A metre gauge train journey which cannot be done any more...

The metre gauge line is functioning between Mhow and Sanawad. A small part of the long journeys it used to traverse till some years ago. On Aug 15 2016 a small group of train enthusiasts took a train journey on this route from Akola to Mhow. Though this was not so long ago it was from a different era if one were to look at it in a 'rail' sense. The railway station still had the old name 'Mhow.'
Soon only memories will remain.

Here is the link and the description as given by Pawan Koppa

On Independence day 2016, we undertook one final journey on the Akola - Mhow Passenger powered by Mhow's YDM-4 #6719. The line was going to be truncated soon to a small portion which remains today : Mhow - Sanawad. My last trip on this line was in 2010 between Akola and Indore. I was raring to do it again and I got one last chance to do it along with Jayasankar Madhavadas, Aditya S Nivarthi and Rajeev Nair. It was one unforgettable journey which will be remembered by us always - from the rustic rural greens to the lovely samosas at Akot, the Dhulghat Spiral, the banker attachement at Kalakund and climbing up the ghats between Kalakund and Patalpani - this was one unforgettable trip! Presenting you a small snapshot of the MG journey omboard the 52974 Akola - Mhow Passenger


Click here to see the video

And for lovers of the Kalakund to Patalpani ghat section there's quite a lot of stuff here.

Of Bapu And Books....

Oct 2, 2015
Gandhi Jayanti

Of Bapu and Books

In 1981 when Richard Attenborough's epic film Gandhi was still in the making I purchased Vol I of The Life of Mahatma Gandhi by Louis Fischer (published by Bharat Vidya Bhawan) from GMC Bookshop near the GPO Indore for Rs 2.50. The train ticket both ways cost Rs 1.70. The three wheel tempo ride from the Indore Railway Station to GPO cost 50 paise.

I walked back to the Indore Railway Station from the GMC Bookshop with Rs 1.15 in my pocket. I needed 85 paise to get back to Mhow so taking a tempo ride was out of the question. The total expenditure that day came to  Rs 4.70. I had set out with Rs 5 in my pocket. I had thirty paise in my pocket when I reached Mhow. The cycle stand at Mhow Railway Station charged me 10 paise for having kept my cycle safely for some hours. I had twenty paise with me when I reached home.

The next day I took Rs 3 from my mother and cycled to Indore and bought the 2nd volume of the same book which I had hidden behind some books the previous day. I headed back home with fifty paise in my pocket. I stopped at Choithram Chauraha and bought two oranges for the fifty paise I had with me.

Cycling back to Mhow with an empty pocket and a prayer that  one of my cycle wheels does not get  punctured was indeed difficult. But I reached home safely. Those two volumes of Fischer's biography of Gandhi are still with me.

What a day that was and what beautiful memories I have of those two days !!!!

A Mumbaikar's Blogpost on the Patalpani Kalakund Ghat Section of Mhow

My friend Anuradha Shankar of Mumbai who is a well known travel writer writes on her experience of travelling on the Patalpani Kalakund Ghat Section. The journey was undertaken on 27 June. I and my photographer friend Raj Kumar Saini were with her.

One of the four tunnels on this route. From my archives. Clicked in April 2012

It was indeed nice to actually meet a friend after so many years of 'virtual' friendship. Or may I call it e-friendship?

With Anuradha at Patalpani. Thanks to Raj Kumar Saini for clicking this lovely pic.

        Click on the link below to read Anuradha's blogpost

        Taking the train to a journey back in time