THE TRAIN TO NOWHERE

CHAPTER - 1: INTRODUCTION: (updated Dec 13/ 2017)

This is a travelogue, a narrative, a true-story and an adventure. My cousin Ravindra will join in this journey with me. Other than anything, it is the expression of our passion for train travel. We are hoping to get a good experience of the unity in diversity that India is so well-known for.

Trains and train travel has inspired me since I was a child. I dreamt of travelling in a train when I was not travelling in one. Our home in Tenali (Andhra Pradesh) was a couple of hundred meters from the town railway station and I spent most evenings on the railway platform watching the trains go by, and a rare train coupling or changing the engine. My grandfather, who just retired from National Physical Laboratory, ignited this interest by giving me a set of questions on trains and stations that I should get answers to. These ranged from the voltage of the overhead traction, to the type of current in the train coaches, to the meaning of numbers on the engine and coaches. When we took the train to go to Delhi or Cuttack, getting off the train after a couple of days always saddened me. I did not want the ever-changing landscape, the vendor who sold vegetable cutlets and the hiss and screech of the brakes ever to end. During one of those trips to Delhi, I bought the Indian Bradshaw, the most extensive timetable of Indian train travel and read it like a novel, dreaming myself in all of these trains. I even wrote a rudimentary story of an imaginary me travelling in slow passenger trains across India - Snails on Wheels (on blog now). This was an actual timetable anyone could follow if they ever wanted.

This one fascination never aged with me; I have similar goose-bumps going to a train station even today. Whenever I could afford time, I still take a train. Or at a first available opportunity, I go to the train station. Trains became dirtier, stations shabbier, but I can still feel the aura.

It is not just me; most of my cousins share this love with me. We made imaginary train time-tables, dreamt and played together on train themes. We wanted to do something related to trains as we grew up; the least we could do is a train ride together to relive our fascination on these wonderful machines. We took some train rides just for the fun of it.

Sometime in 2011, Indian Railways announced the longest train ride in the country both in terms of distance and time taken - Vivek Express (#15905) from Kanyakumari to Dibrugarh. This train covers the distance of 4244 km in about 90 hrs, picking and dropping passengers in about 55 stations enroute and crossing 9 Indian states (Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Odhisa, West-Bengal, Jharkand, Bihar, Assam and Nagaland). Another interesting fact is that even by Indian railway standards, this train does not qualify to be a superfast express, with an average speed of only 53 kmph.

That's it. We had to go in this train! My cousin Ravindra and I made plans a few times only to drop them - we could not afford the 5-6 days it takes to travel end to end in this train and the time from our respective cities to Kanyakumari and back from Dibrugarh. However, the plan never died out; it was always on the back of our mind.

CHAPTER - 2: THE PLAN (updated Dec 16/ 2017)

The plan started precipitating mid of March 2017; Ravindra and I deliberated on many different questions. When is the best time for travel? Can we get the leave needed from our work? What would be the reason of our arrival in Dibrugarh? Who else we should take along? Can we survive the train food for 4-5 days? How do we reach the starting point and return from the last station?

Over the next two months, we discussed this topic daily over our commute to home from office. We got our answers - we should take this train! Rest all must fall in place to this idea. And they did. We would take this train around December time - this way, the weather across India will be forgiving (and we know this train does not go to the snowy or foggy north of the country). Also, a relatively lean time at our work places. The next point was not even discussed - there is no reason to go to Dibrugarh: we only wanted to experience the train ride! We will take the first flight back once we reach Dibrugarh. We decided to go together, no one else we spoke to even closely understood the reason to take this train - the starting point is 1200 km away from my home and about 3000 km from Ravindra’s home. Dibrugarh is about 3000 km away from Hyderabad and 2500 km from Delhi. The nearest point we will be to Hyderabad over the course of the ride is 300 km away. Still, this somehow made sense. Surprisingly, no one else thought so!

Food is not much of a worry, we thought: we can buy in the train pantry or at the stations. Pre-ordering online was a thought, but we soon dismissed this as we may not be sure of the punctuality of the train.

