The Sealdah station and surroundings

The Sealdah station and surroundings

As i reached Sealdah station, the board on running of locals suggested the operation begins at 3.46 in the morning and continues till 11.42 in the night. As you enter the Sealdah station, the first sight is of the enquiry counter and herein i was amidst a gathering that is fairly less. The response on Sealdah Rajdhani  departure suggested that long distance trains are to depart from platforms 9A and 9B. Few metres away is  a pure safe and drinking water shed which is quite handy.

Wait amidst locals ferrying pasengers

As i wait opposite the Mother Dairy outlet which has a rich collection of mishti doi among other dairy products it coincides with innumerable announcements on Gangasagar Express which has a waiting list of over 500; some of which were as follows.   WL 387 comes to HQ (headquarter) S3 19, WL 407 comes to HQ S3 22,  WL 432 to HQ S3 25, WL 433 to HQ S3 26 and WL 505 to HQ S3 18.

Amidst reading of this list, there are passengers waiting for Uttar Banga which takes 14 hours to reach Cooch behar. They are sitting in a line much before the departure of the train and herein i am told that things are under less level of stress vis-a-vis 1991. Meanwhile an announcement is made for Asansol-Sealdah Intercity which is supposed to depart at 4.45. As for some other locals there is Budge Budge local, Baisipur local, Lakshmikantapur local, Bangon local and Dankuni local.

Local stations the train went past

As the Sealdah Rajdhani leaves  at 4.50 pm, i recall the morning ride to Park Circus to get mishti doi. Here Idol of Goddess Durga in Nonapukur Lohatty Durga Puja Samity in AJC Bose Road seems to be the most moving experience.Perhaps the coating of the idol is truly uplifting. May the Nonapukur Lohatty Durga Puja Samity in AJC Bose Road continue with this over 50-year-old tradition in the most befitting fashion for decades to come. The Rajdhani goes past Eastern Railway Men's Congress, Route Relay Interlocking Cabin, Sealdah GRPS CB Camp 2.   THe train goes past Bidhan Nagar Road at 4.59, Dum Dum 5.06, Dakshineswar at 5.12 followed by Ballyghat.  For passengers willing to get a view of Dakshineswar the best bet is to take a side seat. At 5.21 comes Dankuni East. Soon after Dankuni station we are amidst huge tract of fertile land on either side. Masgram comes at 5.54 and Burdhmann (Burdwan) comes at 6.08 pm.

Durgapur coming at 6.44 and Asansol at 7.16. On other side at Asansol is Burdwan-Hatia Express. In that train there is a fair gathering of jhalmuri vendors suspending the passengers with their flavours.  Around 7.35 we go past Barkrar station and at 7.45 Vananchal Express goes past us. This is followed by Kumardubi station. At 8.27 Dhanbad comes and here one guy before getting down prefers to elaborate on a cell that on most of the occasions when he has travelled on train the urgency has meant employing ulterior motives to get ticket; effectively meaning paying to tte a sum desired by him. Early morning Kanpur comes and a little after half past 10 we are in New Delhi Station.

A word of praise for train catering personnel  U C Tiwari.  There were other families on board and the one hailing from Saharanpur did not mind wasting the food served on train. There have been innuumerable experiences when the food served on train gets least element of attention from passengers and they waste at will.
As for train reservation from reservation centre near GPO in Kolkata, just under 20 minutes all seats were taken up and this showed the rush and other factors that are beyond control. Perhaps a strict monitoring at the reservation windows across country would help to break the impasse.