3/7/2018:
Finally after returning from friend's meetup at around 12 midnight after enjoying a sumptuous food at Manek Chowk, I had got 4 hrs to sleep. I slept till 4 am and was awaken by the alarm tune. I packedmy luggage , had a bath and at 4:45 am checked out of the hotel. It took around 5 minutes to reach ADI. The train was scheduled to depart from PF7. With the help of escelator got on to the FOB and arrived at PF 7. Mumbai bound Karnavati express was shunted there with passengers sitting in it for reaching Mumbai. At 5 am Karnavati moved out. The only shop opened in the morning had freshly prepared dhoklas and poha. I took ...
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2 pieces of dhokla for 10. There were too many bottles of Amul kool also. My brother likes it a lot. But I had never tried. Since I was in the state of Amul, I thought to try my hand on it. I took one bottle and after having the dhoklas i took a sip of the milk. It felt nice. I gulped that down and took another bottle. At 5:30 am our train was shunted. I had a berth in Lower deck as indicated on the ticket but it was actually on the middle deck at the gate. The occupancy of the train was around 40% when it departed from Ahmedabad at dot on time. Cruising through outskirts of Ahmedabad we moved swiftly towards our next halts. We reached Vadodara on time and I opened newspaper website as per my habit. The first news that gathered my attention was mumbai rains. It had rained fully last night though train services were unaffected. I felt a sigh of relief. The train departed Vadodara and I was engrossed in the journey until some passenger was talking about collapse of bridge in Mumbai. Quickly took out the phone and read the news of part of Gokhale bridge collapse in Andheri and all lines blocked. Still I was optimistic that we may reach Mumbai delayed by few hours. It had started raining by the time we reached Bharuch and water started seeping inside the coach from somewhere near the gate. Whole middle deck floor was wet in few moments. I was keeping a sight on mumbai rains and frequently checked twitter handles of WR and CR. I had also started to search for alternatives. Some IRIans suggested to get down at Surat but getting down in unknown territory equally affected by rains was not a wise decision. I decided to continue on. My first alternative was Palace Queen Humsafar but its timings clashed at Surat as it was just behind us. I didn't know what to do? What if I book and humsafar is allowed ahead? Though we reached Surat first but in no time, Humsafar also came behind and stood on adjacent PF. Still I was in dillema, should I leave the train? But paying the hefty fine was not possible to ultimately dropped the plan. Humsafar departed and we were stopped for a long halt of around 45 mins. By the time we departed Surat, Rains had worsened and we could see the aftermath. The areas beside tracks were submerged in water. I was keeping a check on twitter and also checked alternatives via Delhi. Option was Ashram express on 4/7 and JSJ Express on 6/7 from delhi to ranchi. Both in 2ac and both were RAC. At Vapi, finally the notification came that we were to be short terminated at Vasai Rod. The first thing I did was booked a return ticket to Mumbai in same DD in current from Borivali. My Paytm account was exhausted. I phone my father and informed him the situation and my further plans. He transferred 5000 in my paytm account for further bookings. I booked the RAC tickets of Ashram Express and JSJ express from Ahmedabad to Ranchi via Delhi. In Vapi the passengers of Bikaner Bandra express were transferred to our train and our train was fully pack now. As we moved from Vapi situation was worsening and there was water everywhere. At Virar the short terminated Karnavati was standing with few passengers inside it. We crossed the Vaitarna river which was flowing furiously with small whirlpools being formed in the river. Finally we reached Vasai road and stopped. Some people were not ready to get down despite announcements being done. They had to be convinced by the fellow passengers whom they asked many times before deboarding. I also had to deboard as I was in C9 and my allotted seat for return journey was in C3. I deboarded and admidst the drizzle went towards C3. In C3 also middle deck floor was totally wet. I had seat in Lower Deck. I setlled down on my seat. The luggage space was better in middle deck as my trolley bag was not going inside while in middle deck it was easily put in with ample amount of space left above the bag too. Any how with little bit of emptying the bag and forcefully pushing it, it went in. At 15:15 hrs the train started return journey with very few passengers. Still around 200 people were present. Some had come come all the way from Mumbai central. I was very hungry now as I hadn't eaten anything after the morning breakfast of dhokla at 6 am. After crossing the Vaitarna river again, the catering guy appeared. He had eatables like aaloo paratha, idlis, poha, maggi, cutlet. I took parathas as I needed proper food to satisfy my hunger. The aaloo parathas costed 40 rs with 2 parathas and a ketchup sachet. The taste was OK. We reached Surat late in the evening with passing the short terminated trains at Vapi, Valsad and a long halt at Outer after Udhna. Surat was filled with passengers beyond its capacity, we came to know that they were waiting for 3 trains. At Surat again the catering guy made its presence with Girnar tea. Seeing all the copassengers taking it, I too took it for Rs 15 a cup. He simply tore the packet, put it in the paper cup with hot water and stirred. It was nice with all the flavours blasting in the mouth simultaneously. I really liked it. By the time we crossed Surat darkness had engulfed this part of the earth. I also started watching the movie Parmanu in my mobile. The train was running furiously after Surat, hitting constant 120. After stopping at Bharuch we reached Vadodara delayed by an hour and some minutes. After a short halt of just around two minutes we were given the starter and we rolled out. Majority of passengers got down here. And some boarded. We were total 15 passengers in the coach. After Vadodara also train ran at MPS trying to manage delay. We did manage some minutes till Anand. At Anand some deboarded and only 3 were left in C3. Two on lower deck and 1 on middle deck. The train crossed maninagar without stopping and pulled into Ahmedabad PF 8 with 35 mins delay. I was again at the same station where I was in the morning. Hotel was not a tension, as while departing Vadodara I had already called Hotel Kinara inn, Relief road, where I stayed last 2 nights, to book a room for me for 24 hrs. They were kind enough to accept it without any booking amount or any agent involved. So grateful to them. Thanks Hotel Kinara inn. After deborading my body pained a bit. I was sitting in double decker since moring 5:30 i.e. 17 hrs. I streched a bit before deboarding and that eased the pain little bit. All I needed was food now but I decided to go to hotel first. Went to the hotel and they had already readied the room. Just made the entry, gave the food order and switched on the TV to enjoy my favourite show "Taarak mehta Ka ooltah chashmah", the stress buster. This is how the hectic day ended.