Train No. 6517 Mangalore Express

Travelling is such an inevitable part of life on Earth. Imagine life without wheels... Isn't that hard?

Bengalooru and Mangalooru are two of the most important cities in South India and unfortunately were not connected by rail for the past 12 years. Reason being political bureaucracy. Let it aside, the green flag was finally waved in December 2007, for the Mangalore-Bangalore Express train.

Having spent my life in both these cities from birth, i am a regular commuter on the National Highway 48. It was only 12 years back that I did travel by train and of-late I had forgotten even the feel of a train journey. Ever since the train services resumed operations, I was waiting for my first journey after the huge break and the experience was different and quite interesting than the 40 seater bus journey. I usually choose the Rajahamsa/Airavatha class of buses where I see only a decent polished crowd. That's what sounded most different to me, as there are people from all walks of life and all possible social and economic background, rather less polished crowd than you see in the bus. Moreover people sit face to face and easily tend to talk to each other, starting with an introduction the conversations went to all possible aspects of life. Unfortunately there were 4 ladies in the compartment I was traveling and their discussions seemed really weird. Starting with as trivial a topic on how to bathe their kid up to which is the best bank to open a Savings account. And there was no one who agreed upon another's opinion. Very strong ego problems there ! I had to stay all to myself as a silent listener, though pretending to be deeply engrossed in reading a magazine that I had in hand.

I thankfully managed to doze off not more than one hour of getting into the train and woke up to the Mangalore weather the next morning. It was definitely a comfortable journey as compared to the bus but isn't worth spending 12.5 hrs on a 503 km long rail journey while you can reach your destination well within 10 hrs for a 360 km journey on road.