I was on vacation enjoying my stay in Jammu when I got a call from office, mukul you need to report to abc location on Monday. Since it was Friday I thought of booking a ticket by tatkal for Sunday evening. But as luck would have it, even tatkal quota tickets were not available. Thinking about what to do my friend told me about the Gareeb rath which goes from Jammu to Delhi on each Saturday.
My first thoughts on this suggestion were who in this world names a train gareeb rath? Traveling by train is not at all cheap although much less compared to air travel it is still expensive if you want to travel via AC. I cursed my luck as I have to travel in gareeb rath. While booking my ticket I came to know that this gareeb rath is fully AC, no non-AC coaches, and cost of ticket is also significantly less than the ticket in other trains. But still lots of permutations and combinations were going on in my mind about the name, I thought may be the AC will not be that cool or the seating may be incommodious, and the weirdest one which I thought was that may be the train will be full of people whom we consider gareeb or as we say in jammu “BAAGDI (बागडी)”. It was kind of strange and even funny to tell someone that I am going to Delhi by gareeb rath. When anyone asked which train I was taking I said “8 bje wali train ;)”.
Finally I arrived at station, Dad dropped me at the entrance of Rly station and with a feeling of “whats going to happen now” I proceeded. Train was on the platform or as they announced “Delhi jammu gareeb rath is scheduled for departure within 5 minutes”. By its outward appearance it looked more like an army vehicle for its color was green instead of usual brown maroon reddish whatever [PS:I am not color blind], the thing is that it was not the usual color you associate with a train. It didn’t take me long to find my seat. From inside everything was similar to other trains. And I was not able to find any gareeb (present if any) in there. So the train started at right time and I kind of settled into journey mode within few minutes, plugging my headphones to my ears started listening to the music.
As I started feeling sleepy around 10 o’clock I was waiting for the coach helper to deliver me blanket and the bedding. As I looked around I saw a man carrying these things, I was kind of assured that I will soon get it. But it was not to be, a few minutes later I saw another man with these then another and finally a women with blanket and bedding. It was kind of weird, so first thing I did is to send an SMS to the friend who suggested me this train inquiring about this. I got to know that in gareeb rath we don’t get blanket and bedding but we have to get it issued by paying a fee of Rs 25. So I got it issued. So leaving the color of the train and this blanket being issued I didn’t see much of a difference in gareeb rath and other trains.
But this is not any other train it is gareeb rath, as this gareeb rath crossed Jallandar around 12 what happened was kind of first for me in train travel. There was complete blackout in all the coaches of the train and it took 3-4 minutes for power supply to resume, so in a way train did show me that why it is named gareeb rath ;). But in the end I will say that gareeb rath is unlike its name.
My first thoughts on this suggestion were who in this world names a train gareeb rath? Traveling by train is not at all cheap although much less compared to air travel it is still expensive if you want to travel via AC. I cursed my luck as I have to travel in gareeb rath. While booking my ticket I came to know that this gareeb rath is fully AC, no non-AC coaches, and cost of ticket is also significantly less than the ticket in other trains. But still lots of permutations and combinations were going on in my mind about the name, I thought may be the AC will not be that cool or the seating may be incommodious, and the weirdest one which I thought was that may be the train will be full of people whom we consider gareeb or as we say in jammu “BAAGDI (बागडी)”. It was kind of strange and even funny to tell someone that I am going to Delhi by gareeb rath. When anyone asked which train I was taking I said “8 bje wali train ;)”.
Finally I arrived at station, Dad dropped me at the entrance of Rly station and with a feeling of “whats going to happen now” I proceeded. Train was on the platform or as they announced “Delhi jammu gareeb rath is scheduled for departure within 5 minutes”. By its outward appearance it looked more like an army vehicle for its color was green instead of usual brown maroon reddish whatever [PS:I am not color blind], the thing is that it was not the usual color you associate with a train. It didn’t take me long to find my seat. From inside everything was similar to other trains. And I was not able to find any gareeb (present if any) in there. So the train started at right time and I kind of settled into journey mode within few minutes, plugging my headphones to my ears started listening to the music.
As I started feeling sleepy around 10 o’clock I was waiting for the coach helper to deliver me blanket and the bedding. As I looked around I saw a man carrying these things, I was kind of assured that I will soon get it. But it was not to be, a few minutes later I saw another man with these then another and finally a women with blanket and bedding. It was kind of weird, so first thing I did is to send an SMS to the friend who suggested me this train inquiring about this. I got to know that in gareeb rath we don’t get blanket and bedding but we have to get it issued by paying a fee of Rs 25. So I got it issued. So leaving the color of the train and this blanket being issued I didn’t see much of a difference in gareeb rath and other trains.
But this is not any other train it is gareeb rath, as this gareeb rath crossed Jallandar around 12 what happened was kind of first for me in train travel. There was complete blackout in all the coaches of the train and it took 3-4 minutes for power supply to resume, so in a way train did show me that why it is named gareeb rath ;). But in the end I will say that gareeb rath is unlike its name.
8 comments:
Gareeb rath...lol!!!wonder if gareeb aadmi wud b able to afford it....Jai Ho Laalu Bhaiya ki!!!
Who suggested you gareeb rath in the first place .. waise you had ankush sir's company with you??
quite funny...but i m sure that must have been a good experience.Rite?
@Jaunty : yeah thats the real problem..is nt that cheap ;)
@akshat : yep ankush sir made that journey fun :).bore nai hone diya unhone.
@sukriti : ya sis very gud experience..ab se kabhi nai karna travel ismien ;)..
hey so frm now u will be official patron of gareeb raath...lolzz..
i too found name tacky but it wasnt dat bad..
mara went in gareeb raath..but was fyn..
and prices also are substantially less..
so enjoy ur ride om poor cart..alias garreb raath!!!:)
hey!thats soo funny but informative z wel...I m sure many didnt know abt this gareeb rath....yaa the name must have come from lalu uncle only...mamta aunty itni innovative nahi lagti[;)]
@varuna di : yep name is real tacky one which causes a whole lot confusion... :P...and about that patron part...u are an appropriate person kyunki aap sehat se garib ;)
@ happybirdie :yep its lalu's brainchild :D
They should have named it 'bina kambal wala rath'
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