Railfanning doesnt run in the blood

Today, Bhavia had a wedding reception to attend at Tumkur of her office colleague and she left home at 8.30 am with a tentative return back of 5.30pm. That left Mom, Nirvaan and me to stay at home doing pretty much nothing.

I had got 2 offs over this weekend . The whole of Saturday was spent lazing in the bed and binge watching on Netflix and Amazon. I tried to cajole Nirvaan into a Train Ride by saying, we will go by Auto.

After completing the morning chores and breakfast, I messaged Bhavia about this plan and she was okay if I tagged along mom as she believes I am still bad at parenting.( I agree to some extent as I lose temper sometimes).

So we left home at 11am , took an Auto to Baiyappanahalli Station. A 15 min ride caressing the Channasandra Bypass line and Bangalore Chennai Mainline. We spotted an unknown express speeding through the mainline while Nirvaan was all excited about the Auto ride. He kept spotting tractors, BMTC buses and other vehicles. He tends to like road vehicles and planes.

Even as we sat in the auto, he asked, " are we going to Airport to Mumbhai to Mamas house? " I sheepishly denied and informed him about heading to a station instead. He didnt react much and got busy with the road vehicles.

After getting off the auto, we entered Baiyappanahalli Railway station Platform 1 to get onto the FOB which connects the IR station to BMRCL station of same name. Pretty much like Ghatkopar station in Mumbai. A lone WDP4D was standing on the platform loop for clearance. Nirvaan just glanced at it and didnt react( didnt get excited ) like he does after seeing an auto or tractor.

I bought 2 tickets to Majestic (Metro interchange station) and could hear twin alcos heading to Bangalore City below the Metro ticket counter.We waited with baited breath as the thumping Alco carrying a load of empty flat beds made its way through the station. Nirvaan was also excited to observe this long train moving slowly through the platform 2 loop. After seeing locos up close puffing up smoke what he said next just broke my heart," Dirty ! Dirty! "

I knew this is not going my way. Anyways giving him some benefit of doubt for being from the generation where there is a strong focus on conservation, I consoled myself to think, probably he would love the more classy and cleaner electric run Namma Metro.

After passing the AFC gates and taking the escalator to the metro platform 2 below the concourse, we waited patiently till the incoming 6 coach metro from Mysuru Road went ahead and reversed into our platform.

Nirvaan looked at the tracks and then got engrossed in the escalators' functioning. As soon as the train arrived, we hopped into the second coach and made him stand between me and mom on the lateral seats so that he could get a view from the wide windows. As we started the ascend from Baiyappanahalli metro to SV Road and spotted the Third Coaching Terminal Baiyappanahalli (TCTB) in the distance, we curved over to join the Old Madras Road running below us. At SV Road, Nirvaan had already seen the metro doors open and close and the view of the glamourized version of concrete jungle started to wane his interest.

Indiranagar approach and exit is full of 90 degree curves.I tried to get him excited by trying to look at his own train's other end and crossing of other metro .He was happy doing it but like any other normal person nonchalantly.

Showed him Conrad Bengaluru towering up in the sky from Halasuru.He then started to get restless and said that he wanted to get down from the train. I should have expected this and after trying to hold his attention through Trinity and MG Road Station , I tried to persuade him into believing that the train will go into tunnel and it will get dark outside as we enter Cubbon Park, the first underground station on this stretch.But as luck would have it, as the view cut off, he was no more was interested in riding ahead and I asked mom to get up as we quickly deboarded at Cubbon Park.

Coming out onto the concourse and then onto the ground level , we exited the station to a life size replica of Tejas LCA on the main street put up on display by HAL.Nirvaan started jumping with excitement and wanted to ride it.:-) We walked into the Lungs of Bangalore , Cubbon Park and after running around for 30 minutes and undertaking some garbage collection by Nirvaan from the sidewalks, ( he was picking up dried leaves and putting them in the trashbin , much to our amusement) we decided to call it a day. We returned back to Metro station and got on the train and Nirvaan went to sleep even before the next station approached.

He was showing all signs of being normal and not having any railfanning virus in his blood.I resigned to my fate and took an auto back home from Baiyappanahalli to end the trip by 1 pm.

When he woke up, he kept asking for that Tejas LCA and airport and auto and tractor and bus and lorry but nothing about trains. I am not sponsoring any more rides for him.Let his mom pay for him 🤣😉