Mad Madrasis - stuck on the train!

Continued from here.

11th & 12th January 2009

Am off in dreamland when there's a lot of yelling and shouting, scraping and pulling. Passengers getting on at some other station I thought, sleepily and tried to go back to sleep, but they created quite a racket for quite a while. Morning came, and I peeped down to see Sheila sitting up in her berth with a scowl on her face - being closer to the racket, I think her night's sleep had been ruined somewhat!

Anyway, got some chai and looked out of the window to discover to our horror that our window was completely messed up, and we could see nothing through it. the grime was in-between the outer and inner windows and so there was no redemption for us. We looked to the other side, and the noisy lot were firmly ensconced behind curtains that never opened that whole day!

I am sure you will not believe this, but the lady on that berth did not show her face that whole day. So what, you say? Well, she had a three-year old son who was busy running the corridors and she kept shouting instructions to him all the time, from behind that curtain! Our faces were not that bad looking, we thought!! AND WE HAD NO VIEW OF THE COUNTRYSIDE!!

So, I took refuge in Rushdie's Enchantress of Florence, and was magically transported to Fatehpur Sikri and the land of Akbar. Lunch time and we were at Nagpur, and did the customary thing of buying santras - oranges. Lovely, juicy ones though they did not look promising from the outside.

Itarsi in the evening, and then we ground to a halt....and the bad news percolated through the coaches. Goods train derailed...train being rerouted....long delays...Even then we did not realise what it would mean. We groaned at the thought of maybe a four hour delay, but also were secretly pleased since it meant that we did not have to get off at Mathura at the scheduled 2:45am, but at a more civilised, warmer hour.

It turned out that we were being re-routed around Hoshangabad in a kind of rectangle, going east to Khatni (where we stood for four hours), before coming back to Bina (which is on the original GT line.   So we trundled along for the whole of 12th, when we should have been inside the sanctuary. We had all the time in the world to be social.  There was a family also returning to Mathura, where the couple had jobs currently.  They could not believe that we were travelling all this distance to go to see some birds. The man looked at me pityingly and remarked how he had gone last winter, and only saw crows!

By afternoon desperation had set in. I purchased a Rs 20 version of Ludo, and we foursome played for something like 2 hours, with Arun very deliberately esuring that we were all sent back to the starting blocks again and again. The delay was so long that even the lady-behind-the-screen emerged! Her little boy, noisy and full of josh, was alternatively khatti with us and meeti!  But we got so fond of him, that we bid him a fond farewell that night before he went to bed!

Finally, when we did get to MTJ, it was 12:30 am on 13th - a 22 hour delay, which meant that we had been on that train for something like 53 hours! An aromatic, sleepy and relieved bunch we were when we did get off.

Saras at Bharatpur

A huge bus carried us all to Bharatpur, about an hour away, and we dozed fitfully, unable to see anything out of the windows. e stumbled out and into the hotel, as Vijay had already allotted rooms and roommates. I was to share with Divya, while Raji and Sheila occupied the room next door.

Saras is an RTDC hotel, and given some of the places we have stayed in earlier, this was the height of luxury, a nice large room, and more importantly, a clean bathroom!
The hotel from across the road, as seen in the morning light
A standard, non-AC room

Our bathroom!
Determinedly, Divya and I braved the cold and had a warm bath at
2am!! The warmth of the bath deceived me, and I got into bed insufficiently covered, and had to get up, shivering, put on more layers before sneaking back under the rug.

6am: Thud, thud thud went someone on the door. Open up to find a smiling Rajput with a tray full of steaming tea, "Good morning madam, aapki chai!" Sigh! I envied Divya as she slept through all of it, and woke up only on my persistent and vigorous efforts!

The only good thing was that we were bathed and clean, and so felt very virtuous as compared to the other sleepyheads who were looking to have a morning bath before we set off for the sanctuary at 8:30. A late start was the concession for the first day.

Biking adventures, up next!

