Nirvaan’s Transport Centric Trip to Mumbai

 

While my hobby of railfanning is known to many, my son is slowly evolving into a transport enthusiast as well. He loves air and road transport. His love for trains is limited to “Cleaner and speedier ones”.  I am sure my wife has a strong influence on him to reject the other trains. 😊

We had a wedding to attend in Mumbai on 14^th Feb 2023 and we were also keen on visiting our family and friends after the long Covid induced separation. So, the plan was devised by my spouse to depart on the evening of 11^th Feb 2023 (Saturday) and return back to Bengaluru by an evening flight on 18^th Feb 2023. I was tasked with the planning for each day’s schedule. On the agenda was meeting relatives, attending the wedding and showing Nirvaan the life in Mumbai and the varied travel options on offer. He had been catching all the action on Youtube and his parents who have lived all their life in Mumbai wanted him to experience the fun and pain of commute for a normal Mumbaikar. In Bengaluru, we don’t even get onto public transport as all family and office trips are undertaken in the comfort of the car or bike.

 

11^th Feb 2023

I had to start the day as early as 4:30 am since I had planned to work from 6:00 am to 3:00 pm in Hilton Manyata Office to save one day off. Our flight was at 7:55 pm but with rehearsals for the Aero Show on, the Kempegowda International Airport had scheduled closures of its both runways during the day. News feeds from 9^th and 10^th Feb 2023 indicated that airport was getting extremely crowded and some people had even missed flights due to this. Hence, we didn’t want to take a chance and had planned for OLA ride from our house at 4:15pm itself. On an average busy day, we reach airport in 45-50 minutes from our house.

 

As per plan, I left office around 3:15 pm and while coming down the ramp of Kalyannagar flyover, I lost power on my bike. While it was still powered on, pushing the accelerator had no effect on the wheels. I switched off the bike and tried to kick start and push button start it multiple times, but it was futile. This location is about 2.5 kms from my house and traffic was unusually high on mid-Saturday afternoon. I was starting to panic as I had less than a hour to fix this and reach home. Called my wife and asked her to first cancel the OLA booking. I informed her about my current situation and she messaged me about some 2 Wheeler road side assistance guys while I had parked my bike and went asking around the service road for roadside garages. After walking for about 200 meters, came across a mechanic. Explained him the ordeal. He took me pillion on his bike and helped me tow my broken vehicle to his garage. He opened the entire bike up to try to identify the problem. 

I had my family waiting at home for a flight so I wasn’t looking for a permanent fix. Just needed the bike to start so that I can reach home and leave for the airport. He did his best to somehow start it after almost 45 minutes of toil. I promised him that once I am back from Mumbai, I would come back to his garage for a permanent fix.  I thanked him profusely for getting it to start. Rushed home and reached by 4:15 pm. I had been in constant chat with my spouse all this while and accordingly she had booked OLA for 4:50 pm. That gave me roughly ½ hour to freshen up as the stress of making it on time had made me all sweaty.

 

We left at 4:50 pm and the OLA driver decided to take an internal road to the airport instead of the normal Outer Ring Road-Hebbal-National High route. It was good in hindsight as the normal route was jam packed towards Yelahanka due to Aero Show preparations. The alternate road wasn’t in the best of its shape, yet we made it to the Terminal 1 of BLR by 6pm. Vistara had 6 check-in counters and queue managers indicated a wait of at least 30 minutes even for the baggage drop. With no other way to speed  this up, we waited patiently. Nirvaan was excited as usual and his barrage of questions was already making his mom lose patience. She directed him to pedal all his technical queries to his papa. I had missed my lunch in the afternoon and Bhavia had ordered Burger Meal for me from Swiggy. We had taken it with us to the airport and I was adamant on eating it only after the Security Checks.

Finally, around 6:40 pm, we dropped the baggage and headed one level up for Security Check which was uneventful. Our gate at 7 was swarming with people and there was hardly any place to walk, forget sitting. Incoming Vistara was fairly on time but we were delayed in departure by almost 30 minutes.  We were on seats C, D, E and F and while I settled on C, Mom on D, Bhavia on E and Nirvaan on F, the right-side wings and engine were right under his nose.  The taxi from Terminal 1 to the newer South Runway can easily take 10 minutes, especially, if the take-off is set towards east.

