My North India trip I

This section of my blog is to publish my longest trip ever, with my family to North of India. We were about 30 persons in our crew, with almost every body in the crew my relative in one form or the other. I live in Bangalore as software professional while the rest of our crew members live in Coimbatore, my home town. The trip was about 13 days starting from Coimbatore. The trip actually started on 1st May 2004 and ended on 13th May 2004.I joined my crew in Chennai.
I started from Bangalore on 29th of April for an overnight journey to Chennai by KSRTC bus. Normally I prefer KSRTC for its comfort and low cost. I should consider myself unfortunate in this instance from comfort stand point. As I could manage only a seat in the last row, with a fattest man I have ever seen sitting next to me, you could understand the level of comfort I enjoyed overnight. The bus started from Bangalore Majestic terminals around 9.30 PM on 29th April 2004 and reached Chennai around 5.30 am the next day (1st May 2004). I traveled to Tambaram by city bus where my friends lived, to have a bath and continue my journey. I took about 2; 3 hours of rest had a little chat with my friend Rajan and boarded a local train from Tambaram to Chennai park station. Then I reached Chennai central railway station where I am supposed to join my crew. The rest of my crew members boarded the Coimbatore to Chennai train (Inter city express) on 1st May 2004 6.30 am. They reached Chennai central around 1.45 PM the same day where I joined them.
As per our plan we are supposed to catch the train (Grant Trunk express, G.T in short) to Delhi from Chennai central at 4.30 PM. so a full 2 more hours remaining for the departure of our next train. We relaxed our selves at Chennai central railway station. In the mean time, the tour coordinator Mr. Palani Kumar from Sun travels joined us along with his kitchen crew. We all boarded G.T express which departed 4.30pm sharp from Chennai central. As per our plan we are supposed to reach Agra railway station on 3rd May 2004 1.30 AM, a clear 33 hours of train journey, we decided to spend some time by playing cards. Me, my father, my uncles, my brother and several other people played cards. While my mom, sister and other female members played pattukku pattu to pass time. In the mean time, the tour coordinators provided us with dinner (Pongal and sambar, if my memory is right.).After which we all fell asleep.
The next day when we woke up the train had crossed Tamil nadu, Andhra Pradesh and was entering Maharashtra. We were served our break fast (Idly vada, hopefully) and a cup of coffee. Again we started feeling bored. Now I had an interesting task to do when the train halts in any station. With not much of Mineral water bottle shops available we had to re fill our empty water cans in the near by water outlets, I did try my hands in several stations starting from Nagpur, where I bought famous oranges, Bhopal, Gwalior and several other stations. Again playing cards helped us to spend some useful time. Mean while we had our lunch (Tamarind and curd rice) and dinner(Poori).Finally the next day morning 1.30 AM we reached the Agra station, our first place of visit in our journey.
In the station, the crew was waiting for us! But who are they, they are from Indian railways to take share of their bribe as the kitchen crew traveling with us was traveling with luggage with more than allowed weight an individual can carry. The coordinators were expecting this and they dealt with them promptly, Then began our Herculean task, we got to carry our whole of luggage to auto rickshaws waiting outside the station. There we realized for the first time that we were carrying too many luggages. With no other option available we carried them outside and boarded several autos. We were all taken to Hanuman mandhir just opposite to Agra fort. The mandhir had a choultry where we were supposed to spend the rest of night (morning).

