for a pub for some much needed drinks, a beer for one and coke for another. Akshay preferred to have an omelette for dinner at a nearby store. I had Paneer Curry and Roti for dinner, ending the meal with hot Badam milk from the kadhai, served in a giant kulhad. We walked back to our room in Paharganj. Abhilash too safely returned a little before midnight after meeting his friend over continental dinner. The next day, the penultimate on our trip, promised to be a smooth but adventurous affair, on a smooth swanky new train. Expectations set, we dozed off.

...to be continued