Ask anyone who grew up in Pune or Mumbai as a kid about their favorite train and more likely than not you will hear them answer without any hesitation – the Deccan Queen. Of all the trains that connected these two cities, the Deccan Queen was by far my favorite. Not only did it have a really cool blue color (I used to call it Deccan Queen Blue) – but it was (and probably still is) one of the fastest ways to travel to Mumbai and back.

Named after the city of Pune – called the Queen of the Deccan – this iconic train celebrated its 90th birthday today with a cake-cutting ceremony at Pune Station and a band performance by the railway police. The Deccan Queen was ready to roll on 1 June 1929 but had to wait another year before the entire route could be electrified. The train was started by the British mainly to ferry rich and famous Britons from Mumbai who used to come to Pune to watch and bet on horse races. Both the train and India have come a long way since its first journey on 1 June 1930.

Close your eyes and remember those crisp and cool early Pune mornings as you hurry to the station in a rickshaw. You cannot afford to be late – the Deccan Queen leaves Pune Station at 7:15 am sharp. Once on board you heave a sigh of relief and settle down in your seat. Try to remember the crowds waving goodbye and the hawkers and newspaper sellers peddling their wares. Finally, after what seemed like an infinitely long time for a kid, the train begins to move. Woohoo – the journey has begun!

Slowly and steadily, the train starts to pick up speed. Shivaji Nagar station zips by – no stops now until Lonavala. You watch transfixed through the window at the world rolling by outside. Cars and scooters and cycles and motorbikes, school children hurrying to school – all the controlled chaos of life will slowly disappear as the train leaves the city behind and thunders on towards Mumbai. Soon it will mostly be fields and meadows – an occasional house here and there – kids playing cricket on open grounds.

You slowly realize that there are other people in the train besides you but most adults around you have their noses stuck inside newspapers. And you also realize that you are hungry – most likely you skipped breakfast in your mad rush to reach the station in time. Fear not! Awesome food awaits you on the train. Garam cheese toast, vada pav, vegetable cutlets, omelettes, tea and coffee. And we haven’t even reached Lonavala yet to sample the delicious chikki. After Lonavala and Khandala, the train weaves through a beautiful stretch called the “ghat” – lush green landscapes, waterfalls and yes – lots of monkeys. If memory serves me right, I do believe the train has an official stop (maybe for technical reasons) near “Monkey Hill”. And we get to look at monkeys going about their monkey-business looking back at us wondering where all these humans are off to in their blue train.

Because it is one of the busiest commuter corridors in the entire world, new technologies like Hyperloop are being seriously looked into as more high-tech alternatives to rail and road travel – supposedly cutting down travel time between Pune and Mumbai to 20-30 mins instead of the 3-4 hours it takes by train. But no matter what new technological marvels make their debut in the future, I have no doubt that “Deccan Queen Blue” will keep on running. Do you seriously believe that the Hyperloop will give you enough time to enjoy a hot vada-pav and stretch your legs looking for the perfect Chikki?

From us Punekars and Mumbaikars – both in India and scattered all over the globe – gratitude and best wishes to all the engineers and technicians and drivers and other railway employees who work hard every day to keep this train running like clockwork and make the journey so enjoyable. Ninety years is not that old at all. May the Deccan Queen run forever!

Trains of thoughts are triggered by strange things. Our memory is amazing but fragile so I’m going to record some thoughts in cyberspace. It’s always wise to wait a few days before recording thoughts – so only the important bits remain and one can wait and see if there are any other connections and memories that are linked to what we were thinking of at that time.

Here is the “train of thought trigger”, last seen on an American Airlines flight from DFW to ATL. I took a photo of it so I could use it later for this blog.

The most important thought I had after staring at this image for a long time is that I need to look for a globe (preferably located in the real world) that will have the ability to change the sea level. How would the world look like if the oceans rise by 10 feet? Would our home become a beach-front property?

What would earth look like if all the oceans were drained completely? Anyone for a hike down the Mariana trench? So I want a globe whose surface is 3D relief – you know what I mean. That would be one cool toy! I know it is a bit late to be asking this but Santa, you listening up there? I’ve mostly been good this year.

Santa to his elves: Hey, have we got anything like that, guys?

Elves: Nope. Is this guy crazy or what?

So guess I’m not getting it from you-know-whom. Too bad.  The next option is to search for it, or “google it” as it is called these days. Actually, I imagine the preferred practice is to first google it and then resort to Santa – but that is neither here nor there. Just to be totally clear, I googled the phrase “3d globe with sea level changer”. There were quite a few hits. But I’m not really interested in computer simulations of this by NASA or Rutgers University. I changed my search phrase to “toy 3d globe with sea level changer” and then hit the jackpot. Almost. There is an app sold on Amazon called “Elevation Earth” – which seems to simulate this exact experience. A few clicks later I found the iOS version – who really cares about Amazon or Android apps anyway?

 I looked carefully to check if my better half was around and then clicked on “Buy”. The app is good and easy to use. Here are some snapshots of how the world looks like when sea-levels rise by +476m. The Appalachian mountains now become islands on the former US east coast. Most of Europe is underwater except the mountain ranges of course. If you have a swiss-bank account, your money is safe. Further to the east, the mighty Himalayas are now facing the ocean as most of India is overwhelmed.

For now, I am content to play with this app – but if anyone out there knows of a real 3D globe that can simulate stuff like this, I would love to get in touch with you.