Moments so Far ...

Date - 29th April 2013 Day - Monday From - Jhansi To - Yeswantpur Karnataka Sampark kranti express was late by about 10 minutes. The tiles were being laid on Jhansi station platform number 3. The tile lair was spitting tobacco around the work site, putting cement glue on top of it, then the tiles and then the measure to check if they were getting aligned properly. Few college students from Andhra, with chappals and unkempt hair, with laptops hanging from shoulder and some full pants were raised by few folds were chatting around the trolley that carries goods items. Two gentlemen were confused if their sampark kranti was on this platform or was it another on other platform. A full bodied gym going muscular educated class youth, aged around 25 was throwing plastic from the biscuit and namkeen packets near his foot and munching along with his uncle. I kept sipping drops of precious water that my dear mother had packed for me. The train came and peop...

They are old couple moving around in indian railways post retirement having served the Indian Railways all their lives they travel second class got confirmed berths in two compartments from dadar to jhansi settled their bags and lying to sleep into the reserved compartment at eleven in night a crowd of bhaiyyas going to Gorakhpur alight they fight, scream, shout for their berth rights with utter disregard for the rest of confirmations inside the husband concerned exchanged seats with the wife took a bag along that was settled inside someone would have noticed the bag moving alongside the wife in the middle of night took the bag to toilet took out the shaving kit took the new saree and blouse it was a gift worn only once the thief packed all in little kholi left the bag in the morning a little boy wondered Aunty, is the bag in toilet yours They could only wonder the Railways they served had become a safe haven for taking away the li...

Indian railways confirms one ticket in a family ticket where two ladies are travelling along with two kids. There were three tickets in waiting list 123 for past month and half. On the D-day one got confirmed. What will you do with your travel plans if you got into a scenario like that? I got a message yesterday night when I was trying to sleep from chunnu saying "Are you awake?". I ignored the message tuned and cursed the banks for sending their promotions late at night. Moments later I got a call from papa asking what to do in a scenario like this. You love the times in life when you dont know anything but are expected to advise. Mostly such advice gets ignored but you still give. I suggested they go to station and check with the great indian railways ticket collector, the men in black. Then I called chunnu in acknowledgment of his message. After all the message was not from bank. He informed me that the waiting list tickets get automatically canceled. I had never ...

Rajdhani express leaves Jhansi at 01:20 towards Bangalore. I saw my ticket a thousand times and wished that it was really 00:20 or 23:20 or 22:20. My uncle and their family was kind enough to entertain me till about 23:00. Then the power and mosquitoes took over the reins of mind and allowed it to lose patience. He asked me "Why are you so uneasy?". I gave a lame "I dont want your night to be wasted because of me." We went to Railway station and I found a cybercafe offering Rs 25 per hour. I said "I want for 10 mins, Will you reduce the price? There is noone inside, atleast it will give you some business." He was adament and said "It will not be compromised. You will have to pay in full, in advance" and he showed me the notice that said "Even if there is a link failure your money will not be refunded". I checked email and forwarded the BSNL bill copy to my brother so that he could go to BSNL office and show it to them as proof of me hav...

Karnataka express leaves Bangalore at 19:20 hours. She gave two wait listed tickets to us in Tatkal. If the tickets dont get confirmed then you can get refund otherwise not. There was a bulky guy and an army man. There were others who were exchanging and adjusting for seats. I wanted to exchange my seat too but the person was not available until Sholapur so I had to be content with middle berth. The young lads were in engineering college in Bangalore. They had laptops and heavy duty mobile phones and the train had three way sockets to get the electronics going. Thankfully the same sockets would trip every few minutes to discourage the desperate and entertain the rest. We were having food and they would attempt to check the power point at our berth, the wire would hang lose and touch the food but they dont care. They put metallic and ear piercing music which could drive a normal ear crazy but they dont care. They would put ugly, disgusting, downtrodden and filthy horror movie and everyo...

It was late in the evening when the news came. I could not do online booking because she did not have ID. I went out in my wobbly swift. She (now I am talking of swift, a car) has been indicating that her tyres could be punctured or wheels could be imbalance. My brother asked me "When did you last fill air in it?" I said "today I filled it twice and I have come to this place in auto fearing the tyre would lose tube. I enquired on the way for agents who give real train ticket without need for ID card and there was none to found. Everyone said, they could give the ticket but the risk of travel without ID would be on ticket holder. IRCTC online ticketing has disarmed the once powerful train ticket agents who would maintain stock of tickets for all ages and all days and all trains to all places. I got a call from my brother and then my father. "Why dont you go? She would be alone. She has never travelled alone." My mind also reminded me that I had not gone in marri...