धन्य हुए भाग्य हमारे,
जो हम आपके सामने पधारे।।
This was the feeling which incurred to me when I came face to face with the Great Crawler, 13132 KOAA-ANVT Express, jokingly called as The Bullet or Crawler Rajdhani by me. For the first time, I got a chance to board the train, albeit for just 2 minutes.
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scene was that I persuaded my friend to travel in it as he wasn't getting confirmed reservation in any of the trains on 27th August due to heavy rush on the occasion of Rakshabandhan. Actually, he had a RAC ticket in Magadh Express on 28th August but he wanted to go on 27th itself. When he couldn't find any way out, he came to me for help, knowing that I was a railfan and had more knowledge than him in this regard. And then I hatched a plan & started describing about KOAA-ANVT Express, how one of my friend easily got reservation in it & that this was his only ray of hope. Reluctantly he agreed, despite strongly thinking that he was being tricked into a huge conspiracy. I somehow held my laughter and after repeated rounds of persuation, he finally agreed to travel by it and booked a Waitlisted sleeper ticket thereafter. Unfortunately, his ticket got stuck in RAC after charting. I told him to talk to the TTE and ask for a confirm berth in 3A. He did get it later, after paying 400 rupees to the TTE.
That day when I went to see him off, I was shocked to find that the train was almost full. I honestly had never expected this. 13132 was as usual, rescheduled that day as well and departed at 7pm. My friend cheerfully waved me good bye, unaware of the consequences ahead. It took him 19:32 hours to cover around 630km, he reached Allahabad at 14:32. Avg speed of the trip comes out to be 32.20kmph. That's the Bullet for you. _/\_ _/\_
#HA