The big race against time . . .

He hurriedly looked at his wrist watch as he got out of the Auto at the Nizamabad railway station. 06:09 P.M. it read. Barely 6 minutes for the Nizamabad Vizag express to depart.

“I have arrived just in time”, he thought as he paid the auto driver and made his way to the ticket counter. He had nothing more than a backpack, and so it wasn’t a big problem for him to make way through the crowd. The Public Address systems at the railway station were repeatedly making announcements that the train would depart from Platform No.2 in three different languages.

He quickly reached the ticketing counter in less than a minute, but was shocked to see the queue today. “It never is this crowded at this time of day”, he said to himself. He tried to recollect if it was a weekend or a festival season, but failed to answer in the affirmative. The heat was also sweltering and there were atleast 25-30 people standing in the two different queues in front of him. He tried to stand in the shorter of the queues and reached out to his wallet for the exact change. Saving a couple of seconds would be very crucial in determining if he would be able to take the train or not.

The Nizamabad Vizag Express was newly added and ran only on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. He used to come to Nizamabad frequently on his official visits and generally used to take the daily passenger that runs between Secunderabad and Nanded. The journey used to take a painful four and a half hours for the 160 kms. He almost always used to have one day trips and hence leave from Hyderabad in the morning and reach back at night. The passenger, required him to leave from Hyderabad at 7:20 A.M. in the morning and again take the train at Nizamabad at 5:10 P.M. in the evening. This effectively used to give him only around 5 hours at Nizamabad and used to be pretty hectic on his schedule. The Express, on the other hand was a super fast train and used to cover the 160 kms in just about 3 hrs. So the introduction of this train, was a great benefit to people like him, as it gave them an additional one hour at Nizamabad and also ensured that they reach Hyderabad before the other train.

The platform No. 2 was on the other side of the station and he had to take the foot over bridge to reach the other side. On a normal day, he would have had the choice of crossing over to the other side over the tracks. But today, the train was already on the platform, and from where he was currently standing, he could vaguely see a train arriving on Platform No. 1 as well. He looked around for the digital indicators and saw the Devagiri Express between Secunderabad and Mumbai arriving on that platform. PA systems also started making announcements.

“Ah, now I know the reason behind the sudden rush today”, he said to himself. The heat was killing and he was getting frustrated. The other queue seemed to be moving faster, and in his queue, only 10 people appeared to have got the tickets in the last two minutes. He looked at the watch again.

6:13 P.M

He was thinking about the station, its architecture and all other obstacles that he will have to go through, once he got the tickets, in order to be able to catch the train. He mentally picturised the book vendor on his cart, the bunch of children drinking fruit juice at the nearby stall, the TTE of the train just arrived in an animated discussion with the Station Master and so on. He was also wondering which side of the overbridge to get down from. Whether to go right or to go left. He decided to leave it on his instincts at that point of time, depending on the conditions that exist then.

As he was still thinking, the PA system made the final announcement for the departure of his train. He was still two people away from the counter. He had almost lost his cool now. If he missed this train, the alternative would be to go by road on Govt. buses, and a painful five and a half hours, once he got the bus. He felt tremors at the thoughts of travelling by road. By then, his turn at the counter had arrived.

“Secunderabad”, he said.

“Rs 73”, said the voice on the other side.

He had only Rs.56, in exact change. Suddenly it flashed to him that he would be travelling in a Superfast train and not a passenger. He took out his wallet and gave the remaining change. By then, the crowd behind him had already got restless and had starting shouting at him.

He collected the ticket and ran as if there was no tomorrow. In a distance, he could hear the loud whistle of the train. As soon as he reached the overbridge, he took three steps at a time, sometimes even more. He had only one objective, to reach the train before it took off the platform. By now, he could see the train, and it was already chugging slowly out of the platform. The way he dashed, from the ticket counter to the platform, would perhaps even put Usain Bolt to shame. He cellphone rang a couple of times, he ignored.

Now came the crucial decision to be made. Right or left?

In a split second, he decided to go right. Not because it was less crowded (it was more crowded rather), but because the train too was moving to the right. Moving in the direction of the train would give him a higher probability of catching the train. By now, the train too had caught sufficient momentum.

As, he reached the platform, the sight he saw, made his heart skip a beat. The doors to all the compartments were closed! He wondered, “How do I get in?”

He waited for a couple of more bogies to pass on. He also was steadily moving forward as he did not want to experience a jerk when he would eventually climb into the running train. However, every compartment that passed had its doors closed. He later realized that the train runs from Nizamabad to Secunderabad, literally empty, and most of its passengers had reservations from Secunderabad to Vizag.

He was disappointed. However, he did not lose hope. By then a sizeable crowd had already gathered on the platform and on the over bridge and were watching the scene. He looked backward towards the remaining part of the train. By now, he had already reached almost the beginning of the Platform. There were four or five bogies remaining. In the first bogie that was to follow, he saw a couple of people standing at the door. He signaled at them and shouted in the local language, but they did not understand, nor did they move in.

There was one bogie, which had a door open, but that too wasn’t in his fortune. Two more bogies passed and there were two more after the current one. At this moment a thought crossed his mind. He wondered, if the doors are indeed locked from inside or they are just closed. He decided to take a chance. On the rear door of the current bogie. As the train was moving fast, he had to push the door with quite a bit of force.

“Thud”, the first door was locked.

He had very little time before the next door. “Thud”, the second one was locked too. Or was it not? He felt a slight opening in the door.

“THUD”, this time he tried harder. The door opened, miraculously, and he woke up with a jerk!!