go with willingness. After many twists and thirlling turns to the plot, the penultimate day arrived. The scene was like this, he was on his way to Delhi by the Karnataka Sampark Kranti express and thanks to woeful section controlling, it was more than 90 Mins late, and expected to reach Nizamuddin no earlier than 10:45. And hence I was to book his Tatkal ticket to accompany me to Lucknow the next day. Adithya suggested I try his ticket in the Saharsa Garib Rath, since there were more no. of seats available for Tatkal booking. But as luck would have it, the seats vanished before I could even sneeze, and then I shifted focus to the hero of this story – “Kashi Vishvanath Express” Saharsa Garibrath was the Anti-Hero of course. Be it luck or less demand, even at 12 Mins past 10 AM, seats were available in the Second AC of KV; as Kashi Vishvanath is called. With affirmation I booked his ticket,and it was decided that he would be traveling with me. I had a confirmed ticket in First AC of the same train with my family. The next day we landed in the New Delhi Railway Station at around 11:10, close to 25 Mins before departure time, Adithya speculated that the Garib Rath might have left already. Our Friends Dennis and Aditya Kaushal were there to see us off. It was only then that I checked to find out that the GR had not even reached New Delhi yet. As we kept chit-chatting away with time, Adithya went to talk to the TTE to check if he can join me in HA1 by paying the difference in fare. All was said and done, It was 11:25 Hrs, and we heard announcements of the Garib Rath Express being expected shortly on Platform No.15. We thought our departure would be delayed as the Garib Rath was a high priority train and would mostly be sent out ahead of us.11:35 Hrs, we were still not given the starter. The Kanpur Shatabdi played spoilsport this time, it was received in Platform No. 5 and that meant our switches were blocked till it entered. 11:40 Hrs, our train departed with a jerk, and Adithya as usual started recording the departure. He called me to the door to bid goodbye to friends and as we cautiously negotiated the switches and proceeded towards Shivaji Bridge, we received the shock of our lives, as the Garib Rath was still on Platform No 15 and hadn’t departed as yet. This only meant one thing, an Overtake was inevitable.
As our train cruised past Anand Vihar, Chander Nagar and Sahibabad, I found out that the Garib Rath had departed from NDLS @ 11:55, 45 Mins behind schedule and 15 Mins behind us. Adithya swore that the overtake might happen at Ghazibad itself,since we had a scheduled halt and the Garib Rath had a Non-Stop run till Moradabad Jn. But shocked again, we departed Ghaziabad after our 2 Min commercial halt. Then came our regular RF spots, Mehrauli skipped, Dasna skipped, Pilkuwa – Commercial halt; halted in mainline PF, 2 Mins, departed, all stations with loops were either skipped or we halted in the mainline. The only next possible spot for the inevitable ovetake was Hapur Jn. Being a Jn. and a loop-line halt, both of us assumed that the overtake would happen there mostly. But the GR didn’t manage to shorten the gap between us. In fact it had increased, by the time we departed Hapur, the GR was still in Pilkuwa. After crossing the Dibrugarh Rajdhani in Hapur,we raced towards Garhmukteswar and one by one all our regular RF spots were skipped brutally at MPS - Babugarh, Kuchesar Road, Simbhooli etc. Garhmukteswar city was our next halt, also a loop-line halt. But here too the GR was not close enough for an overtake and hence the controller decided to let us ahead. The Delhi bound Uttarakhand Sampark Kranti crossed us here. We had only 2 halts to go before Moradabad Jn. – Gajraula Jn. and Amroha. The overtake must happen in one of them, if not in any wayside station, for the GR’s very pride was at stake. Imagine, trailing a M/E till almost 150 Km with no halts. Finally, the overtake happened at Amroha. LDH WDM3A stamped its authority at MPS with the 18 coach GR. But the best was yet to come, best for us, worst for the GR. Thanks to some awful section controlling, we managed to catch up with the GR still stranded at Moradabad Jn. Our friend Zahaib who came to meet us, gave us the news that the GR was held up in PF No.4, since some other train had just departed from PF No.1 ahead of us, the same PF No.1 which we had entered. We received a fantastic surprise when we actually were given the starter ahead of the GR; GR Shocked, Controller Rocked.
We charged ahead towards Rampur Jn. Now, this was a first time either of us saw such a thing happening, both shocked and excited, we kept speculating as to where the next Overtake would happen. Despite many loop-line stations en-route, Kashi Vishwanath Express skipped all of them with authority. The new crew were in no mood to slow down and cracked at MPS wherever possible. Despite our 25 Mins delay, the GR was nowhere in sight to overtake us again and increase that delay of ours. Bareilly halt was negotiated at around quarter past 5. After we departed Bareilly; we tracked the GR to find out that it had arrived BE a few minutes after our departure. So we were sure that OT would happen sometime soon. And so it did, in our first commercial halt after Bareilly – Pitambarpur. Close to 7 Mins into our halt, neither the GR appeared nor did we get the starter. Our patient wait reached the 10th minute when the mainline starter and advanced starter went to green in a matter of seconds. The adrenaline rush peaked and our excitement levels knew no bounds. The 2 of us took our positions. And scaring away the un-expecting UR passengers, the rebuilt LDH Diesel Monster hunk once again charged past us at MPS with the Saharsa bound Garib Rath Express, the anti-hero finally had the last laugh, but undoubtedly the hero of this adventure was Kashi Vishwanath Express, which got priority over a premier class train not once but twice in the same route that too. After about 6 Mins of the GR’s re-overtake, we were given the starter, and Adithya and I rejoiced this adventurous ride all the way to Lucknow. It will remain a journey etched in our memory. Hope all of you who read this description find it just as exciting as we did when we experienced it live.
Click Here for HD Video :-
click here