 

After take-off, I switched seats with Bhavia to eat the soggy burger and then enjoy the inflight meal from Vistara which included chicken curry, dal makhani, rice, bread, butter and a pudding. We arrived Mumbai T2 by 10 pm. Nirvaan had a jolly good time spotting the International Carriers at the Airport. By the time we had our luggage it was 10:45 pm and we used the elevators to the OLA Zone and got into the Maruti Suzuki Dzire on our way to Borivali (My in-laws house). I was looking out of the windshield for the BEML Manufactured Mumbai Metro 7 rakes on the elevated tracks alongside the perennially busy Western Express Highway, while Nirvaan was busy spotting the Audi, Mercs and others on the street. I spotted 2 rakes standing side by side at southern end of Gundavli Metro station. We reached home around midnight and slept around 1:30 am exhausted.

 

 12^th Feb 2023

We had initially planned for a Self-Drive Car from Zoom but at the last moment, the car was unavailable, dashing the hopes of my eager spouse to drive on the roads of Mumbai. In retrospect, it was a blessing in disguise. So, we banked on OLA for the trip. We had to visit 3 relatives' houses in Thane, 1 family friend in Dombivli East, meet train friends of my mom, meet my dear railfans and then head to Kalamboli for the night stay at another family friend's house.

 

We left around 9:30 am for Thane from Borivali in an Hyundai Xcent and while I was tracking the metro work from Dahisar towards Mira Bhayander, Nirvaan was fast asleep, still smarting from the travel last evening. Ghodbunder Road was gleaming with more and more high-rises and the road median now had metro work in full swing. We entered Manpada road to go towards Pokhran Road 2. I must say, Thane had developed by leaps and bounds. The landscaping, road infra and beautification of the walls alongside the roads were so welcoming.  We misjudged a turn and it was a pleasant surprise as we landed at the gates of Little Flower English High School, my alma mater. I was so happy to see the place after almost 25 years. Bhavia was the one who noticed that we were approaching my school and alerted me. We woke up Nirvaan to show him his Papa’s school. Then we returned back to the correct road and dropped off the cab. After visiting 2 relatives who stayed close by, we took the Auto (Bajaj Re) to the third house and Nirvaan who has a special liking for the three wheelers said, “These have 2 headlights, I want to travel in the one with one small headlight”.

Actually, that is the first time I realized that older autos had only one headlight. Promising him to take him on a ride later, we reached my cousin’s house and had a sumptuous lunch. We bid good bye to them around 3:30 pm to head to Dombivli in another OLA. We took the Eastern Expressway and headed to Kalyan West and then travelling towards Dombivli, we caught our first glance of Central Railway near the Metro Junction Mall before reaching the destination. Nirvaan was taking another bout of sleep during this journey. I had to meet Shantanu, one of my oldest railfan friend and my mom had to meet her train friends and hence we had decided on a common place, “ Dwarka Veg” , right outside Dombivli Station West.

 

Nirvaan got his promise fulfilled and we travelled in the small single headlight driven auto. The roads were still full of craters and autos were ruling the roads with complete disdain for traffic laws. Met Shantanu and we stood for a few minutes near the ticketing counter discussing, while showing Nirvaan a few express trains and constant pulling in and out of the local trains. He had never seen such a high frequency of train movements in Bengaluru. By 6:30pm, Bhavia joined us at the station after meeting her friend and then we booked another OLA to Kalamboli. It was our time to revisit our old house in Dombivli East on the way to Kalamboli. The ride was disappointing as unlike Thane which had shown signs of great improvement over the last 5 years, Dombivli seemed to have taken a turn for the worst. Unabashed driving by autos and people spilling over to the streets for the lack of footpaths were all the same. We caught a glimpse of our apartment near the D-Mart which was the only saving grace for the vast population in that area. I thanked the almighty for giving me the career option to move to Bengaluru from Dombivli. After getting on the Kalyan Shilphata road again, the signs of infrastructure improvement was evident as hoardings after hoardings publicized the new residential projects coming up near this road which will soon become another Ghodbunder Road of Thane.

