Pages from My Diary (13 August 2004)

On our onward journey to Goa... 'Masterminds of KCT' as we called ourselves, the 2001-2005 ECE batch of KCT...


The sky was still dark and calm. Our cell phone was changing towers every ten seconds. West coast express from Coimbatore finally rested and observed silence after about ten hours of hard work, on the railway platforms of Mangalore. Our classmates got down the train, most of them still half asleep. I was then enjoying the chill breeze that swept the station. I went down the platform in search of a coffee shop and finally found one. Coffee was served in stainless steel cups in the traditional way. Our onward journey train berthed in the same platform, but on the other side. Sipping my coffee, I saw a group of people towing a huge trolley carrying mail bags to Goa and loading the gunny bags in the brake van of the train. The city was experiencing its doses of south west monsoon showers. Our train was also drenched in rain. We all somehow managed to settle inside the train.

The WC express was then towed to the railway garage. Along with some of my friends, I admired the huge diesel engine of our train KR-2, comprising V-type configured engine and a huge radiator. The engineers were checking the diesel level, oil level of each engine, air pressure level of the hydraulic brake piston, and several other parameters. The train started off, with a cloud of black smoke slowly vanishing into air. Leaning out, I didn’t express much enthusiasm for the first ten minutes, until the train encountered a tunnel. Many of my friends then wanted to share the doorway, to enjoy the nature. As an ardent lover of nature, I decided to shift my compartment. Till Udupi, I was in that compartment and observed many things.

The golden fields were flooded with water and were shining in the morning sun. The moist rocks too were golden in color, reflecting the energy of the sun. The entire route to Goa was a blend of nature and man made tunnels. Even there was provision for the water to drain via guiding streams along the entire railway track. With very brief stops, the train proceeded on its way. I was longing for my next cup of coffee, when the train stopped in suratkal station. But I didn’t want to get out of the coach, I just drank some water and noted down these events in a bit of paper. Finally I got a fellow passenger in that deserted coach, he was venkatesh, working as a coffee boy on that route. To my astonishment, he was from Madurai. Sipping my next cup of coffee, our train was entering a tunnel, perhaps a long one that lasted for about five minutes. While we were chatting, I came to know that the river which we crossed was nethravathi. Meanwhile we were crossing a tributary ‘Padu river’ with a sole canoe tied to a coconut tree swaying to its flow. At Udupi venki got down and I too came back to my compartment.

The sky was playing with its tricks on us. To our right, the sky was bright, but was gloomy to our left with rainy clouds. I was astonished by this sight, that rain started to approach our train from the left. In fact we could see the rain chasing us. The train was progressing in a constant pace not disturbed by the tricks of rain. Soon it started raining and the entire area was dark, as if it was six or seven in the evening. I looked at my watch which figured the time to be 8.45 a.m. The rains became heavy and visibility was reduced to less than a feet. Plains, river, rocks, tunnels, plains, rivers…Brrrrrrr. I fell asleep.

I woke up at Nirjur station and I stepped out to wash my face. My vision caught the sight of a tribal lady selling jasmine garlanded in a different fashion that we normally used to see here in Coimbatore. The sun was scorching now and I could spot some rare kind of birds. Two varieties of parrots, cuckoos, and three varieties of kingfisher and many more were spotted. I felt hungry and ate a sandwich of bread and an omelet hastily. After kumta station the scenery was not much pleasing, the roads met the rail often below the tracks. We were too tired of the journey. After Kumta it was Gokarna road, Karwar and CanaCona and finally Madagoan station. The nine hour feast was over and we were in Goa finally, but the Konkan coast experience was really a memorable one

(Early morning, 13th August 2004)