The winter adventures of the Mad Madrasis

10th January 2009
Last year, we were struck by summer madness, going into the Melghat forests at temperatures above 100 degrees F. So this year we had to opt for cooler climes isn't it? Being good Madrasis, most of us are quite comfortable in the humid, warm conditions of our city, and the very thought of going off to Bharatpur, Rajasthan in the winter brought its own set of problems, frantic phone calls and last minute shopping.

"Have you got gloves"?
"Hey dont forget the monkey cap."
"I am bringing my thermal underwear."
"My jacket is a bright blue," wailed another.
"Lets not set out at 6 am...I mean even the birds feel cold, dont they?!"

So it was with excitement and apprehension that we set off to catch the Grand Trunk (quite inappropriately named a Super Fast) to Mathura Junction, each laden with enough warm clothing, for three atleast!! Little did I realise that just catching the train would be a mini adventure in itself!

So, Sheila, Raji and me get into a cab and set off. Discover that none of us have any palliatives for an upset stomach. Did, what we thought was a quick detour to the Arya Vaidya Sala, to pick up some churan powder, and head off via the beach. Only to run into a traffic jam courtesy the Chennai Sangamam opening. (Later, Vijay was to tell us, sarcastically - "Dont you women read the papers? I mean there was a full page ad announcing this, and quite clearly the Marina was to be avoided!") Departure was 7.15pm. It was 6.50 and we were still somewhere near Presidency College with no way forward or back. Arun calls to tell us cheerfully that he's on the train! Further panic. I ask him which platform thinking that we could just run off to that platform - "I dont know, I just followed Vijay", he said!! Find out, I growled at him, by which time we had reached the bridge opposite the station. Ah good, home stretch now I thought, and relaxed, only to find our cabbie veer left. "Ayyo, rightu paa", we yelled in unison, while soft-spoken Sampath (the driver) says "Ille maa, taxi ellam suthi poanu!"

7:02 pm. Get down near the side entrance. Huge evening crowds of daily commuters mingle with domestic travellers, and there is hardly room to move! And of course, the side entrance is shut, funneling the crowds further into the front entrances. Just as we round the corner I hear a huge thud, and turn around to find Sheila on the ground!! She caught her foot on the edge of the path and went down, luggage and all! We give her a hand up, and she tentatively tests her foot. She's a bit shaken and also panicked. (Later I discover that her watch is set 5 minutes ahead!!) So, we pick up her bag also and make a run for it!! And then we see metal detectors.... my heart sinks. I look straight ahead, hurry through those detectors and make a straight dash for platform 11. Round the corner, and we see the waiting train. Thankfully, as we were booked by AC, our coach was one of the earliest, and we heaved our bags in, sinking into our seats with relief. 7.08pm! Sheila then informed me that there was a baggage check just past the metal detectors that I had bypassed, and the cops had looked on helplessly as we ran...I guess we didn't look suspicious! (My hard-to-impress son scoffed, why the hurry, ma, you still had another seven minutes!!! Well by James Bond and Bruce Willis standards, I guess seven minutes is a lifetime, but not for me, oh no thank you.)

7.15pm, and we set off. Bang on time. Vijay comes by, and we learn that there are some 27 of us MNS members spread out through the train, with another few expected to join us directly there. Wow, that's a large group!

By this time, Arun has cooerced our fourth fellow passenger (a young man) to exchange berths with him, so he has us three ladies to guard his luggage and camera!! Then, he decides that we all eat too much since we had brought nice tasty khana from home, while he was planning to make a meal of oranges!! Never mind that he bought a packet of namkeen from the railways seller, and filled his stomach with other assorted goodies from his humongous suitcase!!

We retired for the night, blissfully unaware of the further misadventures to follow!

Continued in Mad Madrasis - stuck on the train!

Are discount airlines a good environmental idea?

I came across this article in The Economist...

