Ahmedabad Mumbai Shatabdi
My trip to Baroda involved two interesting things. One was Vishwamitri Junction, the station just before Vadodara. The narrow gauge line crosses the BG main line there (east of the main line is Pratapnagar, which is the NG terminus for Baroda). I found that the narrow gauge line goes below the main line at right angles, right under the station platform. I could not really spot the narrow gauge platform but it must be there, I need to check it out. Is there any such example elsewhere of a low level and high level platform in India? I can only think of Sandhurst Road in Mumbai.
The other thing about the trip was the food on the Shatabdi. I had a stiff neck and was not up to anything else excepting dealing with the food and trying to see which stations had loops outside the platform area. The executive class food was as follows:
4.30 p.m. Pineapple juice (not in a tetrapack, in a glass)
4.45 p.m. Evening snack consisting of some vegetable puff like thing, with a tomato ketchup sachet, some sev-bhujia, about 12 salted kajus (cashew nuts), a sweet (moti-chur laddoo, as I later found out) and a Bar One chocolate.
5.05 p.m Tea, with 2 tea bags, two sugar packets, two creamers, a plastic stirrer, a proper cup and saucer and water enough for two cups.
A brief lull.
6.40 p.m. Tomato soup with salt and pepper, two bread sticks and a large pat of Vijaya butter
7.05 p.m. Veg dinner (my choice), consisting of sliced cucumbers and tomatoes with lemon, three hot, double packed puris, one hot kachori like thing with a sweetish filling, dal, matar paneer, rice (delicately flavoured with one clove, a bay leaf, some peas and so on), pickle, papad and curd in a mud pot.
7.20 p.m. One large banana
7.30 p.m. One cup mango ice cream
I was more or less comatose after all this, and after stuffing some of the leftovers into the plastic bag provided for the purpose, I was barely able to stagger off the train at Borivali just after 9 p.m.