Bangalore – Pune - Mumbai in Train

Prachi and I took the Udhyan Express from Bangalore to Mumbai at 8:10 PM at Bangalore Central. The next morning when we got up, we were in Andhra Pradesh. Little later we were in Karnataka, then again AP and from Solapur we were into Shivaji Maharaj’s bastion – Maharastra. But all through the day, the sights were too harsh for my eyes and in turn, my mind. I mean, there was no greenery, dry stretches of uncultivable lands, few patches of cultivable but non cultivated black soils and not even dry shrubs with few green leaves. The entire route had very few towns and the places which I felt can be called as towns had very few concrete storied buildings and very little development in terms of the nomenclature. The only exception was, Solapur. I doubt if it is due to nature of the land and natural resource. My doubt was affirmed by “Kendriya Vidhyalaya” at Solapur. This school just adjacent to the railway track had a decent garden, totally green. I see two ways of interpreting this. Either the farmers are not as resourceful and financially strong as the school management to cultivate in this land or the land is actually not fertile, but the school managed to replace a part of it for the purpose of garden. The OR part of the above statement is not feasible to be done at a large scale for cultivation. There are various ways of countering the first issue, which I assume that the government and NGOs in this region are working at.

In addition to this unpleasant reality, the train did not have pantry car, which otherwise would have been a source to pass time. The lunch had to be ordered from outside. Order for lunch is taken after Solapur and a mediocre meal is served at Khurdwadi at a cost of Rs. 32. After lunch we had a small nap in railway language which lasted for 2 hours. Very tasty and large groundnuts waked me up at Pune station.

From Pune, unexpectedly our journey doubled to be a picnic in the ghats. This was the first time we were traveling in this region in day light. It was a pleasant, enjoyable evening. The entire region was green. It did not just have plants and trees, but there was a green coating spread over the entire land contributed by the grass that were sprout due to monsoonal showers. There were a few hillocks at the periphery of the city, which can serve as nice places for amateur trekking. The sun was just setting, while the shower commenced. It turned out to be a real jaunt for us with my mobile camera becoming operational, not knowing that this was just a preview of the full length movie that had to come further down the track.

The real movie was screened as we entered the ghat regions of Lonavala. My god! I swear I had never been on such a rail trip. It was ‘All ideal’ trip that I had made so far in my life – Right place at right time of the day at right season. Is this what Robert Schuler claims – Right people meet right things at right time. As the ghat section started, there were big, green-clad mountains on one side and valley on the other. The mountain rock and springs running down the valley were at touchable distance from the train, demanding my mobile to be taken out quite often. A beautiful arch of seven colors intruded into the serenity of the mountains. At a few places, these mountains were crowned with elegant bungalows and guest houses. Added to the grandeur were young kids returning from their schools with parents and in groups at various locations down the slope and waiting for the train. One more attraction on this route was numerous tunnels along the route from Lonavala to Mumbai. All this charm lasted till we entered the periphery of Mumbai, from where we could easily infer the density of population, shabbiness and fast pace unique to Mumbai.

Thank God! We were made to travel in sleeper class, which assisted us in getting close to nature and capture it in my mobile. Actually I had an III AC ticket booked in Ajmer Express, which would have taken me to this region around late evening. This ticket was in Pooled Quota Waiting List. Till the date of travel it was not confirmed, due to which we were compelled to travel with the alternate tickets which we had booked in Udhyan express. Though we were cursing earlier, we were able to appreciate the implication of the whole episode only after we crossed Pune.