Posted by: Economist.com | LONDON

Categories: Green issues

WHAT impact does business travel have on the environment? GlobalExpense, a company that manages employee expenses for its clients, has come up with an answer relating to British businesses. GlobalExpense analysed almost 5m claims filed by some 100,000 British employees between 2005 and 2007 and then turned the figures over to Carbon Statement, a company that tracks carbon footprints.

Carbon Statement estimates that the carbon dioxide generated by the average expense-claiming employee from business travel (not including commuting) during a year is the equivalent of them boiling a kettle 105,413 times.

To offset this additional carbon dioxide, it would require six trees to be planted and grown to maturity (taking about 99 years) per expense-claiming employee per year: 22.5 million additional trees per year for the UK.

Assuming, bravely, that the world of business has no plans to plant 22m trees this year, what should environmentally minded business travellers do? The obvious answer is fly less, as flights are particularly damaging. Each year the British workforce claims expenses for 7.7m train journeys, compared with 1.6m flights, but those flights create around six times as much carbon dioxide.

Given that over 40% of the flights in the survey were domestic, the green dream is to put more of these flying businessmen into trains. But the difficulty in selling the virtues of time-consuming train travel is exacerbated by the fact that train fares have become dearer in recent years, and air fares cheaper.

During this period [2005-2007] the average UK train fare has increased by £6.85 – a hefty 20.3 per cent, well above the rate of inflation. This is in stark contrast to the fall in the amount paid for the average airline ticket of 25 per cent over the same period

.

It seems that until the financial cost of travel reflects its environmental cost, the number of fliers is unlikely to drop.

So, while we are hooked to frequent flier miles and discount airlines, maybe its all not such a good idea in the long run.....  

Sigh!  

Anyway, not wanting to give the Americans only bad news The Economist also published some encouraging sounds of how Amtrak has improve, and definitely worth a try.

My son and I bought a tourist pass on Amtrak a couple of summers ago, and went from New York to Atlanta, back to Washington and then on to Cleveland, before returning to NY.

My impression then was that our good old Indian Railways was much better.  Here is why:

• Indian Railways gives me a berth to sleep on overnight journeys, whether I go by second class or first class, while Amtrak decides that the poorer lot shall only get a sitting seat, (and reserves the berths/cabins for their really high-end travellers)
• At every station in India, all my well-meaning relations can come and bid me a fond farewell or an even fonder (I hope!) welcome on the platform.  No such luck with Amtrak, where only travellers get to the platform, there's no one to help with the luggage, and some surly railway attendant will assign you to seats only when you are about to board.
• Nice hot railway food missing in Amtrak, where we got some plasticky junk.
• And the loos.... I think in a train our Indian toilets make most sense.  In the Amtrak journeys, halfway into the journey and the toilets would be clogged with toilet paper....

Oh yes, and Amtrak was as bad as IR in terms of punctuality - I've forgotten how late we were on our return, but it was several hours past scheduled arrival.

Dont get me wrong, we loved the train rides (small matter that I had a tired back at the end of it all), and the pleasures of nice, large viewing windows to look out at the Hudson River all the way back.  The Acela Expresses we used were even better.  If I had to do it again, I would still take the train, but not many middle class Americans do it seems.  None of my NRI relations had, either!

19:00 GMT +00:00 What about Amtrak? Posted by: Economist.com | WASHINGTON DC Categories: Trains