The next day morning we all woke up, got ready and were ready to visit Agra. We had to wait for few minutes as the coordinator took some time to arrange the bus. As Loksabha elections were round the corner, most of the buses in city were booked for election campaign. So the coordinator had a tough time before he finally managed a bus. We boarded the bus heading to Brindhavan, which is about 45 kms from Agra, The place where Lord Krishna believed to have spent his child hood days. We visited 2 temples in Brindhavan after which we had our break fast (again Pongal and sambar). Not very much impressed by those temples we headed to Mathura, where there is a famous Krishna temple. This is believed to be the Birth place of lord Krishna. This place is also famous for the dispute between Hindu and Muslim communities over to whom the place actually belongs. Adjacent to the temple was a mosque actually both mosque and temple where sharing a wall. Due to its communal sensitivity, the Mathura temple was a high security zone where every one of us was brisked by security professionals. We had a glimpse of Krishna idol there and went below to see the place were lord Krishna was believed to be born (He was born in a prison where the Temple is located now). Then we had to relax ourselves as the temperature was close to 40 degrees centigrade and also it was time for our lunch. We all had ice creams and other snacks and then headed back to Agra. As per our plan we are supposed to complete sight seeing in Agra that day and take the train to Delhi by 6.30 PM in the evening.
By the time we reached Agra it was around 2.30 PM, with just 4 hours to our train we had 3 more important things to do. one to have our lunch, two visit Agra fort and number three, the most important place of few of ours trip, visit the world famous TajMahal. We speeded up, had a quick lunch, and few of us headed to Agra fort which was just opposite our place of stay, while a few other elders decided to skip the fort as it requires too much of walking in short span of time, they do not want to be tired when they reach TajMahal, a valid point too. So few of us hurried to Agra fort and we actually felt sorry for other members who skipped the Fort. It was such a beautiful place built by Shahjahan, the Moghul sultan. Another feature of fort is that from one place the world famous TajMahal was visible for a distant view. That is believed to be the place where Shahjahan was prisoned during the later part of his life with his final wish, to have a glimpse of Tajmahal till his death, could be fulfilled. We rushed through other beauties of Fort, clicked a couple of snaps in our camera and rushed back to our bus. In the mean time, the rest of our crew members have collected the luggage and dumped them in the bus, the plan was to visit Tajmahal and reach the railway station directly. Right, we are fully armed! With our luggage and every body was delighted and slightly tensed to visit Tajmahal as we were running late.
Finally our bus entered the campus where Tajmahal is located from where we were supposed to board battery operated bus to get closer to Tajmahal. This arrangement is made to guard Tajmahal from air pollution. We all boarded 3 battery operated vans to reach the main gate of Tajmahal, where we need to purchase tickets to visit Tajmahal. Finally we all joined the queue, running from our buses, while few others ran to purchase the tickets and join the queue back. Again there was security check up here additionally no tobacco stuff was allowed to carry by visitors. Then we finally entered the gate and ran fast to have a glimpse of Tajmahal. Finally we could see Tajmahal more closely around 6 PM (remember our train to Delhi is at 6.30 PM?) and walked as fast as we could and managed to have a few snaps and rushed back to the bus and headed to railway station. We reached railway station around 6.40 PM only to be advised that we missed our train!.
Our trip coordinator stepped in and informed us that we shall take the next train to Delhi, so we arranged two porters and a trolley to carry our luggage to platform, and started walking towards the platform. Along with porters, my father (Mr. Asaithambi) and a friend of mine (Mr. Kani) moved to guard our luggage in the platform.
By the time we entered Agra station, my father and my friend were standing in a platform which was next to the platform where we entered and were waving hands asking us to walk fast. They also pointed towards a train standing behind them. We understood that the next train to Delhi has arrived and it was about to leave Agra, We were already told that if we miss the next train to Delhi we might have to spend more than 4 hours for the next train by which time, if we board the train in the platform, we could reach Delhi, realizing the importance of catching the train, we started running with the rest of the luggage we were carrying. A railway bridge which was about 50 feet high was in between the train and the platform we were in. To cross that we had to climb up some 60 steps and walk for about 100 mts and again climb down the stairs to catch the train. We ran to the best of our ability, but there were a few elders in our crew, who slowed down in climbing the stairs up and down. With only my uncle and aunt (she was suffering from Knee ailment) left to climb down the stairs, rest of our crew decided to board the train with the loads of luggage to be dumped in the compartment. Myself, my friend Kani, my father, my uncle Suresh decided to move the luggage into the compartment with support from other females in the crew. We actually stormed! The compartment and started throwing luggage where ever we could find a place. By the time we dumped the entire luggage, my uncle and aunt managed to climb down the stairs and they stepped in to our compartment.
Thankfully we all could manage to catch the train, a bit relaxed, I was standing near the gate, sweating, next to my father. Suddenly a strange question arose in my mind. Is this train going to Delhi? I did ask my father this question. He said he was sure that it was going to Delhi because last night we alighted from the train which was about to move in that direction. But I was not convinced; I asked a co passenger where this train was going. He wore a strange look, I guess he should be thinking that this guy stormed the train without even knowing were it was going. Finally I was convinced that I was confused and it was actually going to Delhi. Finally all of us could manage seats mind you we did not purchase tickets for this train. Through out the journey from Agra to Delhi, we were slightly worried about that. But to our help no railway ticket checker was in vicinity. Think about it, a bunch of 30 people traveling in a train with out tickets, our thanks to Indian railways. We finally reached Delhi Nizamuddin railway station, around 11 PM on 3rd May 2004. A bus was waiting for us in the station; we boarded it to reach Daryaganj , were rooms were booked for us. We reached our room and had our dinner and slept as every body was very tired; we fell asleep very soon.

The next day (4th May 2004) ,we were supposed to have sight seeing trip around Delhi.
The details of which would be available soon..