I am back from Chandigarh to Pune this Sunday after a vacation of one week.

With four hops, the journey was awsome. Quite a few reasons for that:

1. Chandigarh to New Delhi - Jan Shatabdi AC Chair Car: Its a new train that has been started for this route and the thing to excitement is that the fare is just Rs. 107 (even less than the bus which is Rs. 135). How good it is to travel in an AC coach with so less fare?


2. New Delhi to Mumbai Central - Rajdhani Express AC 2-tier: The name of the train itself is quite exciting. After waiting for around 2 hrs on New Delhi station and confirming my seat in the coach, when I entered the train, I felt rejuvenated. No crowd, no noise and a titillating mild scent sprayed in the coach. That was very refreshing. This being my first time in Rajdhani that too in AC 2-tier was a great experience. Thanks to Papa who got me the last minute reservation. The train dropped me off at Mumbai Central exactly at the scheduled time (exactly 16 hrs), but I didn't want to get down. The food served was very nice - Juice, beverages, candies, refreshments and the main course (dinner and breakfast) all were sumptuous.


3. Mumbai Central to Dadar - I landed in Mumbai for the first time. The very first thought I had when I stepped down the train, "Oh! what if I get to see some high profile filmstar like Sharukh or Aamir here." That was just a starting. I even thought of having a glance of some beautiful actress, maybe Vidya Balan. Why the hell will they come to railway station on a Sunday morning? Oops! even if its not a Sunday. Ok, may be for some shooting. It took me around 15 minutes to get a local train ticket to Dadar and all the time my thoughts went through a falling graph. I started thinking with Sharukh, Vidya etc. , went through Salman, Katrina (Ok, I am fine even if I meet Navjot Sidhhu) and finally perched on Raj Thackrey. What if some people come and ask me where do I belong to? I say - Rohtak. Where is it? Haryana. Oh! thats North India, send him back. Take his luggage and scare him out of this place. "Take his luggage? Hey! I have got 'Besan ke laddoos', I won't give it to you." Drowned neck deep in all these thoughts, I even forgot to take back the change from the ticket window. Never mind, that was just 2 Rs. :) I got my ticket to Dadar. I was already warned by Papa that stand near the door of the local train and jump out as soon as the platform arrives because the people rush madly into the train. I did as directed and managed to get down safely with my luggage on Dadar station. But, I appreciate the service of Mumbai local trains. They are on time, they halt for only 10 seconds at each stop, they have a separate track for themselves and they are damn too fast.


4. Dadar to Pune - Ok, the only irritating and tiring part of my journey. I had the ticket of "Hyderabad Express" and gosh! I am travelling in "Koyna Express". Thats no legal. And I was so happy that I have the ticket of an AC 3-tier berth. And to my surprise, there is no AC coach in this train, just one AC chair car coach. So, I went inside that. I took one of the empty chairs. TT was ought to come and he came. I told him that I have the ticket for another train which will come after 3 hrs and I didn't want to wait that long in this 42 degree heat. He told that at next stop, all seats will be full and if I can manage standing. I said absolutely no problem. I was lucky enough to have a cool TT. Where I was thinking of getting a fine, and where I travelled in the only AC compartment of the train. The sight seeing is really cool on this route - the train passes through a very beautiful terrain, running through a couple of tunnels. Though this train was 10 minutes late of its scheduled time at Pune (that too due to some maintenance activity going on at some peices of railway line), it can be condoned looking at the present day scenario where most of the trains run much late of their schedules.

Overall, I enjoyed the journey to my fullest. Maybe, because I travelled on rails after a long time. I have been travelling in air only for the past 2.5 years. Though flights can save you time, but journey by train has its own charm and excitement. :)