AMTRAK, America's oft-maligned national passenger rail service, has had a rough life. Deferred maintenance, low levels of federal funding, immense debt and competition with airlines have all taken their toll since the quasi-governmental entity was organised in 1971. But by the numbers, at least, Amtrak seems to be doing better. Ridership was nearly 26m in fiscal 2007, a new record. Ridership for 2008 is up 12% so far, according to AFP. Even Amtrak's "built-too-wide" Acela Express service is doing well. The increased security in airports following the terrorist attacks of September 11th 2001 have made flying a lot more of a hassle, especially for short trips like the ones between New York and Washington, DC or between Boston and New York. For many business travellers, it's simply easier to go from Penn Station in midtown New York to Union Station in downtown Washington, DC than it is to make the long trips to and from the airports that surround those two cities. A trip from New York to Washington on the Acela takes a little less than three hours, doesn't involve passing through security, and usually costs a little over $100 if purchased in advance. (Tickets can set you back more than twice as much if purchased at the last minute.) All-in-all, the Acela is a comfortable, fast option for travel between the major cities of the north-eastern United States. Bloomberg's James S. Russell elaborates: Flying can't be counted on to have a time advantage when you add waits at security checkpoints and travel to and from the airport....Right now, no other rail corridors in the U.S. match Acela for speed, comfort or frequency. Overburdened airports, along with jammed highways, high gasoline prices and global-warming concerns, may at last push longstanding plans to build fast train service between heavily trafficked urban markets like Los Angeles-San Francisco-Sacramento, Houston-Dallas, St. Louis- Chicago-Detroit and Florida's east coast. Yes, Acela is better, though by international standards it remains a joke. It looks good today mainly because driving and flying are looking so bad. Mr Russell is right: the Acela only seems great because the other options are so miserable. But that's been enough for Amtrak to capture, by some estimates, over half of the market for business travel between New York and Washington, DC. One easy improvement could make Acela even more appealing: Wi-Fi. Right now you need to bring a broadband wireless card along if you want to stay connected while you're on the train. But if the various $20 bus services between New York and DC can provide free Wi-Fi on the road, how hard can it be for Amtrak to provide it on the rails? In a smart post on Information Week's website, Cora Nucci argues that Amtrak faces a moment of truth: Business travelers are Amtrak's bread and butter. It should be hustling to make Wi-Fi a priority -- to make it free, make it fast, and make it available in every car on the line. This is the time to do it. High oil prices are placing a golden opportunity in Amtrak's lap. Amtrak already offers a service that is greener, cheaper, about as fast, and less of a hassle than its competitors. It doesn't even require a trip to the airport; it takes commuters from city centre to city centre. If Acela also offered free Wi-Fi, it would be a deal business travellers would find very hard to pass up.

Penchalakona falls in the monsoon

October 2007:

When MNS announced a trip to Penchalakona, I was totally clueless, never having heard of the place. With descriptions of waterfall, dense forest and good birding, I was enticed, dragged my husband along, and set off with fourteen other members of the MNS.

Dates were chosen with great thought. A weekend in October, after the rains was thought to be ideal, since the waterfall - which is not perennial - would have water.

After reading this write-up in the MNS bulletin, I was all excited:

"The proposed itinerary:

October 27 2007—Drive to Kandaleru dam, birding in the scrub jungles. After lunch leave for Penchalakona. Bird watching on the outskirts of the Temple village Watch for the full moon rising over the hills. Look for nightjars and owls. Next day trek to waterfalls and the hills. Look for the Yellow throated Bulbuls.

On Oct 28,2007—leave for Somasila dam after breakfast. Leave for Chennai in the evening.
The Penisula Narasimha Swamy Sanctuary is placed between two important passes Badvel–Nellore road and Kadapa–Rajampet road. The velligonda hill range of lush green luxuriant forests interrupted with hillocks of igneous rocks is a paradise for the rich and variegated life forms of animals and plants. The sanctuary is connected by two water bodies—Somasila and Kandaleru.
The flora is Dry evergreen forest type with species like Acacia sp, Cassia sp, Pongamia sp, Carissa sp, etc. Other trees that can be seen include Mangifera indica (mango), Syzigium cumini (jamun), Mahua, Pterocarpus marsupium (Indian Kino), Gloriosa superba (Glory Lily), Cochlospermum religiosum (Yellow silk cotton), Red sanders.
Birds that can be seen here include Rose Ringed Parakeet, White Eye, Pied kingfisher, Pied crested cuckoo, Open-billed Stork, Black-winged stilt, White-bellied drongo, Ashy drongo, Bronzed drongo, Black-headed oriole, Yellow throated bulbul.,Shama.
Other fauna reported include Leopard, Wild dog, Wolf, Sloth Bear, Chinkaara, Black buck, Slender Loris, Giant Indian Squirell. Marbled frog, Burrowing frog, common toad, common brown vine snake, common krait, Starred tortoise."