The plan is thus finalized by mid May, 2017: Ravindra will take a flight from Delhi to Trivendrum (nearest airport to Kanyakumari) and I will meet him there, flying from Hyderabad. We booked ourselves in flights that reach Trivendrum around 8.00 PM on 20th December, Wednesday (Vivek Express leaves Thursday late evenings from Kanyakumari). We booked a hotel in Kanyakumari for the night and requested a pick up at Trivendrum airport. We will spend the next day at Kanyakumari, visiting the southernmost tip of peninsular India, a place where Bay of Bengal, Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean meet. We plan to take it easy over the day and be ready for the train at 11.00 PM. We booked our return flight from Dibrugarh at 2.45 PM on 25th December, Monday. Vivek express would arrive at 6.40 AM there. Even if the train is a few hours late, we should be in good shape to freshen up and reach the airport for the flight. We had to wait for the train tickets since the booking opened only 4 months prior to travel. When the bookings did open in August, I booked the AC II Tier berths for us. We opted for the side berths as this would give us some stretching space and privacy with the curtains closed.

CHAPTER - 3: FOLLOWING THE TRAIN (updated Dec 16/ 2017)

Starting August, I started to follow the running status of this train every Thursday, online. Being a science student has its advantages; I had controls in place to decipher the results we get. I ensured to follow the train at different stages of its journey to understand any specific patterns when it got delayed or when it would make up lost time. To be sure the online information is updated accurately, I also followed a few trains over these months particularly those in which someone I know was on. I called up the acquaintances to make sure what the train enquiry site showed as the running status is correct.

Sadly, none of the data mining experiments yielded satisfactory results. We could not come up with a specific pattern. Somethings we could conclude though:

1. The train NEVER reached Dibrugarh on time. There were monsoon rains that delayed the train in August; a flood in Assam was the next reason. A couple of cyclonic storms over the coastline were possible reasons afterwards. The delays were also not uniform, either. They ranged from 3 hours to 18 hours. The last three trains before the one we had to take were 17, 14 and 10 hours delayed from the scheduled arrival at Dibrugarh.
2. If the train reached Guwahati more than 5 hours behind schedule, the delay only increased at least to 8 hours (and upto 18 hours): may be the line from Guwahati to Dibrugarh was single and Vivek express might have had to negotiate crossings with multiple trains.
3. Because the train travels through a wide variety of climate changes - from tropical southern coast to west coast to east coast of India, through the southern hills, Eastern ghats and over at least 6 biggest rivers of the country, and through 9 different political states, anything could go wrong  anywhere and anytime. Or simply a track repair somewhere over the 4200 km stretch would cause a delay.

CHAPTER - 4: ALTERNATE PLANS (updated Dec 20/ 2017)

Now, in December, we had an issue at hand even before we started the journey. We can only afford a maximum of 6 hour delay of the train’s arrival to Dibrugarh. We had flights to catch. And we cannot afford to cancel them at this stage, the new tickets were unreasonably high, at about Rs. 20,000 (we bought them in May for Rs. 5,000). What if the train gets delayed and we miss the flights? We cannot afford to miss the flights back or we would end up spending a fortune on our way back.

However, looking at the recent past arrivals, we did not get any confidence on the schedule of this train. We had to think fast and come up with alternative strategies to reach our homes! Leaving this planning to later stage may be risky. So we came up with the following plans just in case:

1. If the train reaches Guwahati Sunday midnight or Monday morning: we will get off there, take a flight to Kolkata and return from there.
2. If the train is even more terribly delayed, we will get down at the nearest station to Kolkata: anywhere between Midnapore and Malda Town, take an overnight bus to Kolkata and return.
3. If the train manages to surprise us by being on time at Guwahati and then gets delayed, we may not have any option than to stay back there and take the next day flights to Delhi and Hyderabad.
4. If the coach cleanliness is terribly bad, we will drop the journey at Vijayawada, and take a bus to Hyderabad; Ravindra will fly from there to Delhi.

The concern that we had still is: what if something else happens? We will take a call then and there. As on 20th, we have a clear idea that there is 99% chance that we will end the trip in Guwahati (that is if the train is decently clean enough for us to sit in that long. The last Vivek express reached Dibrugarh around 13 hrs late, on 18th.

A twist in tale is I fell ill with a sore throat over the last few days and went to the doctor. The doctor is not certain if this is a viral or a bacterial attack and suggested that I stay away from “outside” spicy and oily food for a few days for the body to recover and fight back. I told her my plans for the travel. She was stunned! She asked me to repeat just to ensure if she heard right and gave me a look that said “dude, sore throat is a very simple problem. you seem to have far serious issue upstairs” and prescribed a double dose of antibiotics and wished me luck. While I left the hospital, she had more of a sympathetic look.

All set, now: with a sore throat, a train that has been running ridiculously late in the past month, equipped with some deodorants to keep us tolerably less smelly through the ride, and a sense of excitement. My intention is to take you all along the ride virtually! The daily updates will start on December 21 and will continue through to our return to Hyderabad (Sivaram) and Delhi (Ravindra). Stay tuned and give us some ideas.

