Walking out of Panvel, I went in search of place to recharge my phone's number. Airtel had been generous enough to suck out all the balance down to the last paisa, owing to a blunder on my part in not switching off the data services before going to bed the previous night. Panvel, on a Sunday evening, is not the place to be if you are looking out for something outside the station. Everything was shut save for the roadside push-carts that sell fried snacks. After walking for a while, I found one shop and got the recharge done and after making a few calls and replying to a few texts, went in search of something to eat. With only the roadside vendors in sight, I bought a plate of Vada Pav and they tasted fine. It was drizzling and the hot snack went well with the ambiance. A lot of...
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college students were making a beeline towards the sub-urban station and from their appearance, I could decipher that they had been on an outing to some nearby place, possibly Mahabaleshwar. Walked back into Panvel station and headed straight into the Waiting Room which was extremely neat. However, the wash-room was probably designed by a guy high on carbon-monoxide. The door swung inwards and scraped against the wall on either sides. So technically, it was impossible for any stout individual to get inside for business purposes. The wash basin was clean and functional and that was the only reason I was there- to wash my face, so the path breaking design of the door didn't bother me and my slim build. :p
Browsed through a few sites of interest and that kept me occupied while the clock ticked furiously and it was soon 21:00. I looked around the station to find something to eat in the disguise of dinner but couldn't find anything substantial. In the end, bought a couple of sandwiches and for Rs.20/-, there was nothing to complain about them. I checked my PNR and was bemused to discover that off all the 300+ vacant seats in the train, I had been allocated an upper berth. Anyway, I was going to sleep as soon as I stepped on-board, so it didn't really matter. The train arrived on time and left a few minutes behind schedule after a loco reversal. Almost everyone in my coach retired for the day as soon as the train left and so did I. Woke up when the train was departing from some station and seeing quite a few vacant seats around, I knew we were near Madgaon. As I freshened up and occupied one of the vacant side lowers, we skipped Verna. One of the wash-rooms had a blockage and thus, there was water everywhere in the coach. Many people vacated the coach and went elsewhere but I decided to stay put. The on-board housekeeping staff soon arrived and thoroughly mopped the floor and cleaned all the wash-rooms. The scenery outside was as usual spectacular, not that one can expect anything less from the magical monsoon railway in the monsoons. Quite a few people got off at Madgaon and after a brief halt, we rolled out on a non-stop run to Udupi. The Mumbai bound Duronto Express was sidelined at Kumta while the Ajmer bound Marusagar meekly waited it out at Ankola. A sscreeching halt at Murudeshwar brought an end to the non-stop run and we spent almost 10 minutes in a stationary state for the 'Super' Passenger to arrive. Another unscheduled halt was made at Bijoor for the Passenger's glorified version, the Intercity, with it's pre-dominantly shuttered windows to whiz past. An on time departure from Udupi left us with almost two full hours in hand to cover the 55 minutes worth of distance up to Mangaluru Junction and I was expecting us to be looped a couple of times for the two crossings, Kochuveli Mumbai LTT Superfast and the Matsyagandha Superfast. But my jaws dropped to the floor in awe when we rattled past Thokur, the last station in Konkan Railway, with no sign of either of the two trains and with almost an hour and a half to go for the scheduled arrival of our train at Junction. As we snaked into the Platform #1 at Mangaluru Junction, the place where I took off from a few days back, the clock showed 12:55. Now that meant we were a full 60 minutes before time! What a way to draw the curtains on an epic trip! Later, I learnt that there was some problem in Kerala due to which the Mumbai LTT Express and Matsyagandha, which shares rakes with the Trivandrum Mangaluru Express, were running late.
“Oh, where's my cold by the way? Did I forget it somewhere? Maybe... Yaaaay!”
Well, if you are reading this part after getting through the seven thousand odd words typed randomly above, then I must say, you've got some serious patience in your kitty. This was a solitary trip that I really enjoyed being a part of and thought of sharing a few tidbits in the form of this short travelogue. Hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed travelling on those trains and typing this incredibly brief trip report. Well, I didn't enjoy the latter to be honest. :p Anyway, do leave your feedback and do go through the videos. :)
Thank you and Namaste _/\_