So, we set off by the Vijaywada-bound Jan Shatabdi for Gudur, and I was pleasantly surprised by the train, its seats and the concept of the Jan Shatabdi.

Cloudy skies, and light drizzle as well as the occasional heavy downpour accompanied us throughout our trip, and ths reduced the birding, but then we enjoyed the waterfall as a result.

Playing with crap on the Gudur tank bund!

Sorry, but that's what they do. The dung beetles I mean. Spend their lives playing with dung. These particular two were spied on the Gudur tank bund. It must have been paradise for them - the place was full of cattle and goat dung.

Scarabaeoidea - try saying that! Well that's their official name. I think I'll stick with DB.

So there we were standing on the tank bund looking for water birds, when I spied these two near my feet. I stared in fascination at the teamwork between the two, as they rolled dung to somewhere. So these then are the "rollers". Rolling dung to their nests. One male and one female? Could be. Female DBs are smart. They allow the guys to roll, and just go along for the ride!

Supposedly, there are also "tunnellers" who immediately tunnel and bury the dung when they find it. Then there are also "dwellers" who just luxuriate and live in it. YUK! I said to myself, when I read this They must really have some bad karma!

They are also picky, I discovered. Yes, please to dung of herbivores, and no thank you to dung from omnivores! Amazing isnt it, the food preferences of some people!

I had to admit that these creatures are useful. they put away the dung, clean up the place you know, and convert the dung into something useful in the process. So next time you find a lot of crap - from a herbivore - around, dont wrinkle your nose, but look for that DB.

And if you are in the jungle, look for the Elephant DB - the largest of its kind. Honest! Dont believe me? See for yourself -

From Gudur, we set off by road to Kandaleru. By now, a drizzle had set in and the sky was completely overcast and there was a dull light. While we were on the highway, the road was like a dream and we made good time. But once we got off the highway, we really had a bumpy ride. Since I was in the rear of the Qualis, every bump was experienced and all the breakfast had in Gudur was quickly digested!

Kandaleru

The earthen dam that enclosed the reservoir, has created a water body that stretched from horizon to horizon, filled by the current monsoon rains. It was a spectacular sight, and also reassuring for us Chennaiites, since it is an important water source for the city.

It was rainy and windy, and there was no prospects for birding, but we hung around just taking in the sight and envying the dam officials who had a lovely bungalow perched up on a hillock, overlooking the reservoir. We wandered down to the banks, which was ringed by scrub.

Suddenly, the rain stopped and there was a slight lifting of the clouds, and then the birds were back!

My favourites were The White-browed fantail flycatcher and the Pied Kingfisher.

The B&W copter

Or that's what I called the Pied Kingfisher.
I had a lovely display of this bird, famous for its ability to hover. Suddenly there was this little black & white fellow, in the air above us, on the banks of the reservoir, with a rather prominent bill. “Pied kingfisher!” an excited stage whisper to Sekar.

I was so delighted. He actually “stood on his tail”, as Salim Ali describes, before swooping down to the water, and then taking off with a cry.

After a huge lunch, we drove on to Penchalakona.

Penchalakona

On approaching, we had a grand view of the falls from the road, near the entrance to the Karunamayi ashram.
Click on the picture and enjoy a full screen view
We lingered here for a while drinking in the view, and wondering about this mysterious ashram (more on that later!) before moving on, into the "town" of Penchalakona. The high street consisted of the Narasimhaswamy temple, three roadside tiffin and meal shops and another three souvenir shops, selling a complete range of made-in-China bric-a-brac.