 

OLA guy decided to take the village road to Taloja and we caught a glimpse of the Navi Mumbai Metro construction.  This project has been in the making for more than a decade now. We reached Kalamboli by 8 pm right in time for the dinner.  While we didn’t take any public transport through the day, we did cover the peripheral region of Mumbai in OLA and my son had enjoyed the cozy sleep all the way to the varied destinations. He is habituated to sleeping in our car as well, when we venture out in Bengaluru, so I won’t blame him.

 

13^th Feb 2023

 We had to return to Borivali and after looking at multiple options of NMMT AC bus, MEMU from Kalamboli to Vasai and EMU to Borivali, we finally settled for a long ride of OLA end to end as my mom was prone to Vertigo offlate and next day was important.

The OLA ride was through the familiar Panvel-Sion Highway, veering to Thane Belapur Road at Turbhe and then taking the Saket exit onto the Eastern Express Highway and then Ghodbunder Road to Borivali. This meant, Nirvaan enjoyed spotting the Private Non-AC Sleeper, AC Sleeper, NMMT, BEST, TMT, MBMT Buses enroute while his Papa was happy seeing the Harbour Line, Trans harbour Line, Navi Mumbai Metro construction, etc. We had short races with CR MRVC rakes as well, which was mostly won by the trains.

 

14^th Feb 2023

The wedding was at the Kohinoor Institue of Hotel Management in  Dadar West at 11:00am, so we left from Borivali in an OLA, this time in a Wagon R with the hopes to dodge the morning Western Express Highway’s congestion. Nirvaan and I had a good time spotting Metro trains snaking out of the stations, private cars, BEST AC/Non AC buses, autos and hordes of other vehicles. We also caught a glimpse of the Shivaji Park. The wedding venue overlooks the Bandra Worli Sealink in the horizon and this was his first glimpse of the sea-bridge. He had made up his mind to see it closely.  

After the reception, I told Bhavia that we were only 500 meters away from Siddhivinayak Temple. It was a Tuesday and Mumbaikars are known to throng this Ganesha temple for divine support to their lives. We knew it would be crowded but didn’t want to miss the opportunity. In comes the Kaali Peeli Taxi ride for Nirvaan and we take the Santro to the temple. We decided to skip the regular queue and went straight for the “Mukh Darshan”. Not only did we get a clear darshan, we got ample time to stand and pray to our favorite deity without being pushed around. It was the fastest and the best darshan we had in all these years of visiting the temple.  

Within 30 minutes we were out and Nirvaan had caught a glimpse of the Maruti Eeco Share Taxis outside the temple. We crossed the road and queued up to get into one of them for a short 10-minute ride to Dadar Western. He was gleaming with joy. Bhavia took II Class tickets to Borivali from Dadar and we boarded a relatively empty train from platform number 1. This was Nirvaan’s first ride on a local train, while my mom got a seat at Dadar, a fellow Samaritan offered the elusive window seat to Nirvaan. He was a bit apprehensive to go and sit alone but with a trackside facing window, it didn’t take too much time for him to get drawn towards it. While we were in a slow train, the continuous zipping past of the local trains on the adjacent tracks had him excited. While Bhavia kept getting angry at him for touching the unkempt window grills, I was feeling contended in making my son love the trains which are so close to my heart. 

By Andheri, I was sitting next to him and explaining him a few nuances which he could understand at his age about the trains, tracks, etc. We also showed him his Mom’s old office near Goregaon. Finally, we reached Borivali on Platform 4 thankfully reducing the need to walk the distance to the exit of the station towards east.

While our first choice was to take the BEST AC298 bus, the queue was recently moved and had no shelter. So, we ditched the idea and took the auto (Bajaj RE) to our home. Rest of the evening was spent in eating Vadapav, Veg Pakoda and Samosa which my Father-in-Law had fetched for our longing taste buds.

 

15^th Feb 2023

Today was the rest day, I had planned for my spouse and mom after the frantic travel over the last 4 days. I had to go to Hilton Mumbai near the International Airport to collect a laptop from my colleague. Nirvaan was insisting on accompanying me. After repeated instructions from all the members in the house on safeguarding the travel with Nirvaan, we left. The plan was to walk to the nearest metro station, Ovaripada on Red line (MM7). We bought tickets to Gundavli to cross over to WEH on Blue Line (MM1) to proceed further till Marol Naka. MM7 was empty and Nirvaan was comparing it to the Namma Metro rides in Bengaluru that I had taken him on a few weeks back. The best part of this journey for him was being able to see the road traffic on the Western Express highway down below. He was calling out the AC Buses, much to the amusement of the fellow commuters. 

