Dates: 19th May-21st May 2007
This was my second trip to Nagpur. And this time too it was for the same purpose of writing the Railway Recruitment Board Exam. I decided to stay with a friend, Krishna, who stayed in the same building. He was working for a private bank like me. My onward journey was by Geetanjali Express. My return journey was largely dependent on whether my passenger status would change from ‘Waiting List’ to ‘Confirmed’.
I had been allotted an upper berth & I utilized it to the fullest. It was around 6 p.m. when I awoke from the deep slumber. The train reached Nagpur station by 7:15 p.m. Krishna had told me to call him when I reached Nagpur station. I tried calling from the PCO Booth but was not able to communicate with him due to network problem. Anyhow, he had given clear cut instructions as to how to get to his place. I just casually asked a rickshaw-wallah, who told me he would drop me at the bank premises for 60 bucks. Krishna had mentioned that the fare might be around 25-30 Rs. So I rejected the Rickshaw-wallah’s offer & made my way to the pre-paid Auto-rickshaw booth. They issued a coupon against a nominal charge of 1 Re for the trip. The fare was 30 Rs, which sounded reasonable enough to me. I reached the bank by around 8 p.m. Krishna was attending some customers when I entered the bank. So I decided to wait so that he could finish his work. I could make out that the branch had sufficient space as compared to the one where I work in Powai. Krishna called me over the counter and asked me about the journey. He also enquired if I had eaten or not. To which I replied in the negative. He said that we will have dinner from some hotel as he was unaware of my eating preferences and hence had not prepared anything at home. He then went on to deal with the remaining customers while I made myself comfortable.
We left the branch by 9:30 p.m. in Krishna’s scooter. We decided to have dinner at a nearby hotel. We found the hotel to be completely empty. We enquired about my examination centre from the Hotel owner after dinner. He told us where Katol Road, the examination centre was. From the hotel we left for Krishna’s place. Krishna was staying in Mathe Chowk. He was paying a rent of 2000 per month to the House-owner. The house seemed pretty antique. When we reached the front door the house owner came down to meet us. After placing my luggage around the room, and refreshing I got into the bed. We tuned to Vividh Bharati on the radio. Some very nice songs were being played. ‘Is Modh Se Jaathe Hain’, ‘Ruke Ruke Se Kadam’ and other such lovelies. Krishna remarked that people are welcomed over here in Nagpur with such songs. Soon he was fast asleep and Vividh Bharati ended its programme with ‘Dhalthi Jaayein Raat’. It must have been past mid-night when I dozed off.
The next day we left early for the exam. We had plans to go to Ramtek after the exams. As scooter was not a suitable means of transport in the hilly terrain of Ramtek, we had decided to go by bus. So while I was giving my exams, Krishna had to while away two hours somewhere so that by 12 p.m. when my exams would be over, we could together leave for Ramtek.
We reached the exam centre by 8:40 a.m. As we had not eaten anything, we decided to venture along the Katol Road in search of some hotel. But we didn’t find any hotel. We had covered quite a distance from the centre, so we decided to return back.
My exams weren’t good. And the fact that the fans weren’t working just worsened the things. Anyhow, by 12 I was out and found Krishna waiting outside. We decided to enquire about the bus-stop of a Ramtek bound bus. We received a mixed opinion on this. Some said there was no stop nearby. We were feeling hungry so decided to have lunch at Kamat’s Inn and pursue our search for the bus-stop after that. We then headed towards the Bus stop after lunch.
After making further enquiries we moved to the LIC Bus stop. From there we caught the Bus. The fare was 30 Rs per head for the 53 km trip. The bus passed through Kamptee, a place of military significance. Mid-way it started raining. We reached Ramtek Bus Depot by 2:30 p.m. From there we took a rickshaw at a fare of 15 Rs per head. Rain had subdued by then. We made our way to the ‘Gadh Mandir’, as it is popularly known. We enquired about other places worth-seeing from the Rickshaw-wallah. He mentioned the names of Khindsi Talao and Ambala Talao. We decided to cover them if the rain gods were merciful. The rickshaw dropped us near the steps leading to the temple.
