I had been on a trip to Shirdi, a package tour organized by the IRCTC. I was initially planning to go there on my own, but lack of tickets on the train to Shirdi from Secunderabad, forced me to look for alternatives. And that's how I chanced upon this package tour.
This package offers a 2 night & 1 day trip, from Secunderabad to Shirdi, and back to Secunderabad. The price per person, is Rupees 1850. Other offerings were two dinners, a breakfast, pickup from and drop to Nagarsol railway station. This, I felt, is an outrageous charge for a simple one day trip to Shirdi.
Since I had no other choice, I did go ahead with the booking of this tour for myself and my spouse. A week after I booked, I got a call from the IRCTC, about the confirmation of my booking, and an intimation that other details, like where to collect the travel tickets, would be provided a day before the journey. And so was it. An option was given to collect the tour tickets at their office near Sangeet theatre, or in the Secunderabad railway station; I chose the latter.
I was asked to collect the tickets at the IRCTC kiosk in the General waiting hall on Platform 1, where the IRCTC agent showed up at about 5 PM, just an hour before the train departure. He handed over a bunch of papers, and explained what each one was for and when it should be used, and wished us a happy journey. The bunch consisted of meal vouchers, train tickets and a complete itinerary.
The train we had to get into is Ajanta express, a daily, which runs between the Secunderabad and Manmad railway stations. This train departs from the Secunderabad station at 6.05 PM and reaches Nagarsol at about 5.30 AM, the next day. As per the tour, we are supposed to get down at Nagarsol, from where we would be transported to Shirdi – which is 50 Kms from here – by road. In the evening, we would be transported to Nagarsol, and we are to board Ajanta express again, to reach Secunderabad the next day at about 9.30 AM.
We just settled into our seats in this train and dinner was brought in by a vendor. He handed over the hot dinner and took a meal voucher from us. The dinner was quite a heavy packing; there were two chapathis, a dal variety, a masala curry, a biryani rice, a packet of white rice, one cup of Vijaya dairy, one doodh peda, and one banana. I had never seen such a big meal offered in any train; sure this must be a special packing for the tour.
The next morning, we reached Nagarsol at around 6.15 AM, a touch late than the usual time. There was one person holding a placard which read, “Welcome to IRCTC”. We walked up to him and he immediately addressed us as “two member group”. There was another group, a five member group, who had come on the same tour, hence he named us according to our size. We were asked to travel with another family, in a Maruti Ecco AC vehicle. The family occupied the front seats, so we had to sit in the rear. It was an uncomfortable ride, for, one – the road was bumpy, and two – the family had a baby, so they turned off the AC. After an hour of such riding, we reached Hotel Saish in Shirdi, where our accommodation was arranged. The hotel looked grand from the exterior, much different from the sleazy ones I had stayed in, during my earlier visits to this holy place. We were given a double room, which was big enough for four people to stay. Since we weren't going to stay beyond the evening, I felt this was a waste of money.
We got ready and headed to the temple. Bang opposite the entrance is the Udupi Hotel. We had some mediocre iddly for breakfast. Lesson one: Never have South Indian dishes in Northern India. However, the filter coffee was amazing. The taste is on par with any Sagars of Bangalore. Then we got into the Darshan queue, after crossing many hurdles of hawkers, swamis, touts. Lesson two: Hawkers say that we have to go inside the temple only with a garland, coconut and prasad. This isn't at all necessary, unless you have made an oblation. They try to scare you on god’s name and sell you these. We put our footwear in the Sansthan managed counter, which is exactly opposite the queue entrance. They dont charge you anything, but may ask for tea ka paisa.
The darshan of Sai Baba’s samadhi happened in less than two hours. The darshan queue is quite long, with two compartments, but it is continuously moving. In one of the compartments, refreshments counter is available. By the time we came out, the heat picked up and we were searching for water. There wasn't any available in the premises, so we had to go out and buy one. Next we went to Dwarakamai and Chawadi. Walking back to the hotel was like a punishment – the heat was so severe. We came out again for lunch, which we had in a place named Goradia’s thali. There was an Andhra variety thali and a Gujarati one, anyone costing 100 rupees. The food is very tasty and the service is amazing. They don't just let you sit idle. Pulkas were served piping hot, one after another, until we said please no more!
The rest of the noon, we couldn’t step out of the hotel, owing to the heat. At 6.30 PM, we checked out of the hotel and got into the same car which picked us up in the morning. The night dinner was given in the IRCTC canteen, in the Nagarsol station. The Ajanta express turned up an hour later than the scheduled time. The next morning, in Medchal, we got breakfast – two iddly, two vada. And we reached Secunderabad at 10 AM.
That’s how my trip went. Overall, I felt it was a good one, particularly the quality of the food, the hotel, road transport – it’s a well organized trip. I calculated the expenses and it justified the 3700 rupees both of us paid. Here’s the split up (approximate amounts):
Train tickets 1200 Hotel room 1600 Dinner 100 * 2 * 2 = 400 Breakfast 25 * 2 = 50 Road transport 100 * 2 * 2 = 400 Total 3650 For more details, please visit the Rail Tourism Website