Thankfully, the interchange is designed at Concourse level and it was a breeze to switch lines to MM1. The metro on this line were the biggest beneficiary of the new MM2A and MM7 lines as the usual crowd towards Central Railways have now started switching at Metro interchanges to hop onto MM1. This meant the incoming metro was crowded.  We got off at Marol Naka and took an Auto to the Hotel. He was quick to spot the Airport canopy from the distance. After collecting the laptop, eating pizza and a small show-around of the hotel by my colleague, we headed back home.

 I took an auto straight to Gundavli via Sahar Airport road to catch a glimpse of the under-construction work of MM3.

 

After reaching Gundavli while we were crossing the JOG Flyover, the boy holding my hand suddenly started jumping with joy. He had spotted the Non-AC Double Decker bus bound to Agarkar Chowk. We stood for a few seconds on the pavement till the bus disappeared. Then, we took the metro back to Ovaripada to end the day’s journey. Tonight, we were munching on Sev puri, Ragada puri, and the likes. Again, part of our To-Do List in Mumbai.

 

16^th Feb 2023

Today, was the day of Mumbai exploration for Nirvaan. We had open plans and only thing we had to fit into our itinerary was a visit to Family Friend's house in Sewri-Wadala-Bhoiwada area. We left home around 9:30 am with a plan to catch Western Railways Slow AC Local from Borivali to Churchgate at around 10:36 am. We had boarded the BEST AC298 from AshokVan to the station. I bought AC Local train tickets via the UTS app which was still on my phone even after leaving Mumbai 5 years back. The process was smooth and while we were early at the station for the AC Local, we noticed a Borivali starting fast being scheduled on Pf 8. Not missing the opportunity, we hopped into the Fast train’s First Class which had stoppages only at Andheri, Bandra, Dadar, Mumbai Central, Grant Road, Charni Road and Marine Lines before terminating at Churchgate. The ride was smooth and comfortable. All the way, Nirvaan was enjoying the overtakes and crossing of local trains.

We got off on Pf 4 of Churchgate and walked to the nearest bus stop to take the AC Bus bound to CSTM. Ride was a short one. Then we enquired about the Double Decker Bus but the Controller said those have been stopped, so we took a share EECO Taxi to Gateway of India. We showed him the RBI, Asiatic Library, the Naval Gates, Mumbai Police HQ before alighting at the destination. After a few pictures, we returned to S P Mukerjee Chowk. 

We spotted a Double Decker bus again and so we rushed to a bus stop but it vanished. The humidity of Mumbai was getting to us and while buying water bottles, I enquired with the shop keepers but no one had a clue of the bus schedule. After a frustrating wait of 30 minutes at the bus stop we ditched the plan and decided to eat at McDonalds at Colaba Causeway.  Then, we took the Blue AC Taxi from Colaba Causeway to Bhoiwada. Some of the sightings included the BMC HQ, CST Heritage Building, the JJ Flyover and Byculla Flyover, meandering Mono-rail structures and even the elusive mono-rail running above us for quite a few meters.

The apartment we went to was on the 21^st floor overlooking the eastern front of Mumbai with clear view of Sewri Wadala harbor line, Eastern Freeway, the under construction Mumbai Trans Harbour Link to connect to Navi Mumbai and the Oil Refineries of BPCL, HPCL. It was breathtaking and Nirvaan simply refused to leave the Balcony.

After a heavy evening snack which consisted of Poha, Vada and Dhokla we decide to fulfil the promise to Nirvaan. We took a circuitous route to Juhu Beach in a Hyundai i10 OLA with Bandra Worli SeaLink enroute. As the evening was slowly getting darker, the traffic on Mumbai streets ensured that we crossed the BWSL around 7 pm in all its glory. The sight was amazing and Nirvaan was spell bound with the height of the structure and knowing that we were above the Arabian Sea. I showed him Taj Lands End in the distance and then we took the SV Road, Link Road and Juhu Tara Road to reach Juhu Beach at 8 pm. The humongous LED wall in the dark sea was very vivid and innovative piece of advertisement. Nirvaan ran around, dipped his feet in the cold waters of the sea, bought some drone shot flyers from the vendors before planning our way back home.

