The MMTS train of Hyderabad

Ping Pong …….

Ping Pong………

Ping Pong...Ping Pong… Ping Pong (Now getting more frequent).

Aah that’s my door bell making such a cacophonic noise and finally succeeding in waking me up.

I open the door with half closed eyes to find my maid giving me a “Will you ever improve” look while picking the Newspaper and the milk packet that were lying abandoned at my doorstep for the past couple of hours.

It’s hardly 7:40 AM in the morning and I can already feel the surroundings around me heating up at a rate unmatched by the cooling effect of my air cooler. I lazily get up from my bed just to see that Shashank has already called me twice. Ohh my godddd not again it’s yet another typical day that has dawned upon me.

As usual, late and lazy, I call up Shashank at 8:00 Am to find out what he is up to and to my despair I discover that he is already rearing to go to the office.

“Meet me at Jubilee by 8:30” says Shashank and clicks his phone.

Shashank is a devil especially in the mornings, he has his family to take care of his hunger and discipline but how can he expect a similar performance from me. I unwillingly pick the toothbrush and start brushing my teeth. By the time I am done with it it’s already 8:10. I know that it’s impossible for me to catch Shashank at 8:30 in Jubilee and I do not want to hear his husky voice whining at me in the mornings so I safely drop him a message saying “It will be 8:45”. Two minutes later a deadly noise erupts in the chamber of silence. It’s Shashank calling me on my mobile.

I pick up the call to only hear the loud display of anger and being defenseless I request him to carry on. That’s it, the storm has been silenced. Now am on my own taking every bit of time to cajole my lazy soul and doing things only when I feel like with no remorse at all towards being late to the office.

Its 10:30 now and I have learnt that there is a local train at 10:53 that can take me to office by 11:20. Driving a bike in this extreme summer especially in Hyderabad’s traffic is not easy that too if it’s a 27 km ride. All these days I used to travel by car but believe me driving such a long distance in messy traffic conditions is no joke either. You will end up being for more than an hour and a half in your car. The only comfort is that you can have your AC switched on and enjoy the glances of those suffering bikers who look at you as if you are a monarch. But other than that there is no fun in driving for so long unless you are a passionate driver.

I unanimously decide to board the Local train and rush to the Arts college station. Within 15 minutes I have successfully managed to buy the ticket and am standing under a shade waiting for the train to arrive. Within minutes the train pulls onto the platform puffing a dust storm marking its arrival which blocks my view and fails me in catching sight of those precious unoccupied coaches in the front. I immediately board the train and push myself towards a bunch of seats which show the promise to be vacated.

Come Secunderabad you have half of the train emptied due to which I comfortably manage to get a seat and this is when I begin enjoying every event happening in and out of the train. 5 minutes over and the train departs from Secunderabad to begin what I call as a majestic journey to my office.

Within no time the train picked a lot of speed passing through a cluster of one storied and two storied buildings on both sides most of which painted in yellow and green color. There are a lot of cables entangled between these buildings used for multiple purposes with the most significant purpose being for drying the washed clothes. These cables resemble a huge spider web that would have taken some 200 years in being laid. These homes have used the railways tracks as a perfect dump yard for all the litter and waste material they accumulate. The train begins to slow now and a road passing under the bridge, on which my train stands, indicates the arrival of James Street.

From James Street you are in for a small time visual treat. On one side you have the typical deccan topography comprising of green and brown pastures of land and on the other side it gets more and more scenic with the arrival of Necklace road and the visually splendid Hussain sagar lake. It’s a combination of HUDA’s manmade beauty with the road and the pavements and natural beauty of Hussain Sagar with the Buddha statue in the center epitomizing the tranquility in Hyderabad and of course who can ignore the foul smell. The parks eat outs and the entertainment hubs around the lake symbolize the rising Indian middle class that is more rhetoric, outgoing and demanding. Just when you are being deeply mesmerized by the panorama the train takes a hostile diversion bypassing the Necklace road station.

Soon, you are greeted by a never ending noise of vehicles that are honking and trying to create a beeline for themselves on a bridge that surges over our train signaling the arrival of Begumpet, a perfect business place that houses Software enterprises, famous shopping centers, jewelers and auto giants; perhaps the busiest place in Hyderabad. You can also see a multitude of giant hoardings standing over you in their bid to attract the average consumer.

After passing begumpet the density of population gets lesser, I can see a lot more space around the railway tracks and I find very few houses around it at least on one side. Just by the time I start wondering what could be coming this way we are already at the Nature cure hospital station. I can slowly feel the air getting warmer and the land getting browner with the occupancy decreasing as we get along. Soon I can witness the arrival of rocks and rock filled golden colored hillocks in the landscape; Borabanda has arrived.

As the train marches from Borabanda a large commotion of neatly dressed, well behaved and reticent youngsters get up reminding me that Hitech city is the next station. Fresh from the college, energetic crowd in their twenties and thirties holding a newspaper in one hand while deeply lost in the music of the new shuffle they just bought represent the glittering workforce that Hyderabad fell in love for the past one decade. As the train decelerates I can see the Cyber towers building, the emblem of Hitech city, and soon a number of concrete structures representing the innovation in the field of architecture, standing tall amidst the rocky hills and arid landscape welcoming us to the Hitech city.

As I get down at the Hitech city a thought passes through me. The last 30 minutes that I spent in the travel is not just my travel to the office. It has been a travel through time, scenarios and peoples expectations. Within half an hour I saw a time period of 30 years and that is why I call it unique… of course am late to the office as well.