My experience on an IRCTC tour to sacred Hindu cities of Prayag, Kashi, Gaya and Ayodhya

Having a whale of a time

As a child, I had read the Hindu mythological stories and I had been fascinated by the descriptions of good and evil and finally how good always triumphs over evil. The avatars of the Gods and their favorite places have been on my mind ever since. When these stories were brought to life on TV, my fascination only increased tenfold. I had promised myself a trip to some of these places almost 25 years ago but I could never make it due to some issue or another. I was almost about to give up hope when lo and behold, my friend Hetal asked me if I would like to go on a tour of some of sacred Hindu cities with her and that too in a couple of days.
I could not believe it! You chase something for years and it never materializes and then when you are almost on the verge of giving up, you find that chance right before you. I was not going to lose this opportunity for sure.
Without even a moment of hesitation, I said yes.

Well, after the details of the journey came through, my confidence started slipping.... no, eroding by the second. First, the entire tour of 8 days was on a train and that too non-AC. I haven't travelled much less lived in trains since 1992. The May heat was sure to kill me if not for the food in the train which I had heard horror stories about. But, this trip was very important to me and I didn't know when a chance with ALL my criteria would be met; I mean, it had not materialized in 25 years until now, right? I decided to rid my mind of negative thoughts and worked on these words - "What does not kill you would only make you stronger".

I boarded the IRCTC Tourism Bharat Darshan train from Pune along with Hetal. She told me that she had been equally skeptical at first but she had been determined to see the tour through; she has guts of steel so, that's hardly surprising. The announcement for the train came about half hour before the scheduled time and we rushed to the platform where the train was scheduled to come; we were quite amazed at Indian Railways train arriving earlier than scheduled. Soon the amazement became disappointment since the train arrived almost 40 minutes after the scheduled time & departed almost an hour later than the scheduled departure time. By this time, we had settled into our seats and we were quite sleepy too because it was the wee hours of morning. The seats were comfortable and since it was night time, we did not feel the heat as such. So, we decided to catch-up on our sleep and since the next day was to be spent in the train itself, we could sleep in till whatever time possible.

I got up groggy and looked at my watch. It was just 5:00 a.m. and I had been asleep for less than 3 hours. As I was wondering what had woke me up, some guy in uniform turned up in front of me with a smile and a cup of hot tea. As I was reaching out for my bag to pay him, he said with his smile not leaving his face that food is included in the trip. Oh ok! Now, I had very low expectations of the quality of tea but I was in for a surprise - the tea was sweet and had this strong flavor of cardamoms. Hetal & I looked at each other in surprise and amazement. Since our expectations bar had been raised, we forgot how sleepy we were and kept watch for 1 more cup of hot tea; such was our greed. We did not get tea but got breakfast instead.... at 5:30 a.m. with a smile. Smile or not, who has breakfast at 5:30 a.m. that too on a holiday? Not me, for sure! From the looks of it, most of the others were not expecting this either. When the guy in uniform asked me if there was a problem with the breakfast with a look of concern filling in where a smile was lingering before, Hetal & I smiled back and started eating. Thereafter, we could not sleep because people were boarding and this continued to well about 10:30 a.m. Suddenly, the loudspeaker blared and the tour manager started with his welcome speech and told us that each coach would be handled by a different escort manager. No sooner had he said this, our escort manager materialized in front of us; a rather cute very very young guy. Hetal & I muttered to each other whether he was fresh out of school or something. He also had a smile on his face and we commented as to whether these men in railway uniform had been given drugs or what; I mean who can hold a smile that long, right? So, Mr. Cute Verrrry Verrrry Young Guy introduced himself as Ankit & said that he would help us whenever required and that lunch would be served shortly.
We looked at each other and at our watches in quick intervals. Lunch at 10:30 a.m.; who are these people ever smiling and giving us food at odd times?
The lady seated across from us told us that she had done multiple IRCTC tours with her family and such were the practices followed during trips. We wondered as to why nobody complained before but she was patient in explaining to us that the coaches were served one at a time, so serving so many coaches and finishing by 1 p.m. required the Railways to start early.

