Sojourn into KR-SWR-SCR-CR

Its time for another sojourn down south. Id be going into CR (MRJ) territory (CSTM-PA-LD-MAO) and into KR ( KAWR) regions ( MAO-KAWR-KUDA-UD).Thereafter might try and do the MYS-CMNR-MYS MG trip. This is the only MG section on SWR after the SMET-TLGP MG railbus (another trip for that sometime in the future). And my return from SBC-DMM-GY-GTL-WADI-SUR-PA-KYN-DR-CSTM. It should be good. Besides the CSTM-PA stretch its all deisels all the way. So perhaps lots of WDP's, WDG's and WDM's all over the place.

Images de Ile Panju

This is the start of the Bassein Creek (South) bridge. To the left is the Bhayendar area of the main Salsette Island of Bombay. The Bassein Creek ( Vasai creek ) is about to start. We are facing towards the west where this creek opens into the Arabian Sea. The Ulhas river is the one that empties into the Vasai creek and this point is behind us right now. The older railway bridge (bult by the British) is seen running parallel to the new bridge on which our train is travelling. We have crossed Bhayendar and are moving towards Naigon - Vasai (on the mainland).

The Bassein Creek (South) Bridge. We are moving towards the right of the picture and will soon come to the Panju Island.
The Panju island is about to begin at the right of the picture. This island is in the middle of the creek and the railway line crosses both the sections of the creek formed by the island. The one we have just crossed is the South side and the next one will be the North side.
This is the Panju Island stretch. Its a small island and the local inhabitabts use the railway bridges (both old and new) to cross over to either Bhayendar or Vasai sides. There is not much of an 'economy' on this island. Most inhabitants are into fishing and travel essentially by boat to the Vasai side. The North section of the creek being narrower than the South one. This picture shows some salt pans on the island.
We are about to leave the Panju Island. This is on the left. You can see the boats idling on the island shore - these are used to cross over to the Vasai side (towards the right of the picture). The older railway bridge is continuing. The tracks on the island have been uprooted, though the older bridge structure remains - probably for pedestrian crossing.
The North Bassein Creek Bridge. To the left is the Panju island and to the right you can see the Vasai side. The old railway bridge running parallely to the new one. Its a matter of time before this historic bridge also gets dismantled or gets washed away.
We have now crossed the North Bassein Creek Bridge and are entering the mainland. The land area on the right is the Vasai side and the railway tracks no will lead us to Naigaon station. The old historic Bassein fort is somewhere beyond the parabola on the right hand side over the old railway bridge in this picture. You cant see the fort in this picture, though.

For more on Panju see this.

BDTS-DRD & a BL WCAM @ VR

I happened to go to DRD the other day for some work. I took the Vapi passenger from BDTS in the morning. It wasnt too crowded but as we went along beyond BVI it did get jam packed. Surprsingly it was bang on time - it was at the DRD south cabin by 1158 (the scheduled arrival time at DRD is 1159) . Only that at the DRD cabin it waited for about 12 mins for the signal and hence got late. Anyway its not that the WCAM was doing a good job - its just that the IR has incorporated so much of slack time into their time-tables that almost every train is always bang on time - or even before time. A good justification to upgrade the slow-coach trains to a 'superfast' status and thereby extort more from the public. Very smart. The WCAM remains the same though. I guess tomorrow theyd get an old WDS to pull the rake and still charge superfast fares for passenger trains.

Anyway the DRD trip was good. I went to see the Dahanu beach in the evening. It was supposed to be great - but I got a feeling it wasnt that great. Just a medium sized expanse - with its quota of filth. Anyway the moment you are going to have more than a hundered persons visiting a place - filth is bound to accumulate. People in this region have little civic sense. Spitting is the norm here. Ptooooooooooo ........

I returned the next day by the Bhuj-Bandra Sayaji Nagari Exp. This stops at DRD and then a straight non-stop run till BVI and BDTS. It was running about 15 mins late (surprise) and so was able to catch this at DRD. But it was packed to capacity and I had to come standing in the general compartment the full way. But I was most impressed - we did DRD-BDTS in 2 hours flat. While going it had taken almost 3 hours.

The BL WCAM 21838 picture was taken at VR while on the way to DRD.

Red, Black, Blue ... now ... GOLD

Id heard about JW's other colours and how Blue was supposed to be the best - well over $150 and all. Very exclusive and produced in limited quantitites. And now I got to see this one - GOLD LABEL. The surprising this is that I was told that it was only $70. So does the horse-piss that goes inside a Blue is better than the one in the GOLD ? ... No idea ...

But wait .... I just figured it out .... The JW company just hired some MBA's and all this blue-black-red-gold is their dim-wit.

Repeat. Aur jara accha wala chakna leke aana. Yeh itna naram laya tum.
(Piss is piss afterall)

J. D'Nazareth

Did the big-J have kids ? You have to see this picture - some D'Vinci code for the answers. Anway we all know movies have the answer to everything in life. So take permission from the Church and go ahead and book your ticket and popcorn. Anyway just imagine if J-Junior comes to school and says - boss, J is my dad - he can <unprintable> you, he can <unprintable> you. The other kid would get shit scared.

BVI-BSR-VR boys unhappy

Some work is being undertaken at BVI and as a result all the CCG-VR trains have been cancelled and even BVI-BSR-VR ones. So all the boys who stay 'that' side of BVI are roaring with anger. Im surprised to see that the BEST is running extra buses for the hapless commuters since their pretty trains will be languishing in the yards. What about the times when the BEST boys were themselves sriking work for more than two days - did the WR/CR run extra trains for the bus boys ? This city is full of double standards. Rake in your favorite agendas to strike a chord with those in authority. And then sit back and relax. The agendas that are popular these days in Bombay are:

• The Maharashtra Maaza - Mee Mumbaikar - Jai Maharashtra - Marathi Manoos themes
• Throw out all non-marathi populace from Mumbai
• The Big-T (E) and his SS - I dont know if the outfit still functions
• The Big-T (W) and his cricket bat. Probably time for him to do commentry for gully cricket now
• Reservations in everything - from bus seats to IIT's and IIM's
• Booze
• Sex and drugs (this one and the previous one are perennial)