Herds of cows loitered around the temple, but what was most depressing was the plastic strewn across the roads and the fields. With the drizzle, the cow dung, plastic litter and the fruit droppings from the ficus tree combined to make a most unpleasant mess!

Accommodation was in the private choultries near the temple. Now, there were 2 such choultries facing each other, across the road. One was more "up-market" supposedly, while the other was "economy". What I found most interesting was that the Deluxe one was full, while we got acco in the economy one!!

After settling in to the accommodation, we went for a short walk to explore the territory. We found the lovely stream flowing through the town.

As we climbed up a stony path beside the river, we had a lovely view of the falls itself as well as the mountains around, which were dense with scrub jungle, looking green and washed in the rains. We resolved to explore the stream the next morning, as the light was fading.

The spooky ashram in Penchalakona

5:30 pm.
We strolled across to this HUGE, incongruous set of buildings in the middle of the forest area, away from the temple.

We were informed that this was the ashram of Mata Karunamayi, of worlwide fame. Much intrigued, we walked in (after paying a Re 2 entry fee I was told).

The "ashram" had electric wired fences and security cameras staring at us....
Deja vu
"You can check out anytime, but you can never leave
Welcome to the Hotel California!"

Huge statues, a water garden, a bhakta cleaning a room. Lights going off in a meditation room. An edifice built for amma to give darshan.
I wanted to leave in a hurry.

Amma was giving a lecture and darshan in one of the halls. Some of the more curious types decided to go in. The rest of us hung around. Sullen security guards looked at us suspiciously.

A gent strides up and asks where we are from. He's amma's brother. (Business manager?) Talks about the fame of amma - spread far and wide - Atlanta branch - devotees from all over- homams everyday -rooms available - surya namaskarams in the morning - meditation room for spiritual upliftment.

By this time, those who sought darshan have returned agog with excitement. Each with sundal in hand, which was prasadam - very tasty.
"She gave it to us personally"
What did she say, I asked. Oh I dont know, replied one. She read from notes. (What???)

I was completely bemused - you mean people actually fall for this stuff? Here she is, talking about love, brotherhood and sharing, ON FOREST DEPARTMENT LAND? Surreal, clean premises. Poverty and filth outside.
A cocoon of nonsense.

I had had enough. Scooted out into the real world. Aah what a relief to be back in the dirt of Penchalakona town.

Dinner was at one of the three tiffin shops. Raja decided to try his rather meagre Telegu on those who ran the shop, making the owner's daughter giggle with his "ledhus". Can you imagine going into a town like this and asking for oil ledhu dosais?! That's optimism for you, from Raja!

Post-dinner discussions on the ashram went on long and late, with many a spooky story being related by Vijay and Sudhakar of other such experiences! Sheila and I concluded that religion was a good business model these days!

Sunday 28th morning: We set off on our walk upstream, to locate the plunge pool of the falls. With thick undergrowth on either bank, we had to wade upstream for the most part, and after a couple of bends, we left behind traces of the town. I walked with my shoes as I thought it was better to have wet shoes rather than torn soles! A wise decision it was!

It was a rewarding and fulfilling walk, as we clambered over boulders, waded through clear, cool water, ducked under a thin waterfall, while all the time the roar of the falls got louder. With a thin drizzle overhead, there was hardly any birdcall on this walk.
We reached the plunge pool after a while and it was well worth the trouble, to see the water thundering down into the pool and rising in a mist and spray to drench us all. Some of the men “plunged” into the pool, but I didn't take my camera out, as it was raining quite heavily now. The local guide looked worried that the river bed would be unpassable soon.


So, we hurried back, only to find the rain stop when we reached the lower levels! But this meant that we were rewarded with bird activity. Suddenly, the forest was alive with sound, and the members had a good half an hour of sightings – woodpeckers, oriole, sunbirds, babblers and parakeets.

