The Missed Train Part - 1

End of semester exams and was time for an another vacations in Kerala.

So the plan of the journey was that I had a SuperFast Express from Panvel(Mumbai) at 17:30 to Chengannur(Kerala).Even though there is a direct train from Pune to Chengannur,but it takes around 38 hours to reach whereas the train from Panvel takes only 24 hours(including visual treat of Konkan Railways).So in order to catch that I had to reach Panvel by a passenger train. Had kept the whole journey planned way before a week. Well, I enjoy planning journeys :P If everything went well I would catch the passenger train that leaves Chinchwad  at 11:10 and in the worst case I would reach Panvel by 16:00 and I would have at least one hour of good time to reach the correct platform and board my train. And once I boarded that train I didn't have anything to worry about till I reach Chengannur.But the great Indian Railways had different plans for me.

Woke up really early so had a whole lot of time to get ready and double check the packing. And as planned reached Chinchwad station, bought a ticket to Panvel.The passenger train came on time and was nearly empty. Found myself a window seat and was really happy as everything had turned out exactly as planned.

After the train had reached  Lonavala, it started to get crowded and the vendors started coming in. Chai Chai. 
Miles after crossing Khandala station the train stopped and there was no station around, which is not unusual at all. Happens quite a lot of times. I thought maybe we had to wait for another train to pass.But the wait extended more than usual. Soon more than thirty minutes and before I was tensed I heard people talking about some mishap in the engine and apparently we were waiting for another engine to come.

So it would easily take more than an hour in the best case which would more or less mean that I am going miss my train to Chengannur.

There were not many choices on what I could have done at that moment. One obvious choice was to keep calm and wish for the engine to come as soon as possible and hope for the best. But when you know something won't work and you desperately need to make it work, you need to form a new plan. Though the new plan did not guarantee success it is better than just staying still and hoping everything would happen on its own. So picked up my bag and started walking towards the next station which was nowhere to be seen. Well, in the confidence of the fellow travelers who were walking ahead of me. After walking for about 20 minutes, it turned out that all the while the people who were walking ahead of me were the workers of a nearby factory and the station is even far. After walking for so long I neither had the courage nor the energy to continue more. At the same time, I did not want to give up and go back to the broken train. I explained my situation to one of the co-passengers who was walking with me. He suggested me to leave the railway tracks and walk for a while and I would reach a small village from where I can get auto-rikshaws to Karjat station. And then I can get local trains to Panvel from there. Sounded fair enough!

 I calculated the time and it looked totally possible to reach Panvel by 17:00 and catch my train by 17:30. Re-routed my journey and started walking as that guy instructed me to. And after reaching the auto-rikshaw people won't start unless they have enough passengers or you have to pay the whole fare. Now I had to wait for five more passengers or pay the whole of 120 rupees myself and leave immediately. Being a man on a mission whose sole aim is to catch the Superfast Express, I did not have the patience to wait for the auto-rikshaw to get filled up. To add to my worries I was low on cash. I had just around four hundred rupees in hand. But the hopes of catching my train to Kerala made me compromise with the money issue. I had my food packed from home so I thought I could manage with nearly no cash and yet could reach Chengannur peacefully. So I paid the whole fare myself and reached Karjat station in a hurry.

There is always an excitement while  boarding a moving train. Those two-three steps that you take before you catch the handles of the train doors are really exciting isn't it? I boarded the train which was just leaving the platform as I entered Karjat. Nearly all the trains in that route would go to Panvel. But unfortunately, it turned out that the train I was in was heading to CSTM. Now I had to get down at Kalyan and change another train to reach Panvel. On top of that, it was an Express train while I had a ticket for Local which meant I had to look out for any TTEs around the corners to avoid a penalty. Finally, it was 16:30 when I reached Kalyan. In one hour  the Superfast  would depart from Panvel. At that very moment, I heard the announcement of a train to Panvel but I had to cross the platforms to catch that. After all the adventure so far, hurrying up on a crowded foot over bridge was not a big challenge. Then again I had to board a running train. Now thats the second time within a span of one hour ;) Now the countdown began. There wasn't much that I could have done. So waited in anticipation. Got myself ready to deboard from the running train to save one or two precious minutes. Unfortunately, the local train did not get its green signals as expected and got delayed. And it was exactly 17:30 when it started entering the platform. But to my utter disbelief, the Superfast Express had just started to move out of the platform as the local train started to enter from the platform next to it...

To be continued...




My Other Train Stories : A Second Class Journey ,
                                         The Harthal Punk ,
                                  EKM to PUNE TRAIN TRAVEL