Hot Lunch on train

We had raised the expectations bar ever so slightly after the tea & breakfast experience but when lunch was served, we forgot that it was just 11 a.m. Because, lunch was simple but very hot and there is nothing more tasty than having warm daal, rice and curry. Icing on the cake was the fryums.... the guy in uniform did not mind giving me 3 helpings of fryums... with a smile. I was soooo overwhelmed and when I thought I could take no more, the guy who was serving us water asked us if we had empty bottles that he could then fill for us. Double wowwww!!!! At home, I have to do the cooking, setting up by myself and by the time, I actually sit down, food is cold and I have forgotten my water. Here, I was being handed hot food, cold water and more for the road. Since the food was simple, and the heat was killing, I actually went off to sleep in the afternoon... I almost never do that. But not before we tried an experiment that our tour veteran told us; we soaked some towels in water and tied it across the windows and it kept out the heat for some time. I woke up refreshed after 3 hours by which time the previously soaked towels had become stiff and dry. Then Hetal and I decided to get to know the others seated around us. 1 glaring thing was that most of the people on the tour were much older than us; obviously I am excluding the guys in railway uniform. They looked at us with equal curiosity; some even commented that we were doing this trip a tad too early. I wanted to tell them I was almost 25 years late for this trip but who argues with sweet old people? Besides, I had them giving me some awesome homemade stuff to eat and inquiring about my health throughout the trip; Hetal was quite miffed that she was excluded from all these sweet things. It must be my face; I do have one of those 'pooooor lil girl' or 'pavum' faces, I think.

Dinner was just like lunch; served early but hot with a smile. By this time, my iPhone battery was almost on the verge of nil. There was 1 plug point for about 60 passengers on that coach. In this age of mobile phones being your shadow, the Railways need to step up and provide more charging points especially since the bulk of the tour is spent in the train. Tempers were flaring but died down after a while... or maybe I did not hear them because I fell asleep thinking I would charge it in the morning at our place of accommodation.

Allahabad Selfie

We landed in Allahabad City Railway Station and were asked to just carry 1 spare set of clothes for the day and keep the rest of our luggage in the train itself. When we reached our accommodation / dharamashala, my heart plummeted to the ground. The dharamshala was like a haphazard house which seemed to spill out everywhere. Narrow steps led to the top floors. I was almost afraid of a stampede considering that there were about 350 people in that meager space. By the time, Hetal & I overcame our trepidation and ventured to look for bathrooms, we were shocked some more to see people crammed into queues to use the bathroom facilities. We were about 30-35 people behind; a bath to become human again seemed more like a dream. What was worse was that water was not available due to some fault in the pumps. It was almost like we were being tested for our endurance. Suddenly, some people got an idea that when they could all take a dip in the holy waters of the Ganga without much of a queue, they should not be here waiting. Within minutes, the crowd dispersed and we were catapulted to the front of the now empty line. I had a very nice bath after the pump was repaired as did Hetal. Once we felt human again, we were suitably energized to tour Allahabad.

Allahabad Tour: Click for details 

Hetal & her 'paan'

As we settled into our train again, Hetal & I talked to each other about what we liked in Allahabad. Hetal liked the paan that she bought just outside our dharamasala before we toured Allahabad. I remembered how nice some of the locals had been. For example, we got into a cafe to have some coffee and refreshments and the owner was so nice to us; he even recommended the stops that we should definitely make - Chandrasekar Azad Park / Maidan, Khusrau Bagh and even told us the shortest way to get there. The guy who served us coffee even told us to give him empty bottles so that he could fill them with cold drinking water. The coffee and the hospitality was so awesome that we stopped there once again after Khusrau Bagh for another cup of that refreshing coffee. We did feel a wee bit threatened at Khusrau Bagh near the three mausoleums but it could have been curiosity of those guys too. Tip: If you feel even a slight bit threatened or you are outnumbered by the guys lounging there, wait for families to turn up before venturing in; its better to be wrong yet safe than be sorry.

Amber Cafe - What a coffee!

The heat had drained us out still we were better off than many other people on the train who were suffering from the effects of heat and in some cases food too. Tip: Keep your head well-covered in the sun and sip water or fluids every half hour. Take a cloth and dip it in cold water and tie it around your water bottle so that the water does not become warm before your have a chance to finish it.
I slept like a log and woke up to us reaching the most sacred city in Hindu religion - Kashi. Even though, the Dharamashala here also left a lot to be desired, it did not matter much because we spent most of the day and night outdoors.

Kashi Selfie

Kashi Tour: Click for details

While recounting the events of the day, both of us had one common complaint. Some of the people on the train wasted such a lot of water, washing all their clothes and bathing in running water. It was a stark contrast to some of those districts in Maharashtra that we had passed on our journey here where water could not be found for miles. I even thought that many of these passengers had the brainwave of getting not only themselves purified in the waters of the Ganga but also their clothes; such frenzied washing was what we witnessed. Absolutely crazy!
I dreamed about Kashi most of the night; it is such a magical place. Even with the goats and cows at almost every step; let them pass you please. I had this experience of cows and goats shaking their head at me while passing me... I could not find out what they had wanted from me; maybe they were warning me about something. This was one of the things I dreamed about that night - goats and cows running after me shaking their heads. Nevertheless, I had a restful night.