Chapter - 5 Day 0: Reaching the boarding Station (updated 21/2017)

The day began with friends and family wishing luck for the journey. It was a long wait till my wife dropped me at the nearest pick up point for the airport shuttle. The bus was on time, smoking like a space shuttle and vibrating like a head massager. The ride was eventless and was on time to the airport. Since I had no check in, I could use the express security lanes outside the airport and was inside the hold area in no time. One thing I noticed all over the airport: no smiles at all. It seemed like a no smiles zone. Every one was grim faced. The staff were going through their routine mechanically with absolutely no enthusiasm. The no-smile zone continued into the plane, except for a milli-second plastic smile we are so used to from the cabin crew. I made myself safely into the plane without being man-handled by any airline staff. I should say I was a little tensed reading about how you could be caught off-guard by a stressed out employee of an airline and thrown off the tarmac. The flight too was eventless except for a nervous landing. My next seat neighbour invited me for an exciting arm-rest ownership fight that I was in no mood to play for most part of the flight, except when he took it too far into my territory. I had to play the match. I won the next few rounds till we landed. Ego satisfied, I met my cousin in the airport and a charming cab guy was waiting for us outside. He took us to a "pure vegetarian" punjabi dhabha - yes you read it right, on Trivendrum-Kanyakumari highway. The food was delicious. We were hoping to catch some sleep in the rear seat of the sedan but the Schumacher in our driver did not let us. He drove like he was possessed, on a two lane undivided road with all elements known on an Indian road - high beam drivers, people, dogs and cows crossing the road in all possible speeds, hopeless banking and potholes. For most part, the road was curved; not even 200 meters of straight line. None of these could make the driver slow down. The best part is he was cool like a cucumber. He was chatting with us about how bad other drivers are in that part of India. We reached the hotel by 11 PM, checked in and slept off.

Day-1: Kanyakumari (updated 22/2017)
Even before the sights of beautiful churches, elaborately decorated houses flashing by while our driver rushed to Kanyakumari faded, we woke up. It was around 5.30 in the morning and still dark. We decided to rush to the sea shore, the tip of mainland India to get a glimpse of the sun rise through the sea. With a lot of anticipation, we walked through the narrow lanes and as we took our last turn from the temple to the "sun rise point" , we were for a rude surprise. There was an ocean of people all over the place. We had to make our way through the merchants, vendors, beggars, devotees, and about a million people before we can reach a point where we could stand and align ourselves in the diection of sea. It was a festive atmosphere all over. In a few minutes, it was clear that we are not goong to witness a sun rise as it was cloudy. Noone was in any mood to leave though. It was a stressful start to the day, but we made our way through this maze back to our hotel and went to the terrace. Then we realized that how beautiful the weather has been. The early morning breeze and the sea eased oir nerves a bit. After spending the next hour there, we wanted to be first to go to the Vivekanda rock island, a few hunded meters into the sea. The ticket clunter for the boat was visible from the hotel terrace and looked clear. We went there only to find a thousand people already in queue waiting for the first boat. This certainly is not the way we wanted to  see it. The plan was aborted and we walked back to the hotel heavy hearted and thinking  how we can spend the whole day before we could catch the train.
Next stop, breakfast. The hotel provided this complimentary. The moment we entered the dining hall, we knew it's going to be fun. Again a lot of people, all waiting for the fresh food to arrive from kitchen; and when it did, it was mayhem. Everyone pounced over the poor staff and emptyed the bowl before it reached the buffet table. It looked like these guys did not have food for at least a week - may be even they would have behaved better. We somehow managed to get something to eat. Letting those lunatics to prowl on the catch, we made our way to the room, dejected. Around 11.30, we went out for a stroll on a 200m long rocky pier. This was the best part of the trip so far and the serenity, the views, the high speed winds made up for all the stress in the world. We measured the wind speed around 31 kmph and waves about 1.1m high. Before we knew, we spent a couple of hours there. We ventured to the southern most tip of peninsular India, aka sun rise point to check if it was any better than the morning. It sure was and we could spend some time there too. After a wholesome lunch, we retired to our room. The evening walk was much better. A visit to a small "wandering monk" museum, a light house and a rocky boulder beach on the Arabian sea side of the town completed our tourist  circuit. We got freshened up and walked over to the railway station to catch our train. We were surprised how clean the town was inspite of tourist overload. The station was also clean. Finally, the train pulled onto the platform around 10.40 PM. All the euphoria, excitement and a ticipation gave way to ground reality as the train came: the coaches were old and the total train looked worn out. After settling in our seats, I went for a reality check of the toilets. Water was leaking already and I had no doubt it will not last the distance. This made us really worried as a clean and functional toilet is a must for us to be in the train for 4 to 5 days. Anyways, we will find out. 15 minutes into the journey, the train stopped in the middle of nowhere. Wondering what we had in store for tomorrow, we dozed off to sleep.

