Bangalore to Hyderabad by train

Hmmm.. Its close to 2 months that i moved to Hyd for work. I work for CA (formerly known as Computer Associates) as a Software Engineer.

Its been an on and off journey to and fro Bangalore Hyd as almost once every week (during weekends) to finish off my house construction. It’s really been an exciting journey each time and every time. Have seen a lot of people writing about their train journey and always wondered if at all it will be as exciting as they put it.

To jus tell about my travel experience. In my 23 yrs till now, I have travlled very less out of bangalore. A staunch believer of "Bangalore is the best city" and never thought of leaving Banglore. If it was not for CA, I wouldn't have moved out of Bangalore. Always enjoyed my time at home and roaming around the of Bangalore especially Rajajinagar and Malleshwaram. Always hated Brigade from early if I remember coz I "thought" its always a waste of money to buy such costly stuff. That was until I was actually forced to buy a pair of branded shoes by my friends coz I started earning "big"; later I realised the value of so called "brand".

Well that was about me.. lets come back to the travel I wanted to talk about. Coz I am writing this small writeup to tell my experience about the Train Travel between Bangalore-Hyd (Kacheguda Express from Yeshwant Pur to Kacheguda).

Usually starts a little sentimental if my parents have come to see me off at the station. Then, after the train blows the whistle and starts rolling its wheels slowly. Passing through the city so soon jus to realise that it takes more than 30 to 45 mins to get out of Bangalore by train. By now, I would have realised that there are no chicks in my compartment. I dunno why it happens only with me.. But each time till now, never have they been any gang of chicks so maybe i could atleast teach them C.. u see C++ or UML usually takes too long :D coz it involves a lot of "object oriented" concepts.

I login to the yahoo messenger on my mob and lucky enuf to catch one or max 2 frnds online and have a small chat. Then realise that I need to save some battery so that I get to speak with my mom by late evening. By this time, I have crossed Karnataka and entering AP limits. The air starts getting a little warmer and people start switching on the fan. I would have heard people talk enuf about politics to sports.. some people do not want India to be democratic. while the other gang claims that their street guys play better cricket than the current indian cricket team.

People are hesitant to try coffee or tea or the bhel puri that comes in. But as soon as one person dares to, yu can see the vendor gettin hell busy and might even forget to collect the money for the service/product from some people.

Then come the catering guys to take orders for the night dinner. Out of the 8 in the compartment, 4 of them order and rest comment "its waste of money." Passing thru the Penakonda and other areas, fell frightened after seeing all these Telugu movies of “dishum dishum” in these areas. Guys.. not fights.. bullets..

By this time its getting dark and no use sitting by the window seat and get onto my berth. I usually book the Side Upper so that I have some privacy. And I get it coz I book the ticket well in advance.

I get onto my berth and open the food mom would have packed. And suddenly remember that I need to call her. Switch on the mobile and call my mom and romance with her on phone for 5 to 10 mins. Meanwhile finish having my dinner. Then, time for snacks. The train halts in Dharmavaram for quite a while, get some Dharmavaram vadas as they call it. Given a chance, u shud try it.. it tastes yummmm.. a little sweet.. don worry.. if you r like me and want some “hot”, they give you some geen chillies which is fried in oil and salt. Tastes awesome..

By the time u taste the vadas and cursin urself u shud have got more, the train stops at Ananthpur.. another wonderful city. This city is famous for rice and am told that you get “good amount” of rice if you buy a traditional Indian meal. To give you a brief, rice is a staple food for people in the southern part of India. People can live without anything for meal except some rice atleast. And Andhra Pradesh is a state very well known to cultivate huge loads of rice and paddy to satisfy its own state requirements. You can find various types of dishes made of rice. Imagine if people can make a sweet dish with rice, what not they can cook with rice? Biryanis, Pulavs and curries for Rice. Most people’s meal is not “complete” without curd rice.

Its 9 and am always a little lucky to have some good chicks in the next bogi atleast. So I make it a point that I go for a small "walk" in the train after my dinner. You see.. its good for health.

Its time to go to bed. 10 PM in the night and not much u can do in train bein awake whole night. You will only see the corps moving around and nothing much. Moreover when u have to get off the train at 05:10 AM in the morning and u have to also get to office by 10 AM so that your boss doesn give you some Monday blues.

Get down at the station early in the morning at 5:10. This is when I curse my luck a lot! I get down and see that there are so many chicks gettin down from the same train but from different bogis. So next time, need to go for a long walk after dinner. If I am just in time, the bus to Hi-Tech city will be waiting outside.

Get to home by 6:30 and then start preparin to get to office. Again back to "the same pool of shit".