3 November 2008

Hopping on the Running Train...


Would anyone think of visiting Hyderabad during the dog days of summer; moreover your first visit? Yes, I did visit during May along with my 2 friends from Bangalore. We enjoyed our stay in one of our friend’s house at Ramanthapur. Though, the weather was awful.

It was on a Sunday, we had planned to return back to Bangalore. We had been to Ramoji Film City that day and spent our day there. On our way back from film city, we wanted to visit Sanghi temple. It was 5.30 in the evening; still we headed towards Sanghi Nagar. It is a Wonderful temple of Lord Venkateshwara and few other deities. Some scene’s of the movie Bommarillu was shot in this temple.

We had our pradakshina and started from Sanghi at around 6PM. We had to board the train to b’lore at 7.05. It was almost 6.45 when we reached Ramanthapur. We just had time to pick our things and dump into our bags and run to kacheguda station. It was already 6.50 there, aunty was packing food for us, and Kushi (Our friends daughter..she’s such a sweetie pie..u speak to her n u’ll forget all ur worries) wants us to sit with her and play cards for some time. We flattered Kushi and took our bags and jumped into the car which was waiting outside.

Now when we are in the car, we realise and remember that our tickets were in waiting list and they were not confirmed till the previous day. We don’t know the status of our tickets as well. We called one of our friend, she was about to leave somewhere, made her login to Indian Rail website and got the status. Luckily, our tickets were confirmed.

We reached Kacheguda Station, thanks to the driver, we got down the car, without looking back we ran into the station. All 3 of us could see 7.05 in the digital display clock. We panicked when the train had already blown the horn as a signal to depart. We had to pass through the skywalk to board the train. Hugh… We were confused whether to jump the track and catch the train or go through the skywalk and catch the train. We had to take decisions in seconds.. All of us scattered and I just remember myself running to the highest speed I could pushing all the people in the crowd. Finally me and my friend caught the moving train. And my first question to the first person whom I found was “Is this Bangalore Express?”. When he said “Yes”, I relaxed at once, turned back to see, one of my friend to be missing who was having the tickets with her.

I was worried whether to get down or is she in the train? I’m trying her phone and unable to reach her. I immediately got down, ran up the skywalk to find if she’s fallen in the crowd or something like that. There she calls me and says she’s boarded the train and searching us. I ran down and caught back the running train. The train had started moving forward and the last bogie would have passed by me any moment. Uffff… It took 15-20 minutes for us to search our compartment. Ultimately, reached our compartment, we took our seat and took deep breaths. We just wanted to laugh a loud thinking how we got the train. All 3 of us had to calm ourselves and had a great laugh thinking about our plight.

It’s a different experience when you face this situation. You might have heard from friends, stories about missing trains, catching running trains. But its nice to be in that position. But never be late for anything, anywhere. Its good to be present before time than be late and panic. :-)

2 comments:

  1. Thank god it did not end up as DDLJ story :D
    ~Murali

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  2. Nice write up..I always loved travelling.. exploration is the best part of life which generally people dont realise :)

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