Tata to Howrah via train in 10 hours

Ready with my bags 

1400 hrs am ready to head out to station, when IRCTC informs my train in 2 hours late, reschedule my ride to station by 90minutes n again am informed train late by 180 minutes now, again reschedule my ride n finally at 1700 hr reach station

Train arrives 4 hrs late,  no accountability anywhere.

When I board the coaCh it hashas only 64 seats , n my seat no is 73. 

Seems the chair car wasn't working so they changed n put ac 3 tire coach, 

Ticket Collector in Action

Mercifully ticket collector  arrives n allots a seat in another coach,  i shudder to think how digital india proficient are we , what if there was no human ticket collector?

 

Food for the road

Well so I will reach 4 hr 30 minutes  late, n possibly might have to wait for cab at kol Stn, I pump myself with cofee n bhujia to keep my tummy quiet, am used to snacks in eve, nothing healthy that railways serve. While my seatmate blasts hindi songs  to keep himself sane I presume.

Samosa being served Rs 20 / plate

 Can't trust any food that is being served by IRC caterers, so junk packaged food it is for me. Or abstained from eating as I am recovering from a stomach bug n had been living on , green beans, bread, rice , boiled potatoes, n curd for last 3-4 days. Ewwww did you say!

We pay premium rates for travel n get taken for a ride by the government, if you Dear govt  can't run rAilways why not sell it off.  N privatize it since govt machinery has failed to do its bit.   I am still getting messages how the train is 3 hrs late while IRC app shows its 4 hr 4 min late, make up your mind IRCtc

There's a good effort to keep things clean by railways n guys are hardworking on that front carrying garbage bags n picking up trash,  guess this is employment generator too, lazy indians can't use a trashcAn on there own so we hire a bunch of people to carry plastic bags eh

Satragachi, another 20 Km to go 

We are at satragachi at 2230 hrs unlike .  1815, as promised by irctc.  Let's see how much longer to howrah?  So near yet far, so  far.

Got lucky with a cab, n reached home by 1145  

Day one done

Howrah station at night

You will get there eventually

#siberia, #howrahstation #travelindia #tatahowrah #irctc #lifeinIndia #rajatghosh

day 2 and final day , before we start back

16^th May in Patna

We stared the day late, it was 830 before we were all ready and moved out by 0900 hours, Sager and Murtuza of BRS was there to take us for breakfast we hogged on Sandwich, kachori, lassi and jalebi, we were so stuffed after 3 lassi each, we took a break by the Gandhi maiden, and admired the artwork all around the places, Madhubani paintings adorned most of the walls and we had a good time walking around in spite of the heat before we set off for the day

The agenda was Gurudwara hopping

We set off to visit Guru ka bagh,

While we were on the way we started to cross Bihar museum to be precise and we could not pass it by, so we did make yourself culturally rich for 2 hours in the museum along with Sagar of Brs, before we met with Vikas Mehra, who accompanied us to the gurudwara Handi Sahib, I had langar for the first time, interesting they served Khichiri , and it seems that hey don’t serve Kichiri normally, and Kichiri is one of my favorite

The story here is : -

Where Guru Gobind Singh Ji And His Hundreds of Followers took Langar, From one small clay pitcher in the hut at the age of sixGurdwara Handi Sahib - Danapur is a cantonment station, 20 kilometres west of old Patna City. Guru Tegh Bahadur had returned to Punjab in April 1670 leaving his family behind at Patna. It was only after he had been at Kiratpur and Chakk Nanaki for a few months that he sent for the rest of the family to return. The family after leaving Patna Sahib made their first halt here. An old lady named Mai Pardhani served a kettleful (handi) of khichari (rice and lentils) to them after which the shrine subsequently built here was named as Handiwali Sangat, which is now called Gurdwara handi Sahib. It is housed in a small hall with verandah on three sides and a small brick-paved walled compound in front on the bank of a seasonal stream, Son Nadi.

This Gurudwara was built in the memory of Shri Guru Teg Bahadur Ji. As in 1728 Bala Preetam Ji with Mata Gujri and his family walked from Patna Sahib to Anandpur Sahib then Patna residents accompanied Shri Guru Gobind Singh Ji to see off him. At that time Guru Ji was 5.2 years old. People walked about 12 miles and reached Danapur. It was night time. Sangat of Danapur gave them a warm welcome and entertained them. An old lady whose name was Mata Jasni cooked Khichdi for Guru Ji with love & affection and put the pot(Haandi) of khichdi before Satguru Ji and requested him to eat. Seeing all this Satguru Ji impressed with her. Satguru Ji ate the khichdi and also served khichdi to the Sangat. Jasni Mai requested him to always be here. Then Satguru Ji said, so long khichdi would be cooked in that Handi and would be served to sangat, you would feel my presence here. Fortunate Mata followed the Guru ji's words and converted her house to a Dharamshala. She kept cooking the khichdi in that Handi and kept serving to sangat. So this place is known as Haandi Sahib

( source:  sikhiwiki)

Next stop, Guru Da bagh, and boy the way was quiet a experience Google took us into fields and slums and roads barely wide for one car to go through, we prayed no car came from the other side or we would be stuck, backing would be a scene too,  

The story here is:

The holy visit of Guru Tegh Bahadur turned the dry and deserted garden into greenery. As this incident was reported to Muslim brothers they reached to see the revered Guru and their garden along with their courtiers. Guru Tegh Bahadur asked three times the nawab brothers about the ownership of the garden. The nawab brothers decided to donate it in the name of Guru as it was turned green because of holy and pious visit of Gurujee. They submissively requested to accept their little offer of the garden. It is about 4 kms from the Takhat Patna Saheb on Patna-Fatwah Road.

