Dhope travels-2

THE INDIAN STANDARD TIME

DAY-1 26/11/2017

According to official records of Government of India the 82.58* East longitude passing through allahbad is the IST, and all the work your attire travel is supposed to be planned with accordance to this. But one particular arm of the government opposes the very concept of IST and has developed its own time zone which is independent of the greenwhich meridian or the 82.58* East, and that branch is our beloved Indian Railways.

12617 Ernakulam-Hazarat Nizamuddin Mangla lakshwadeep superfast express, the name of entity of Indian Railways which we were supposed to board on the early morning of 26 November 2017. The boarding station was decided as Madgaon, which being a major stop on the Konkan Railways line usually attracts train for more than 2-3 minutes. The train was scheduled to arrive at margaon at 310 according to the railway timetable. But as it departed from Ernakulem at 1325 , ETA kept on moving forward and forward. 

The initial plan as decided was to meet up at the station around 0030-0100 considering the trains official ETA. But as things started to turn out in reality the meetup time was re-scheduled to 0230, keeping in mind the flashing screen of IRCTC which said ETA 0430. Around 0300 in the morning almost everyone had arrived on the scene. All the groups were present indulging in sarcastic humorous chatter with one another sharing the common excitement of the voyage and few of them admiring the structure and environment of travellers and farewell bidders which had aroused at the station. The huge announcement board continued to bring about more disappointment among our enthusiastic travellers as it showed delays and delays. The were enthusiastic travellers slowly  took asylum on floor and on the pillars and on the "hath-gadis" as sleep,wait, and boredum formed an alliance in their body and minds. The talks moved away from tour to how IR travel is frustrating and advisory committes were formed pumping out various solution to Piyush Goyal on punctuality in IR. Some of experienced travellers among us without any official notion accepted the chairmanship of such committees and shared few of their personal hardship and tried to make the environment enthusiastic. Trying not to surrender to sleep they settled for tea and coffee, to keep them awake. Again after referring to railway app and the public announcement board we guessed the time of arrival to be around 0530-0545. Time is valuable they say, so we developed many practices to waste the abundance of time which we had at our disposal. Some finally gave up and on floor or on their own luggage confronted sleep, some again to keep the mood on indulged in chatting and me after admiring the architectural design of the station, by hearting the bogey arrangement chart, taking expeditions on the platform finally stood there on the edge of platform 1 waiting and waiting....

Finally around 0510 the announcer said those golden words that our train will soon be arriving on platform 1. Sighs of relives, all those tired, gloomy souls lightened up, gathering their stuff and again that wind of enthusiasm blowing. Sir announced the seating arrangement which was fragmented into three groups in two bogies,s8 and s11. Me along with my accomplices from s8shifted to the screen which was flashing s8. Around 0545 after delay of around 2.45 hours, after getting green signal from the announcer as well as from the apps which give you live status of train, we heard a whistle at a distant corner of a 4000 hp diesel locomotive(KR,SR line is not yet completely electrified) pulling behind 18 compartment 12617 ML SF express, our ride which finally arrived on platform 1. 

Our entry in the train was not majestic as such but most of on board passangers had to open up their already asleep eyes to welcome us with not so welcoming gesture. The first half hour was spent to vacate the seats which were occupied by agents of all India without ticket travelling assosiation, and then the remaining half hour was spent in debating and negotiating and swaping of seats as everyone wanted one which was closer to their friends rather than windows. Then as the dawn broke, the sun rays started showering Eastern Hemesphere, around 0615-0630 in the morning well inside konkan region after crossing sawantwadi station all the young,enthusiastic,energetic,zealous travellers along with bulky luggage of theirs accompanied the remaining 1000 people who were on board 12617 in a long journey, and allowed their eyelids to make armstice with sleep, this was the moment when from the Railways the driver was awake and from the passangers side i was.......