AFOVA New Letter 2 of Year 2021

Section 6 - Memoirs CV 2 No. 02 / 2021 Page 184 of 332 A few had graduated to diesel, while very few ran on electric power. People, who travelled by the steam hauled locomotives, invariably were quite blackened by the soot carried by the wind, by the time that the journey was over. Air-conditioned coaches had still not been introduced. The journey was quite uneventful the first evening that we left New Delhi. But none of us realized that the next day would more than compensate us for the action that was waiting for us. Sometimes it's worth lingering on the journey for a while before getting to the destination - Richelle Mead (The Indigo Spell) The next morning, many of us lazed around and got out of bed quite late. Well before noon, we found that the water in the bathroom was more a trickle than a free flow. And after a little while there was no water in any of the taps. While Delhi was quite cold, as we came down the plains, the temperature was building up. None of us had tried out the fans the previous evening when we steamed out of Delhi. As we switched one fan after another, we discovered that most of them were non-functional. One by one, we informed PZ our C in C, that there was a shortage of water as well as air as fans were nonfunctional! During those days, the GT was the fastest long-distance train in the country. The Shatabdis and Tamil Nadu Express had not even been thought of. Hence the GT stopped at only a few stations. As the train was not connected with vestibule, there was no way that we could get the attention of the Guard of the train, unless it stopped. Anyway, it finally did stop at some small station – possibly a technical halt. PZ lost no time in getting down and briskly walked across to the Guard. He informed the Guard of the difficulties that we were facing – of no water, no fans and no attention to our coach. The Guard then accompanied PZ to the Station Master (SM) and mentioned our difficulties. The SM said that it was a small station and he had no facilities to attend to any of the problems that we faced. PZ then said that he could at least inform the SM at the next large station to have the problems sorted out. And that is when the situation took an interesting turn. It’s not so much the journey that’s important; as is the way that we treat those we encounter and those around us, along the way - Jeremy Aldana The SM said, that the Railways had nothing to do with the Military coach. The responsibility of the maintenance of the coach was that of the Military and hence he could really do nothing in the matter. He suggested that PZ inform the Military authorities that we lacked water and that fans were not functional. PZ then said that was fine. He requested the Guard and the SM to have our coach detached from the rest of the train. He said that he would get in touch with the military authorities and once the coach was fully functional, it could then proceed further. Apparently, the Guard and SM had not bargained for such an argument. Both vehemently maintained that they could not detach our bogie – they had set out with a certain number of bogies and they