25 Hours to Pune!

Time to leave Delhi and head on down to Pune. I managed to get a berth on the the Sleeper train to Pune; The Goa Express. Two guesses where it goes to. Ruby (our Tour Leader) sorted an Auto to get me to the Station which was on the far side of town and it took me a good 40 minutes to get over there, however I was in good time and found my seat and on the train. Packed as usual with loads of people seeing each other off and saying their goodbye's I managed to squeeze my bags under my seat and was about to settle in for the long haul when a young girl came to ask me if I would swap seats. Not sure why, and fearing I was being fleeced for my seat I was a little reticent. Then a man nearby explained that she wanted to swap as her husband was in a berth further down the carriage and she wanted to swap to be with him. It turns out that this is standard practice and nearly half the train was playing musical chairs to be with friends or relatives. (Just because you book at the same time doesn't guarantee you'll be sat next to each other on Indian Rail it seems. So I dragged out my bags and fought my way down to the seat at the end. Whilst getting down there another couple were pleading with a Frenchman to do the same when was even more confused as he spoke very little English never mind Hindi, so I did my good turn for the day and translated from Hinglish to French and and back again, and It seemed to work, all were very happy and with the Franco-Indian issue resolved I strapped my bags in and set in for the night ahead. Luckily I had bought some sandwiches along with me so this solved tea time only breakfast and lunch to brave from the 'Pantry Car'. Indian Trains whilst basic in build are quite up to date and have a power socket in each compartment so I was able to play on my laptop most of the night to while away the hours. The train may be designated an Express but it only trundles along at about 70mph and seemed to stop about every 2 hours or so. I slept a little through the night, the trains rock around quite a lot and jolt suddenly every now and again but not too badly.
Morning came and I only really fancied the Chai tea that was brought around every 10minutes by the Pantry Staff, and only 5 Rupees a cup not bad value too. By 11 ish the chap came around asking for Lunch orders and I opted for the Veg Biryani which arrived in a takeaway Tray just like from the Indian back home abate with the words Meals-on-Wheels emblazoned across the lid, were they trying to tell me something?
As usual it is quite in order to just walk to the end of the carriage and ope the door to see whats going on outside even whilst the train is in motion, there are no automatic locks.
the temperature change was now noticeable and also the landscape, it was still generally flat land as far as the eye could see with the occasional hill popping out in the distance but the colour of the landscape had changed from a generally dustiness to darker soil and lots of greenery with fields growing mostly sugar cane. At one crossing a line of nearly 30 ox carts were waiting for the train to pass at a level crossing and the fields were full of people working the land.
Finally the train pulled into Pune and I called at the ATM and them took an Auto out to Sangam.