Chariots of Poor

Shatabdi got a poorer country cousin of sorts in Jan Shatabdi. Rajdhani was left in the lurch - until this year. Only, the name seems to suggest that the Capital trains are yet to been meted out with equal treatment. The new trains aren't Jan Rajdhanis - they're Garib Raths.

Yes. Not Jan Rajdhanis. Not Lok Raths. Not any form of Kranti. GARIB RATH.

A friend of mine, aptly named Now, suggested it as a means of striking the ideal balance between saving time as well as money. Plus these trains, at least on the Mumbai-Delhi route, are known for having TTEs willing to bend rules to a much larger extent than rubberbandily possible.

Yet another friend's parents reported cockroaches on a Delhi-originating Punjab-bound variant of the same train.

The Mumbai-Delhi "Chariot" splits the 2 Rajdhanis as far as timing is concerned, but departs from Bandra Terminus instead of the usual Mumbai Central (station code BCT; BDTS doesn't drive home any point whatsoever).

Now, BDTS is touted to be the next state-of-the-art railway terminal, and in its current state (which has been dormant for atleast 3 years) it totally justifies its label.

* The approach - a perennially (no - not seasonal) potholed, (apparently) metalled, single-lane (at times, half of it each way), (hardly) motorable, er, road off the Western Express Highway, through some of the dirtiest slums of Bandra-E, typical of neighbouring Dharavi - rivals even the slum-infested descent into the international airport.

* There is enormous total of 3 platforms. One of those isn't even an originating one - and its approach (from BCT) is a single line (no up or down). Travel in Swaraj Express any one morning and grab the sticky moss and other random filth on the walls of the Dharavi slums on its either side - it's quite an experience.

* The highly intuitive and passenger-friendly amenities are next only to the ones offered at one of those stations with unpronounceable names in the rural innards of this vast country - I think there is a ticket counter at the far-end of the station. You might have to cross a track or two though. There's also an airportesque waiting lounge with no visible entry.

Quit cribby digression. "Chariot" arrives in typical war fashion - a typically lethargic underpowered diesel engine pulled in the green-and-cream bogies slowly and steadily, and suprisingly well ahead of its scheduled departure.

Classes {approx. prices in INR for Delhi-Mumbai; 1388 kms}:

* AC Sleeper (G; 650) - the Garib version of AC 3-tier sleeper (AS; 1150); a truer AC version of Sleeper (S; 450)

* AC Sitting (J; 550) - the Garib version of AC Chair Car (CC; NA); a truer AC version of Second Sitting (II; NI)

I hope you can recall the IInd class compartments from some short distance journey (Delhi-Agra or Mumbai-Pune; hope that was before you started acting all snobby) - pefectly right-angled seats; 3x3 facing each other; a 3rd set of doors down the centre of the compartment; 4 Indian-style toilets. Now imagine them not facing each other; cushioned seats; air-conditioning but no curtains on the windows, with hardly any space in the loft to hold luggage. Top it all off with amazingly scant space; leg-wise, hip-worse. It's 17 closely packed rows with no arm-rests or head-rests, missing foot-rests, broken bottle-holders (in spite of these coaches being brand-new and otherwise very clean), inelastic book-holders, etc. etc.

But the joint cake-takers are:

* the food-tray and the related instructions ("tray kholne ke liye knob kisi bhi disha mein ghumaye and tray neeche ki taraf kheeche ... band karne ke liye tray to backrest se lagaye aur knob to niche ki taraf kheeche")

* the whistling hawaldar and his highly enlightening security drill ("anjaan vyakti se khaane ka koi vastu lenge toh" *impersonates instant death due to poisoning before making sure every other person benefitted from his instructions*)

As I mentioned before, Now had also told me that the rules formulated for these "Chariots" are meant for the weak, and indeed the poor. A spare 200 bucks for the overtly co-operative TTEs can confirm a wait-listed sleeper ticket; 150, an upgrade from Sitting to Sleeper. But first - people whom these rules are meant for.Me using my laptop caused a considerable stir of the excited kind among the people seated just behind me. Me packing up my laptop and standing outside caused a grander stir, this time of the skeptical kind. The terror-suspect that was me managed to convince the gentlemen who then became a tad too relaxed - they kept pestering me for my laptop, among other things. "thoda timepass ho jayega. hum laana bhool gaye. aata hai chalana. aapne tees hazaar mein liya? bahut mehenga hai. bees mein badiya aa jaata hai"

My next visit outside was more successful. I was led to a TTE-special half-coach, where each 3-seat segment was to act as a berth Vadodra-onwards. The non-allocation of 2 seats cost just 100 bucks, and though a berth would have been infinitely more convenient, well, three seats are better than one. Here the crowd was mainly those whom rules weren't meant for, implying (finally) a relaxed atmosphere for on-train digital entertainment. Crash. The Clash - London Calling. Calling Elvis (Dire Straits). Holden Caulfield; The Catcher in the Rye (Ok that last one was the odd one out).

Sleep wasn't sound - better safe than sorry wrt luggage and Charioteers. Train was, unlike Now's prediction, late by an hour and a half. But it was alright - it pulled in ahead of the August Kranti Rajdhani.