Torrents, Trains & Tomato Soup

Those who have been aboard the many inter-city trains from Mumbai to Pune (or vice versa) know about the tomato soup that is served piping hot from the pantry. Needless to say, this post is dedicated to that:

 

I had (or will have) the pleasure of travelling on all of the trains recently (Pragati to Pune on Friday, Indrayani back on Saturday, Intercity on Sunday, and the famous Deccan Queen on Monday) since I've been flip frogging from and to the twin towns this week end.

 

Friday was especially special (haha!) because the atmosphere was exactly like the monsoons. This is horrific to the many office-goers and students (heard about Bhavaspandan being postponed), but for me, going to Pune, it's perfect. Because nothing beats a steady clip of the train to the background of pitter-patter rain drops, with the said steaming soup in one hand, other out of the window, freezing itself.

 

Yea, the torrential downpour. Read about that two days before, some weather report. The only said: mild changes of some scattered showers. Yeah, right. Mild. Scattered. Showers. Haha! It was more like... Well, you get the idea.

 

So there I was, enjoying my tomato soup in the Pragati Express, complete with croutons! But then, I realized that the soup isn't the same! In fact, each of the three trains (yeah, yeah, I know there are four) have a different taste, texture and temperature, even though they all cost the same - Rs. 10/-!

 

Pragati: This one is slightly watery, but comes with croutons and masala. It's just about the right temperature, and completely drinkable with no wait times. Eating the croutons is another matter altogether, there is no spoon, and if you keep them floating for four minutes (say), they'll get heavier and slowly start sinking. Soon, you'll have a problem: How the hell do you get them out of the paper cup?

 

Indrayani: Appears to be made from real tomatoes, and possibly because of that, no croutons here. Slightly hot for me, it comes with a rather healthy dash of powdered pepper. So much so, that after you drink it all, the last sip you'll remember forever, because it will have all the pepper... Warning: Water needed! Pronto!

 

Intercity: I don't quite know what prompted them to remove the pantry from this one, but that's the way it is, and so the soup was a wee bit cold. Or maybe it had to do with my coach being towards the very beginning (which has it's own advantages: like being able to listening to the traction motors of the WCAM3). Anyway, my throat had been decently screwed by this time, due to the many temperature changes, so I refused to have the croutons this time round. The soup was ok, but I was sleepy... Don't quite recall how it was. Er, yea, sorry about that!

 

Deccan Queen: This one is the show stopper, for the best tomato soup can only be had here. In my early days, I remember drinking some out of a bowl, that too, al la cream, in the dining car. No such pleasures these days, but the soup still is wayyyyy better. It's just perfect, and having one with the rains pouring places pretty much high on the list of things that one must absolutely do.

 

BTW, beware of the third-party soup sellers. This post does not endorse them at all! :-P

 

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100-brownie points award II:

A 100 brownie points to the first person who comments on the weird thing about this post. Trust me, it wasn't intentional initially, but once I saw what was happening, I tried to play along. If no one gets it within a week, I'll put up the answer myself. Keep watching this space!

 

What do 100-brownie points fetch you? A softy from one of the Macs.