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!