1971 – 1973: My Years @ BITS, Pilani – Onwards To Pilani : Charting the Untrodden Path

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1971 – 1973: My Years @ BITS, Pilani – Onwards To Pilani : The Turmoil and The Decision

I had only the call letter as any guide, if one could say so in my the then position, that pointed to the destination of my future course of journey. The postal address of the institute revealed that the mundane destination, Pilani, was situated in the State of Rajasthan. The call letter did further mention that Pilani can be reached by bus from nearest railway stations of Chirawa (from Jaipur) or from Loharu (from Delhi).

I knew that Rajasthan located on the west-northern side of Gujarat, on the basis my knowledge of geography from the school days. However, I had travelled only upto Surat before I came to Navsari that very year. As a result, I was totally blank about how to travel to Jaipur or Delhi. I was even quite new to Navsari too. So, I could not even think out of enquiring with someone or somewhere, there of the whereabouts of these places.

Fortunately, I was aware enough of All India Railway Time Table. So, I hoped that with the help of that time table I should at least be able to locate the two railway stations mentioned in the time table.

It took me around five minutes or so of thinking and some preliminary enquiries at my father’s office to arrive at the decision to head for Navsari railway station and purchase that All India Time Table. Once I reached the railway station I did make enquiries with ticket counter and with the station master to see if I can get any help about reaching Chirawa or Loharu. Their guidance, too, pointed out as time table as the (only) source of information at Navsari station. The other alternative was to go to Surat railway station to get the required information. I purchased the time table and headed straight to home to begin my work of charting out the possible routes.

Once I reached home, I did not lose any more time. and sat down with few papers and pen to chalk out various options available. If Google maps was available then the job of selecting the most optimum route would have been easier. But at that time, it simply was a job to wade through the timetable and arrive at the possible options.

A good few hours of search led me to arrive at two options to reach Chirawa:

• • Navsari – Ahmedabad – Jaipur – Sawai Madhopur – Chirawa route:

My rough calculations showed that the total journey would be close to 850 + 200 KMs and would take anything from 20 to 24 +  around 5 hours of travel, with two breaks at Ahmedabad and Jaipur. On this route going to Sawai Madhopur was not necessary as Sawai Madhopur – Chirawa train was to pass through Jaipur.  Sawai Madhopur to Chirawa distance was around 340 KMs, but if I choose this route, Sawai Madhopur – Jaipur distance of round 130 KMs could be avoided.

• • Navsari – Vadodara – Kota – Sawai Madhopur – Chirawa:

Navsari – Sawai Madhopur leg of journey was on Bombay – Delhi route. This was an over 700 KMs of journey with travel time of around 15 hours (if travelled by Bombay – New Delhi Paschim Express) to 20+ hours (if travelled by Bombay – Dehradun Dehradun Express), in addition to about 7 hours of travel from Sawai Madhopur to Chirawa.

The only logically feasible route to reach Loharu was travelling from Navsari to Delhi and then from Delhi to Loharu.

With this much information available, it did not require any computer (not that anyone was available then) to decide the most preferred route. So, before I went to sleep my next course of actions next day were decided in my mind to book the ticket, from Navsari and if that did not work out, then from Surat for Sawai Madhopur as the first choice.

I was at ticket-booking window of Navsari railway station, first thing next morning. After about a half an hour so wait in the queue, I was all smiles, with my all thirty-two teeth being visible, with a ticket for Paschim Express to Sawai Madhopur for the appointed day. I was also informed that ticket for Sawai Madhopur – Chirawa leg of the journey could be purchased from Sawai Madhopur only.

However, by now, out of knowledge that I had no choice or because of the latent expectation that if luck had favoured me till now I can still bank upon it, I was feeling more confident that I should be able sort out the nuts and bolts ticketing once I reached Sawai Madhopur.

To continue with ……..

The Maiden Journey to Pilani