The twist in Tale: Reality Check (updated 23/ 2017)

Run down, worn out, rusted, trash can, stinky - these are the words that would describe the coach we were in. But more on this later. The moment we woke up, the train was slowly and steadily cruising through lush green Kerala. As it reached the next station, we realised that over-night, the train accumulated a delay of 90 minutes. It is just the beginning, we thought. We will make up time as we moved along, we thought.
The worst was yet to come. As the sun raised, I went to the wash room for a nature call. The first surprise: no water in the toilet. The toilet looked run down; every single piece of equipment in there was broken. I checked the other room - it was worse than the first. With no water, there is no way we could use it. There sure was a number we could complain this about: we swiftly followed the procedure and registered our grievance. Promptly, the staff attended the train in the next station and filled up the water. Then we realised the real problem. It is not about filling of water as much it is about leakage. The whole tank leaked out in no time and all the taps were dry again. We figured out that the adjacent coaches were no better. By mid-day, not just the toilets, but the whole corridor was unapproachable. The toilets themselves became chambers of uric acid smell.
The coach was 2004/05 ICF manufactured rake, owned by NF railway zone. The whole train was NF owned; pantry and staff included.
All this while when we were busy figuring out options to clean ourselves, the train slowly accumulated more delays. By the mid-day the train was already late by 150 minutes (2 and half hours).
The scenery through the fields, forests, hills was spectacular. No pictures, videos will do justice for the beauty that was unleashing in front of us every minute. Beautiful landscapes, the ever sweet chuckle of the train and the smooth cradle-like movement was mesmerising. To top it, the pantry was good, serving a mouth-watering puri-sabzi (Bihar style) and decent lunch.
We tried to control our appetite worrying we would have no option of rest-rooms in case we needed. The only saving grace for us was the lullaby of the train sounds. We took an afternoon nap and by the evening, things turned to worse. The toilets became stinkier, not a drop of water in the coach and train delayed by 3 hours. We had to act fast - do we need to continue the journey that we started to enjoy the travel by train? No toilet for 3 more days was not practical. The coach itself was worn out and not very inviting. Our expectations were low enough and Vivek Express or rather Indian Railways had their standards set far below. The inefficiency of the system was disappointing. Sadly, the decision making was not an even playing field: we had to choose from continuing the journey that we were dreaming for the last few years in a mode of transport that we were fascinated from childhood; or save our dignity of life, retain some self-respect, not compromise of minimum hygiene standards and get out at the nearest possible station. This should not have been a discussion at all; but our love to trains was too deep-rooted that we deliberated on possibilities for a long time. There was no way the train or coach was going to improve in the next few days. Finally, around 9 PM we decided enough was enough and we would get down at Vijayawada, the nearest station for Hyderabad en-route. So strong was our felling, we were willing to forfeit the ticket price for the next three days of travel and cancellation charges for our return flights. We set up alarm for our expected arrival in Vijayawada and slept off.
The train arrived in Vijayawada as expected, at 2.20 AM, around 3 hours late from its scheduled time. No regrets, no repent, we really wanted to get off it as early as possible. We did not even look back to bid good bye. This certainly was not what we loved and dreamt of. Dreams shattered, we headed straight to the bus station to take any available bus to Hyderabad. As if someone planned it for our return, there was a nice auto-rickshaw guy who rushed us to the bus station in 5 minutes and as we entered the platform, a Vovlo service from Visakhapatnam to Hyderabad just arrived with vacant seats available.  This ran non-stop for the next 300 km, and dropped us right in front of our home (yes), by 8 AM.
Thus ended our journey, a tragic one in a sense and a shame that we could not reach Dibrugarh. But probably that is an experience we deserved, for our blinded love for trains and Indian railways got a royal beating. We would still love trains; this is inherent to us. We only learnt to de-link this fascination with Indian Railways. May be it was a good thing this story, this trip ended this way. The one climax we would never want is that both of us ending in a hospital with a urinary tract infection or even worse, hating trains.
Thank you all for being with us through the travel. I will upload lot of pictures we have taken (only the ones with good memories - you really do not want to see the poor state of affairs of the coach) shortly.

THE END (hopefully, we prove to be wrong in our rants)