 

My brother-in-law works close to DN Nagar Metro of MM1, so we asked him to reach Andheri West Metro Station of MM2A. This leads to a confusion. They should have named both the stations with one name. We reached MM2A’s Andheri West station by Auto. We had planned to take the MM2A all the way to Ovaripada on MM7. Currently the trains on MM2A and MM7 run a full curve from Andheri West to Gundavli. This also meant that Nirvaan and I would have completed the new Metro Circuit of Mumbai. Again, the BEML manufactured rakes ran above the SV Road all the way to Dahisar and crossed the WR line to enter East side and then drop us at Ovaripada. While there are no faults to be found in the rakes, the drivers still seem to miss the precision stopping of the rakes aligned to the Platform Screen Doors. The trains also need to run faster to attract more crowd as currently these rakes seem to be running at sedate speeds. Probably, they would increase it after a few months of initial drives.

 

Nirvaan had quite a bit of adventure with the AFC gates with him refusing to cross after scanning the QR code. This meant, when he actually crossed later behind someone, the tailgating was detected and we had to call the Customer Service Representative to validate the QR codes again. Just to ensure that Nirvaan had learnt his lesson we asked the Representative to warn him. The personnel were quick to tell him that he would be fined and also put in jail for 3 months. This statement petrified him while we were laughing and pricking him all the way to our home. Poor boy had never been warned by strangers in this fashion and was sulking all the way home. After alighting at Ovaripada, we decided to call my in-laws to Gokul Anand restaurant across the street for dinner.  We went to sleep well past midnight.

 

17^th Feb 2023

This was going to a be special day. After a lot of convincing and pestering, I had got permission to take Nirvaan on a short maiden railfanning trip. Before leaving from Bengaluru, I had booked in the Vande Bharat Express from Borivali to Vapi and a return trip in Ahmedabad-Mumbai Central AC Double Decker Express. I woke up at 4:45 am and woke up Nirvaan at 5:15 am. He was reluctant to get up as we had hardly slept for 5 hours. I just whispered in his ears that I am cancelling the Vande Bharat Tickets as he is not waking up. That did the trick. I had packed biscuits for him and I had 2 bananas before leaving for the station. The usual instructions to keep him safe and hold his hands at all times was read out to me by mom, spouse and in-laws. We took an AC 298 BEST bus to reach the station by 6:00am. We reached Pf 6 which was packed with a lot of commuters waiting for 22953 Gujarat Express. It is using the Conventional ICF rake and was hauled by WAP4. Our Vande Bharat arrived with a delay of 8-10 minutes. We were in the 6^th coach. We had aisle seats, but that didn’t stop us from uninterrupted views, thanks to the wide windows. We crawled through Vasai Road. I showed Nirvaan the EMUs running on the adjacent tracks in parallel and in crossings. His queries finally came to end and he had a brief 20-minute nap while I was enjoying the speed after Virar.

The train was 95% full and we crawled at Vaitarna. We were served tea and biscuits, earlier than the rest of the passengers, as we had to get off at Vapi. This was followed by breakfast which was enjoyable. We clocked 130 kmph and Nirvaan was watching the Ulysse App as well as the onboard display for validations. He thoroughly enjoyed the classy interiors, the speed and said that he felt it was better than an aero plane. Now, that’s a big comment from an eternal Airfan.

 

As we alighted at Vapi at 8:05 and August Kranti Rajdhani hauled by WAP7 391983 arrived on the adjacent platform. 60165 with flat beds carrying Steel from SAIL plant next to our house in Bengaluru sped past towards Vadodara. Nirvaan was quick to spot the SAIL logo. The Shatabdi followed up at 8:26 am. We had overtaken the Gujarat Express which reached Vapi at 8:51 am, a full 45 minutes behind us. Bhuj Bandra Express came in on Vapi Pf 3 and was overtaken by Jodhpur Bandra hauled by 30114 on Pf 2. 37279 brought in the Bandra Valsad Intercity Express. 301175 hauled Gandhidham Bandra with Madhya Pradesh tourism advertisements arrived Vapi at 9:30 am.