A lot of monkeys can be found here. They eat out of your hands the ‘channa’ purchased from the vendors. We made our way towards the Main temple. We offered our prayers to Rama and Lakshmana and were moving towards the other deities, when it started raining heavily. I was very eager to go to the top of the temple to have a good view. I had been here last time too, but unfortunately the photos that I had taken from the top didn’t develop. This time around I made sure that everything was covered. I took some 7-8 snaps in and around the temple surroundings. We asked about the significance of the temple from the priest of the Hanuman temple. He pointed us to the wall, where the same was written. Ramtek is also known as ‘Ramgiri’. Lord Rama during his 14 year exile had taken a vow to destroy the evil at this very place. ‘Tek’ is another word for vow. Hence the name, ‘Ram-tek’. We came to know from a shop-keeper that Ambala Talao was being used to dispose of dead-bodies. We decided to give it a visit next time around. We visited the Swami Samarth Mandir, which is just on the opposite side of the Gad Mandir. After that we returned back to the rickshaw-stand. The fare was 10 Rs per head up to the bus stand. We reached the bus stand by 4:15 p.m. The bus to Amravati was scheduled to come by 4:30 p.m. The bus came some 10 minutes early. By 7 pm we got down at Lohapur, nearby Buldi as the bus didn’t go to Buldi Bus-stop. From Lohapur, we walked towards Buldi. We decided to have some light snacks before we settled for dinner. We returned back to Krishna’s place after the snacks. After resting for a while, we made our way to a hotel called ‘Ram dhaam’.
I had plans to cover the Rail museum the next day. I also wanted to check the status of my reservation at the booking office near the Rail Museum. Also we decided to try our hands at cooking. We settled for Upma and chutney. Krishna prepared Upma the next day. It tried my hand at chutney. I had to go to the market area to purchase masala esp. coriander leaves and green chillies. Coconut was anyhow there at our disposal. We could not find anything to break it though. We went along the compound until we found a sharp edged grinding stone. Luckily the coconut broke into two exact halves. We made the breakfast ready. As we were the only ones to eat the prepared items we praised it to as good as it could be. Breakfast done, we left for the Bank. We decided to cover Diksha Bhoomi on the way. We didn’t have time to get down and take a look around. After keeping my traveling bag with Krishna at his workplace, I left for the Narrow Gauge museum.
The museum is located in Kadbi Chowk. The bus stops at the signal after the museum. Unfortunately when I reached the Museum entrance, I found that the museum was closed. On making enquiries I found out that it remains closed on Mondays. To make matters worse, my PNR status was still W/L 27. With some 4-5 hours remaining before the train was scheduled to leave, it was unlikely of it being confirmed. I returned back on foot.
Enroute I came across Kasturchand Park and decided to rest a while. Many a political rallies take place here. After taking a few snaps I resumed my way back to Ramdas peth. I reached by 12:35 p.m. Krishna told me that there was still time before we could go for lunch so I decided to go to a cybercafé. The one I visited had a pre-paid token system. After an hour of surfing, I returned back to the branch. We had lunch. I got a parcel for dinner. I took leave of Krishna and hired a rickshaw up to Nagpur station. When I reached Nagpur station, my PNR status had changed to 17. There was an hour to go before the train was scheduled to arrive. I decided to board the general compartment. The train was 30-40 minutes late. I walked along the platform to while away the time. Soon the train arrived. Out of the two general compartments one was somewhat empty. One entering I found a seat vacant on the side and sat there. Some said this compartment was for Ladies while some said it was ‘Army’. Anyhow nobody got down. Jnaneshwari Super deluxe, the train by which I was travelling didn’t have many halts.
Glancing across the compartment, I saw a girl of my age group sitting at the far end of the compartment. She did seem to be from a well-to-family. I wondered if all classes of people did travel in general compartment. I decided to get some sleep as it was going to be difficult to get the same in the night. Around 8 p.m. I had dinner at Badnera. There was a couple sitting at the foot board of the train entrance door. The man was apparently drunk. As soon as the train reached Akola, hordes of people boarded the train. The couple had moved from the foot-board to the vacant seats opposite mine just before the crowd barged in. The man was too drunk and kept collapsing often. The women and other passengers made him lie down below the seats. There were two men sitting on the side seats. I overheard one of them saying that he plays harmonium and other instruments. One of my acquaintances had asked me to look for a harmonium player near Vashi. So I asked this person if he knew of some person from Vashi who could play harmonium. He gave me his contact number. That done, I resumed my efforts to catch some winks. But I couldn’t. The train reached Bhusaval by 11:40 p.m. The crowd that got in was huge. Soon there was a commotion. A lady was shouting at the pitch of her voice and the expletives she used cannot be written off in print. Actually the lady was upset that there was no seat available and therefore was making a scene about that. She accused a young chap of molesting her daughter!
The young chap’s mother wasn’t one to let go and a war of words followed. With all the commotion going on it seemed everyone was uneasy except for the man lying below the seat. The commotion went on for an hour or so. But I couldn’t get any sleep until 5 a.m. I might have dozed off after that. I woke when the train passed Kasara. Soon it was time to pack all things and get ready. I got down at Kalyan by 6:30 a.m., some 2 hrs late from scheduled time. I caught a bus and reached home by 7:30 a.m.
For Further Photos Do Visit This Link: http://picasaweb.google.com/n.ramaswamy/Nagpur
