Living Nightmare

IN THE BACK OF BEYOND: Female 'tour warriors' after breakfast at Bileshwarpura

An air of uncertainty hangs over members of the group that had set out for the Mt Abu-Udaipur tour (ref post of November 12) by the 9:55 pm train yesterday. Last heard, they were in the middle of nowhere – some place on the highway between Chhatral and Mehsana having breakfast en route this morning.
Obviously they got off the train and were now on the road far, far away from their destination. And thereby hangs a tale.
The trip began on a wrong footing. An Ola-Uber strike yesterday had caused great distress to many (mostly senior citizens) who had to cab it to Bandra Terminus with luggage. But more than the harassment and suffering was the utterly callous attitude of Indian Railways which almost scuttled the tour.
A text message in the afternoon informed ticket holders that the train from Mumbai had been 'diverted' from Vadodara and would not be touching Abu Road Station as scheduled. No indication why – just instructions to either take your refund (and effo) or disembark at the “nearest station”.

The Club wore a deserted look today morning

No mention where that station is or what the diverted route would be.
A frantic call on the Railway Help Line yielded an even bigger shock: The train had already left Mumbai at 9:55 a.m.! (Surprisingly, tickets did not indicate time of departure.) Scouring the Internet revealed that the train would leave on schedule at 9:55 pm, but it had indeed been diverted from Vadodara and would connect with Ajmer via Ratlam.
This threw up three options: (a) Getting down at Ratlam and taking the road to Mt Abu; (b) Go on to Ajmer and then undertake a nine-hour journey to Mt Abu; and (c) scrapping the trip altogether. After consultations (on phone) with all members, it was decided not to abandon the trip, but get down en masse at Vadodara and leave the rest to the Almighty above.
This was exactly how things panned out – except that a kind co-passenger, who overheard our members at Bandra station, offered the contact number of a transporter in Vadodra. A few phone calls later, when our 'tour warriors' got down at Vadodara around 2:30 a.m., a mini bus was waiting outside the station to take them to Mt Abu. The rest remains in the realms of mystery.