After breakfast, we went for a walk in the scrub jungle around, along with the rain, and saw Acacia, Cassia, Glory Lily and red sanders. Mr Ramakrishna remarked that this was a non-thorny scrub jungle, which is somewhat unusual. There were good specimens of ant nests in the leaves of a mango tree as well.

The Yellow throated bulbul and Shama remained elusive.

After lunch, we proceeded to the Somasila dam, where again the water was full.
The second batch of visitors – Mr Ramachandrandan, Mr Mrityunjay Rao and Mr Ramakrishna – saw all the gates being opened, and water gushing out at great force. They also saw the Penchalakona falls in greater strength, since they stayed an additional night, and therefore caught sight of the falls fed with more rain.

The stream was also full, and so there was no way we could have waded up, the next day.

From Somasila, we continued on to Gudur station, to catch our train back. By now, it was raining hard and the roads through the villages were in a complete mess. Progress was slow, and our initial good cheer slowly changed to mild anxiety about the speed we were travelling at. Anxiety then changed to panic, when we reached a closed railway crossing, and were helplessly stuck.

Our driver made a few calls on his cellphone and then announced that we were not to worry, as the train was running late. Finally, the railway crossing opened and then we were back on the highway! We could see the lights of Gudur in the distance, and we arrived at the station to see our train on the platform already! Yells of "Hurry, hurry!", "Grab your bags", "Move It!", came from the two Qualises as we clambered out. A couple of the travellers had no tickets as yet, but they dashed madly to the counter and did board. Sheila had forgotten her umbrellas in the van! Hats off to Vijay and Sudhakar for ensuring that we all got on, the drivers were phoned and thanked and umbrellas were to follow with Mr Ramakrishna!

All this excitement, made us rather giggly as we settled into our seats.

Flushing snacktrays!

This rather interesting set of instructions to operate the snack tray caught our eye on our return. I never did think it was rocket science to open the tray, but the Railways is obviously not taking any chances.

Given that we had a two hour ride, no reading material with us, and not even a portable DVD player (like our fellow passengers), we occupied ourselves in trying to follow the instructions.
To Open
1. We couldn't "pull the knob" as we were instructed - it just moved left or right like any regular holder.
2. There was no instruction to hold the tray while doing step 1. so the tray banged down on us. So that meant that Step 2 also did not work.

Now we had it open anyway, and very happy too. So we decided to check out the "To Close" instructions.
To our consternation, it was on the underside. What to do? Teamwork was needed. Sekar kept his tray shut, and Raji and I read off his instructions.
Step 1 - that was easy - we just had to hold the tray.
2. Lift it up (yeah, that's fine), and flush it with seat backrest. What?! Raji says," Ay, where's the flush ya?" At that point, the Railways lost us....

While we rolled around in laughter, Sekar says, "Dont laugh, read the warnings in red!"

Oh come on, IR, Indians are smarter than this dont you think?

The hilarity didnt stop there. We reached Basin Bridge on time, and all set to get off shortly, when the train decided to halt there for half an hour or more. When we get the go-ahead to proceed to Central, the display board in the coach lights up.

We are informed that "You are now approaching the centre of your destination. You are travelling at 5.36 kmph." Oh wow, we are all impressed. Of course, the effect had to be spoilt. We ground to a halt, and the board pipes up again, "You have reached your destination. You are travelling at 10.42 kmph."

Since the entire coach was jobless, there was a roar of laughter, with Raja's booming voice leading the pack. I think all our fellow passengers thought we we rather "high spirited"... more light headed I think!

Getting off and further adventures awaited us. It was now POURING! The station was leaking in several places and as we reached the cab stand, there was not a soul in sight. Wading in knee-deep water, we got an omni who for the risk of taking us wanted to be rewarded with Rs 500 for a rip that normally takes Rs 100! We bundled in - there were 6 of us and our bags - and we got home!

So, we lucked out on our trip. A day earlier and we would nt have seen the falls as strong as we did, and a day later and we would have been stuck in Gudur, as the depression strengthened and Madras shut down!