Gaya Selfie

The next morning, we were at Gaya Railway Station. It was announced that the people from all other coaches would go to one Dharamashala and the passengers on our coach would go to another. The passengers on our coach were quite happy to have been given this deal because it would mean less crowding. I was very skeptical because of the experience of the previous dharamashalas and then, I was horrified because the interior of the dharamashala was not even cleaned; there was dust all around and the toilets were absolutely hopeless in that they were dark and smelly. Hetal & I were almost finalizing an OYO room when it was declared that we would go the dharamasala that the passengers from other coaches had been taken to. When we reached there however, all the good rooms / dorms were taken and we got the unfinished, haphazardly cemented top floor. We were almost at the end of our tether and in a bit of a dilemma whether we should book that hotel room or not. But that would mean, we would get separated from our coach members and quite frankly that looked to be a daunting thought in Bihar.

Gaya Tour: Click for details

Gamcha-clad men outside unfinished houses

We found that guys typically wore these pajamas-banians (vest) and a 'gamcha' (like a neck-scarf) and the women wore their 'ghoonghat' (sari draped like a scarf on the head) right up to their noses. I followed this too because I found it quite effective to keep out the sun, you see.
We flipped over their sing-song way of explaining the directions to us in Hindi though we had to follow the direction of their hands to a 'T' too - "Aage jaake waha (shown by gestures only) dhal jaeega" and the like.
Gosh! it was like those Hindi movies live, up close & personal.

Gaya Dharmashala

We stayed back in that dharamashala that night but it was not as bad as we had initially thought. This despite the fact that for the first time in my entire life, I slept on a cement floor with some other members of our coach in a sequence. We take so many things for granted; it is times like these that we realize the true worth of those things. Hetal & the rest of them could not sleep because mosquitoes made mincemeat of them; surprisingly they left me alone and so, I slept quite well. One more thing that wrecked havoc on them was the fact that most of the time, there was no electricity; I slept through that too.
Tips: You should carry Odomos for protecting yourself from mosquitoes, a fan to give yourself a break from the heat and a Power Bank to charge up your electronic goods like phones and cameras.

Ayodhya Selfie

One more first for me was squatting in the railway station; you see, my legs were almost asleep from all the walking, the seats on the platform were taken and I was at a point beyond caring. Once you get over that thought of people staring at you, it is really ok; I was not the only one anyway.... most of the passengers were doing the exact same thing.



Last city was Ayodhya and this time the Dharamashala was far better than any of the previous ones at least for me.

Ayodhya Tour: Click for details

The Ram Temple dispute was a big topic of discussion in the train - even though there were different streams of thought, one common thread that I found was that everybody wanted peace and absolutely no further bloodshed. The next day again, we were totally train-bound as we traveled back to Pune. The tour was coming to a close. There were people upset with each other through this journey of 8 days and last day seemed to be a good time to hash it out. Hetal & I being peace-loving creatures did not indulge in taking sides or anything. We just spent our time between charging our phone (yes, we found out on the last day, that there are FEW coaches where there are 4 charging points per aisle), updating our contact lists with our new found friends and sending out

With our new friends!

pictures of the tour taken on our phones. Much better use of our time!
We were to reach Pune at 4:00 a.m. but as per the new schedule, we would reach only by 12:30 p.m. My trip to Mumbai would place me home late in the evening only. I was so sad; then a brainwave hit. We had to cross Mumbai on our way to Pune and my wonderful luck and grace of God continued because of which we reached Kalyan Jn. by 5:14 a.m. I was home by 7:12 a.m. Hetal reached Pune station after 1:30 p.m. and home well after 2:30 p.m. Imagine the kind of mood she was in!

Overall, I had a whale of a time despite the difficult circumstances sometimes but there were much more situations which far exceeded my expectations. I thank my friend Hetal from the bottom of my heart for being instrumental in the realization of my dream; without her, it would not have been possible.

What a trip!!!!!

My advice: If you have a dream, don't lose sight of it because you don't know when you may get a chance to realize it. Once you get that chance, hang on to it. Maybe there will be some extreme situation and maybe not... whatever happens, at the end you will be glad that you took that chance!
Happy Touring!