 I walked out of Pf1 with Nirvaan for a few minutes to explore the station promenade which looked rusty and dusty. We returned back to the cozy First Class Waiting room with wide windows. While Nirvaan had my phone to watch Youtube, I enjoyed my spottings for the next one hour that we were at Vapi. Karnavati with 37583 arrived at 9:44am and 19418 from Ahmedabad to Borivali hauled by 22702 arrived after that, which was duly overtaken by 22921 hauled Bhagat ki Kothi Dadar Express from Pf 2. This railfanning trip was very different taking into consideration of the kid travelling alongside. His comfort took precedence. Vadodara-Dahanu Road arrived on Pf2 and Borivali Valsad MEMU gave Nirvaan his first glimpse of an Old MEMU. He had seen the BEML made MEMUs in Bengaluru at the siding lines near the BEML factory, but this one was different for him.

 

Next up was our return ride in the AC Double Decker, so we crossed over to the pf 2 and waited with baited breath for the train which arrived behind the 39018. We had a decent run till Boisar where emergency brakes seem to be applied. As far as the occupancy was concerned, it was choc-a-bloc with not a single seat empty. We were on the lower deck and Nirvaan at a Window Seat just next to the stairs which meant it was a solo window seat. I had to contend with the other aisle seat. He was simply ecstatic to see our train zip past the platforms which were very close to his window. The coach looks a bit tired, yet a decent ride back home. He wanted to see the entire coach and so, we went around the coach from Lower Deck to the Doors and then up the stairs to the Upper Deck and then back down the stairs to the middle and then back to our seats. That’s when Nirvaan proclaimed that the train is not Double Decker and it should be called Triple Decker as the seats are available on three separate Decks. I couldn’t agree more.  At Borivali, more than 50% of the crowd alighted and after customary click with the train we headed home by another BEST AC 698 bus.

 

In the evening, we had a few friends visiting us and Nirvaan continued to collect gifts from each of our well-wishers. So much so that we had to add another bag in our return trip to Bengaluru. Most of them know his craze for vehicles and the gifts were definitely including Monster trucks, Helicopters, Aeroplanes, Yacht, Motorbikes and many others.

 

18^th Feb 2023

Our flight was at 4pm and that meant we had to leave our house around 1:15 pm. Since the bags had increased and Nirvaan had been insisting on booking an SUV for Drop Off as he know the car options in the OLA App and the Google Maps that they use. I gave in to the request and we got an Ertiga to drop us off to the Terminal 2. The ride was smooth and we reached the wonderful T2 by 2 pm. After a smooth check-in and security check we headed to our gate 87A and needed quite a bit of walk.  Bhavia was complaining that we don’t see any celebrities while we travel and as luck would have it, we saw a brisk walking old man along with another man who seemed to be his personal assistant. They came and sat right opposite to Bhavia. He was Mr Narayan Murthy of Infosys and was no less than a celebrity in his own right. While, he seemed to be pretty silent and kept to himself, we decided to not disturb him for a selfie and just feel contended for a wish granted. Nirvaan did stand besides the glass walls of the terminal to see the different carriers like Ethopian, Rwand Air, Emirates, Indigo, Go Air, Air-India, Akasa and so on.

 

Mr Murthy took a window seat in premium economy even though Vistara had business seats on board. We were in our usual D, E, F config seats with Nirvaan besides the window. We saw 777s, 350s, 747,737,320, 321 and host of carriers before take-off. BOM is a paradise for plane spotters. Nirvaan insisted to recording the entire journey as he had seen vlogs on YouTube. I suggested that we can take the take-off and landing videos, which he finally agreed.

Arriving at Bengaluru on North Runway, we got the Aerobridge which helped ditch the bus and led us straight to the baggage claim area, not before spotting the newest carrier to BLR, the Spirit of Australia, Qantas which was on the taxiway. Thrilled to spot the kangaroo, we took OLA PrimeSedan which was a Hyundai Xcent back home. He slept through the 45-minute ride, thus bringing to an end to a week full of travel in Mumbai. The only thing we missed out was the Double Decker Bus.

I read in news that the AC DD bus was inaugurated in the third week of Feb between CSTM and NCPA, but there is no reason to worry as the same manufacturer, Switch Mobility, the electric arm of Ashok Leyland is deploying 5 AC DD Buses in Bengaluru on the Outer Ring Road between Hebbal and Silkboard from 15^th March. So, the wait isn’t too long. We hope to hop on it soon.