Bangalore, one of the highest altitude cities of the country is one of my personal favorites. Having grown up in Chennai, I had always detested its unbearable summer. Especially the month of May, where I was supposed to enjoy the summer holidays, on the contrary ,it was a suffering. Combined with a crazy humidity its a punishment in itself. And there came the respite, my athai(aunt) moved to Bangalore in 1995 and yippeyyy we found a place for summer :) :)
We are a set of 7 cousins and the best thing is that we are all in the same age group. In late April, my brother and myself would rush to the Madras Moore Market reservation complex and get our tickets booked for one of the day trains(Mostly the Lalbag Express).
On the D-Day in May, we get our baggage packed; ready to escape like refugees in a war zone. We grab our lunch at home as quick as possible. All of us gather at my place in Chintadripet which is 2 stops away from Central station.
We usually start from home around 1:30 PM and the weather- Freeeaking hot and sultry. But since we were all a gang, we used to have fun forgetting the crappy Madras afternoon weather.
And the train starts from Madras Central at 3:30PM...
As the slanting sun rays enter the coach, it was a pain. The first stop is Arakonam- we actually felt hotter *sigh*. And the next stop was Katpadi. Though it was about 5:30 PM it was still very hottt. We usually meet up with the Chennai bound Brindavan express then and we would be commenting on how unlucky the passengers in that train were ;)
And then comes Jolarpet. The stretch from Katpadi to Jolarpet is a treat to watch. Full of coconut trees and hills. We buy some bread omelet then :) The sight of Yelagiri hills in the foot hills of Jolarpet is majestic and till that point the weather would be just ok..
And then starts the magic....
And from Jolarpet, we could realize that we were climbing a gradient and in no time(an hour or so) a soothing chillness was welcoming us and then came Kuppam. And some time after Kuppam, we had our purpose served- drizzles!!! and we couldnt wait for the train to arrive at Majestic ( Bangalore City Station)... Lalbag reaches around 9:30PM... and our mood would be upbeat..
We usually head straight to my Athai's place at Rajaji Nagar in North Bangalore.After a great dinner, we would have a comfortable sleep that we were missing for all those days at Chennai...
That was one hell of a googly by Bangalore.. ;)
We are a set of 7 cousins and the best thing is that we are all in the same age group. In late April, my brother and myself would rush to the Madras Moore Market reservation complex and get our tickets booked for one of the day trains(Mostly the Lalbag Express).
On the D-Day in May, we get our baggage packed; ready to escape like refugees in a war zone. We grab our lunch at home as quick as possible. All of us gather at my place in Chintadripet which is 2 stops away from Central station.
We usually start from home around 1:30 PM and the weather- Freeeaking hot and sultry. But since we were all a gang, we used to have fun forgetting the crappy Madras afternoon weather.
And the train starts from Madras Central at 3:30PM...
As the slanting sun rays enter the coach, it was a pain. The first stop is Arakonam- we actually felt hotter *sigh*. And the next stop was Katpadi. Though it was about 5:30 PM it was still very hottt. We usually meet up with the Chennai bound Brindavan express then and we would be commenting on how unlucky the passengers in that train were ;)
And then comes Jolarpet. The stretch from Katpadi to Jolarpet is a treat to watch. Full of coconut trees and hills. We buy some bread omelet then :) The sight of Yelagiri hills in the foot hills of Jolarpet is majestic and till that point the weather would be just ok..
And then starts the magic....
And from Jolarpet, we could realize that we were climbing a gradient and in no time(an hour or so) a soothing chillness was welcoming us and then came Kuppam. And some time after Kuppam, we had our purpose served- drizzles!!! and we couldnt wait for the train to arrive at Majestic ( Bangalore City Station)... Lalbag reaches around 9:30PM... and our mood would be upbeat..
We usually head straight to my Athai's place at Rajaji Nagar in North Bangalore.After a great dinner, we would have a comfortable sleep that we were missing for all those days at Chennai...
That was one hell of a googly by Bangalore.. ;)
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