Some dream of becoming Astronauts, some of being Doctors, I on the other hand grew up on the dream of becoming a train driver!! Yes! And if you think that's off-beat to aim of me.. you should know that I might forget the table of 12 back in the 3rd standard, but you ask me what train stops at what station and goes with what maximum speed in which section of the Railway, and I knew it all! :P
I would have liked to address my younger self as "Railway-Man" if it didn't sound Lame, but I guess it did..so I dropped the plan!
Since then, railway journeys often take me back to childhood where the train maniac in me resides, so ever since the Vande Bharat Express was announced back in 2016 I had been following the news related to the same, and finally I was aboard it with my Brother Keyur (another Railway maniac!) for company..
Speed & Comfort are the parameters of measurement for a train and what if you got both of them in as sleek and stylized packaging as the Vande Bharat, it certainly is double whammy!
Also a major source of pride is knowing that its completely built in India under the 'Made in India' initiative by the government.. and can you guess how much a 17 coached train costs?.. go on take a guess!.. for analogy lets say it costs as much as a bunglow does in South Mumbai, close to a 100 crore rupees! Ain't bad for a whole train to get manufactured right!
We booked ourselves up in the Executive class coz you know "Paisa Babu bhaiya Paisa!!!.." soon to realize that we actually were in the lap of luxury, the recliner seats, enough leg room to smuggle a medium sized dog with us & the sure WINNER of that all... a working JET SPRAY in the loo(I almost got teary eyed on that one!..)
We rotated our seats to face the window as we ate the first course of our Breakfast while enjoying the lush green Sahyadri's.. and the train maintained a good 110 kmph almost throughout our journey, also it certainly felt like being a celebrity waving out to the people on the station taking videos as the Train passed by it ( yes yes.. I know it was the train which they were enticed to capture and not us!..) Just then is when I remembered that I could live my childhood dream of visit the Drivers or Guards compartment while the train rolled at top speed through the Ghats, and off I was to do the same!
My "Wow it looks amazing!!.." glaring at the windshield of the Guards compartment made the half-asleep guard wake up.. (oops!) But then he acknowledged me with a very underwhelming "Do teen din baad roz yehi dekh ke kantala aa jata hai!.."(i.e. This scenary repeated over and over again gets boring even from this perspective after a couple of days)
I ignored him as the sad undertone in his voice was negating my "Woow it looks amazing" which I had blurted out for the Video Log I was busy capturing!!..
Amidst the second course of Breakfast we had crossed the Sahyadri's and were nearing closure of this very fast and unbelievably comfortable journey! I asked Keyur for his opinion and his thoughts were the same as mine..
We were happy to have lived our dream of travelling in the Luxurious Lap of the India Railways..
Vande Bharat soon aims to become the face of the Indian railways..and we cant wait to travel through it more often! #CheersFromAnIndianRailwayFan
-Aditya Kittur
Dated: 17-06-23