Thursday, November 12, 2020

Keep Going

 

As a kid, we always were in a hurry to grow up, work, and be independent but when we grow up, we so wished to be a child again. This is the perfect example of the proverb, “Grass on the other side is always greener”

 

Going through a rather rough adolescence where you weren’t sure what you wanted and later realizing that where you are now in your life is not where you wanted to be?... I’m sure many might have got this thought in their life. Growing up, we tend to miss that small happiness, those worry-free moments where the only thing you had to worry about was your homework, when playtime was more than work time, not missing your favourite cartoon shows like Pokémon, Swat Kats, Dexter’s Laboratory, Powerpuff Girls to name a few. Oh. The only tension we as kids had days was to decide which cartoon to watch as we were spoilt for choice as kids with options in channels like Cartoon Network, Nick, Pogo, Animax, Jetix, Disney, and so forth...

 

That was after reaching back home, but what about the school where we spent most of our childhood?. Those mischiefs we did in class, those punishments of standing outside the class and saying that You were the most OUTSTANDING Student in class... Leaving your shoes outside the computer lab thinking that germs from your shoes will enter the computers and cause a virus attack??  That one teacher’s class we always loved to attend. Those PET classes were more fun than the usual classes. Life was so easy then yet, we wanted to grow up and do a lot of things.

 

Fast forward for 10 years on from school life. For those who have reached their goals, well done... For those who haven’t. As they say, take a chill pill. You aren’t alone and for that matter, you are part of the majority. So, here we are battling various emotions among ourselves, trying to survive and wishing we were kids again so that we rectify our mistakes but life doesn’t work that way, we must try to keep the past aside and concentrate on what’s in store. Let the Dead Past Bury it’s Dead Yes, Things are tough or they look tough rather, Beauty lies in eyes of beholder, so is the toughness of a situation and Tough times don’t last. Tough people Do

 

Ok. Enough of proverbs now on a Side note – I am planning to keep this blog more active. Will try to come out with more writing as and when I can, and do share your similar  experiences and how you dealt with in comment below and will try and continue writing  some relatable feelings, some Trains and Aviation stuff so do let me know your comments and help me improve

Sunday, May 3, 2020

The Legendary 14009





In our lives, we come across a lot of situations where we might need some time off and engage ourselves in our hobbies to divert our mind away from the stressful world and different people have different hobbies and some are peculiar, like mine, I am crazy about big machines of Railways and Aviation, I feel they have a life too. And, just like any kid would be, even I was awestruck by the huge machines that trains, planes were but unlike most, the love and craze for these machines grew along with me, and I started to click pictures of them and store as a collection whenever I can..

Among them, there are certain rolling stock that are left legendary and tend to seek and get more attention. A Locomotive of class WDM3A based in Locomotive Shed situated in Gooty, which is a small town in Anantapur district of A.P  and Loco Number 14009 is one such rolling stock. Why is this so special? Well, because of the changing requirements of Railways, such rolling stock are becoming rare and unique.

When I first started off chasing trains, I didn't mind about this locomotive, partially because of my adoration towards locos of a different class but as days passed, After my 1st capture of this loco near rajapur in 2016, and realizing the days of this legend were being counted, I was longing to capture this legend before he retires and had chances for that when it was certain train since a couple of days but thank you partly to my laziness and partly due to my miscalculation of place we would be capturing it, I wasn’t able to capture it and later was felt contrite about it. 


the capture of March 2016
But, life has been good in this regard and one fine Sunday morning, as I woke up and was scrolling through whats App group, my eyes got affixed on one message. “14009 with Kachiguda passenger in Short Hood Forward Mode”. I immediately checked the timings of that train, checked local MMTS timings, realized that I had 2 hours in hand to fresh up, and reach the location to capture the legend and I decided, I’m not going to mess it up this time. Freshen up, bagged my camera and set off in an hour, reached my nearest MMTS station, caught the local I planned to, and reached the location as planned. So far so good, I called out to my dear friend, Raheem who stays nearby that location and he too decided to come and capture the legend with me. So, as we kept tracking and we realized the legend is nearing, my excitement grew. In the meantime, the weather suddenly started to become dark, with cloud cover building up, it looked like it’s going to rain but we stayed put for the legend to show up.


As soon as we heard the honk and chugging, we knew the legend arrived in style it’s known for. We got up, Camera-ready, with the settings done and in position with my right pointing finger hovering over the shutter button anxiously waiting for it to show up. No sooner it showed up, half click, focus, wait, check, and click…. Legend captured in my lens!!! Once it was captured, the satisfaction was immense, all the efforts of reaching in time didn’t go waste, it started to rain heavily later on and I was drenched but the happiness in capturing the legend, ONE FOUR ZERO ZERO NINE didn’t make me feel bad for getting drenched…


And the Legend blessed me again







Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Journey in 12362 from CSTM to Patna

https://youtu.be/DpRw65eJcxg

Wednesday, July 6, 2016

{IRFCA} Interior of now Extinct MG 2A of Nainital Express

When I got the News That this line would be closed for gauge Conversion on 15th May 2016, me and my Friend, Kedar Joshi decided to have a ride in the Legendary train. Nainital Express and experience AC travel in MG. It was 9th May 2016 and all set for the ride, The start wasn't good as the rake was shunted late onto the pf and the Staff didn't have enough time to charge the AC batteries. So as it, the AC too took time to charge up and it was hot inside at the time the train departed from Aishbagh. Thankfully, The AC was up and running just in time for us to have a comfortable sleep. In Fact the chill became a bit too much :p Further more we got down at Banbasa to give ourselves time to fresh up and have something for our tummies before we catch our train back to Aishbagh. It was a fun filled ride, a unforgettable one to say the least, and finally happy that we were able to do it and experience the trip