Title - Luxury de-railed - 12494/Bangalore Rajdhani Express

From onboard the 12494 Hazarat Nizamuddin (New Delhi) to Bangalore City Rajdhani Express. Blessed with brand new LHB coaches finally, this train operates thrice weekly, and after Secunderabad, routes overnight to Bangalore through what some would call "Naxalite territory" - via Ranga Reddy, and thence Kurnool where it crosses the mighty Tungabhadra. On the other 4 days of the week, the Bangalore Rajdhani, still using the older RCF design coaches, rattles through by the older route after Secunderabad on the "safer" but longer option via Raichur and Seram.It is on this route that you can get a spot education on why governance is going wrong, equating blatant theft and misuse of natural and national resources with "development", and calling anybody who thinks otherwise a "Naxalite". To get an even better understanding, you can travel on the 5 times a week Karnatak Sampark Kranti Express (SK) which leaves Hazarat Nizamuddin (New Delhi) in the morning, and follows the same path barring a minor deviation within Hyderabad (Kacheguda instead of Secunderabad).

So the parts you missed at night on the Rajdhani, work their way for you during the day - and on the SK, you have the option of doing it by ordinary sleeper, unlike in the fully air-conditioned Rajdhani. And then, the Rajdhani promises luxury as well as fine food onboard - or so we are led to believe, as we pelt through the railway lines of modern India's signs of progress and affluence, strewn with plastic garbage from the MNCs of the world giving us yet another lesson in "free trade".

Of course, it is still better if you take any train to Ranchi, and then try to work your way to Hyderabad via Raipur for the real hands-on truth - but even this will help.

Departing Nizamuddin Station dot on time with an untypical WAP-7 induced jolt in this specific case, and the constant construction mess that is called New Delhi outside, at 2050 sharp evey day, the Bangalore Rajdhani Express pelts at an achieved average of over 90 kmph, stopping only at Jhansi in the middle of the night, Bhopal just before dawn, and then starts slowing down to the '80s because of the ghats around Nagpur. It then slows down some more as it enters development induced cement and paper factory land in the afternoon, through the fringes of what is known again as Naxalite territory in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, to amble into Secunderabad by about 1800hrs.

And by the time it hits the Secunderabad to Bangalore leg, which used to be amongst the fastest segments not too long ago, the average speed drops down to the low 50s - which is what it does through the second night as it literally crawls into Bangalore. Even the slow Hyderabad - Bangalore Express overtakes it, such is the fall of the mighty Rajdhani here. But to give it its due, my Rajdhani slides into Bangalore Central dot on time.

The approaches to Bangalore by rail are amongst the prettiest in terms of virgin forest and then once you hit the outskirts, the worst in all of India, in terms of garbage on and around the rail-tracks, giving it a bit of a different image from the garden city designator that Bengaluru prefers to be known for.

Of course, the train itself boasts of the latest in European design and technology, including dvanced toilets. Thing is, there are no instructions on how to use the toilets, so they get filthy very soon.

But it is the drop in quality of food and cleanliness onboard where the Rajdhani brand has taken a tumble. Leave alone being luxurious, both these extremely important basic elements have gone totally adrift in this case, and that is being gentle.

So how and why does luxury get de-railed in this case? Despite the latest in technology - and this is a brand new rake, not even a couple of weeks old.

One simple answer is - uncontrolled privatisation. Contractual staff are poorly paid, if at all. They have one set of "uniforms", in which they work and sleep and serve food and clean garbage and more for 34 hours. Of course, no provision appears to have been made for them to sleep, so they do so right in the corridors and vestibules. More than that, the cabin and sanitation staff have what appears to be no commitment to the organisation, since they are simply not sure of where they will work and for how long.

And there is obviously no quality control on the food. Who do you complain to? For the complete duration of the two-night one-day journey, the single Indian Railway conductor, puffed up in his three-stripes and black jacket, drops in only once - and that too, to take grave objection to the laminated copy of my PAN card which is the required "identity proof". He is most disappointed when I pull the original out and flash it - I now obviously have become a losing proposition in this game of "identity proof".

The list of short-comings in this train can go on - bed bugs in the blankets, smelly pillows, but what's the point?

The Rajdhani and Shatabdi Expresses are Indian Railway's luxury brands. The way they've gone adrift on some routes, and maintained levels on other routes, could well make for a very interesting case-study on the whole concept of luxury itself. Which is this - the brand does not denote luxury. Only the product does. Sometimes, within the same brand, one product is terrible, and one fulfils all aspirations.

The 12493/12494 Bangalore Rajdhani is one such example of how a product within a brand can be a disaster, despite everything going for it, simply because those who operate it appear to want to live off the brand and neglect the product in the bargain.

I've had good experiences on some of the other Rajdhanis, Shatabdis and Durontos, and the score would be about 50% good, 25% average and 25% dismal, over the last year.

But luxury has to be 100%. All the time. Or it derails.