At present this garden is popularly known as "Gurudwara Guru Ka Bagh". There is a Sarowar and beautiful gurudwara. It was the place where Guru Tegh Bahadur met his son for the first time.

And then we found our way to Kangan Ghat and

Finally Gaughat,

It was almost 0700hours before we managed to find a spot where we could get ready for the evening and go meet up with the bride to be harsha

 and spend the evening making merry well into the night , almost till 2330 hours

 and then we were on our way once again, we descided to start off at night itself to avoid traffic and hopefully we would be back in Jsr by 1000 hours

we were once more accompanied to almost 60 km out of the city by some of the BRS guys and we sat around and chatted till almost 0200 hours , before we could start back on our trip

what a great 48 hours it had indeed been, 

sorry to say though  Hotel Panchwati where most buses stop, folks get a bite, the toilets here are so dirty,  All disease that exist can be found in these bathrooms, Though I wonder who to blame the passengers who are forced to use these unhygienic bathrooms, or are the hotel owners who are only interested in profits alone or is there a 3^rd front I know not about.

 

Travelling to Patna, a friend is getting married

 

The Gurudwara we visited at Night in Patna

15th may I am off to a wedding of a friend - harsha Mishra , a daughter of a priest from Patna with a streak of adventure in her, and her family encouraged her,so happy for her lifestyle, yes she is getting married a tad early , but then am sure it is for the better, we had met and spend a evening together, 5 months back, she was just 18 at that time, and we had a meal and shared some press together and today 6 months later I along with 3 of my biker friends are off to Patna, 486 KM approx. each way to attend her wedding and watch her get married and start a new phase of life.

It was s spontaneous decision to attend the wedding and it was a great decision for sure in hindsight,

15^th morning we were to start at 0600 hours and I was ready by 0615, but the Travel Gods had other plans and we were on our way by 0730 hours,

It was a pleasant day, temperature was 29 degrees, and we were at Chowka, We fueled up, 45 liters of fuel and odometer reading was 25417, we were on our way, the clock read 0800,  our next stop was at MAA hotel, along the highway for breakfast of, Dosa, Tadkka Roti, Cofee , the hotel is at Tamarh, near Deori temple

foods ok, slightly pricey for a dhaba but, BUT for the female travellers good news, the bathroom are good and very usable,

And the security guard who helps Folks Park is a hoot to watch a he goes about flagging down cars for a meal

We were at Ranchi by 1025 hours and had covered  almost  130 km by mid morning,

A few more hours on the road, was a pleasant drive and we made good time, as the car raced along the highway, 

 The roads were mostly good and while on ramgarh Ghat roads we stopped, for sugarcane juice along the roadside, a pleasant exchange of body fluids in the summer day, with temperatures being at 37 degrees centigrade by now.

Suger cane juice stop

A few hours later we were at Jhumritillaya, and was met by a rider Sameer Ahmed who was waiting for us on the highway how nice of him, 

lassi time

 some chit later we indulged in having some yummylicious Lassi and reminiscing rides we had done together a few years back, it was a pleasure to relax and catch up on where some of our friends are and then we were on our way once more headed towards Barhai, reroute to Patna

We reached Barhai at 1350 hours , not really hungry we still had a few bites of Bihar local food Litti, on the highway as we waited and met up with Devraj another friend and once we managed to locate him, we convinced him to accompany us to Patna and now we were 5 as we drove on towards Patna. The Road from Barhai to Bihar Sharif are still single lane, and traffic a nightmare I pity those who live along the road, am sure there are fatalities galore for it is so easy for a small child to venture out on to the road, and is a wonder that so many people still live there without getting hit every few minutes.

Google Live location feature had allowed us to be located by Kodarma Rider Sameer Ahmed and now it was once more helping the BRS guys in Patna to monitor our progress as we made our way towards Bihar Sharif, the idea was to meet near Biharsharif and then we would travel into the city together.

Meeting with Brs riders, Sagar and sagar 

our path today

 Harsha Mishra, the bride to be is a rider and also a member of BRS, they Patna riders wanted to ride out, 40 off KM to meet and greet us, and help us navigate our way to Patna city where we would be staying for the night, near the venue of the wedding  it was 1930 hours 

we pulled into Patna Bal sahib Gurudwara finally what a magnificent view to end the day, we planned to stay here overnight 

Patna Sahib 

but then Our Brothers from BRS had other plans 

and we had a wonderful Biryani dinner

The food 

and were wished away to Hotel Ajit in Center of the city where more riders were waiting to meet up with us, 

All of us pose to end the day

Tommorow would be the marriage , it was 1200 hours by the time we said good bye and Looking forward to another day with BRS Biker brothers
#brs #rkmc #patna #tata #bikerbrothers #travel

 

The country as is

The street dwellers

The simple life, living on the footpath, the common man/ women is happy and the country seems to be for them, you develop and then start getting heartburn every time the country fails you.

The GAME of THRONES are on and 23^rd it will be start of Mahem, and these folks will be choosing the kingsmen

14^th May,

once more on a train and once again the train was 25 minutes late on a ride that was 240 minutes long, we live in hope that the country will run a train on time some day ,   and not just Ipad wielding Ticket collectors this is the vision of the citizens of this country

this was the 4^th ride that was late this year

previous ones that were late details are :

10 may train was 20 minutes late

06 APRIL TRAIN WAS 45v minutes late