My gratitude to Indian Railways during Corona times

Corona or Covid 19, I think no one would have heard of term ever but will remember it till their life time now, thanks to the current pandemic situation globally due to this virus. Thousands of people have lost their lives globally and the numbers are just increasing daily. I just hope together we are able to defeat this virus globally by being self-quarantined.

During the initial stages of this outbreak I was at my hometown, that time I wasn’t much aware of the situation because numbers of cases were negligible and situation was under control then. Since my work at home town was not completed I decided to extend my stay by 5 more days. Those 5 five days were very crucial as by then Corona was termed as pandemic by WHO and travel restriction were enforced by the government.

Due to some unavoidable circumstances, I had to travel back to Bengaluru and for the first time I was in the dilemma, whether to travel or not? The situation was more intriguing on the day of travel, till I reached station, I was just waiting for a reason to cancel my travel.

But the moment I reached station, I felt I was in safe hands, they was Covid 19 medical desk at the entrance of station and place was being cleaned by disinfected at regular interval and safety instructions were being announced through speakers. The station had deserted look with bare minimum passengers at the platform and all of them were either masked or had covered their face with handkerchief, first soothing experience.

After sometime train arrived and I board it, to my utter surprise there were hardly any passengers in the coach, including me 10 passengers I believe. I went to my berth and settled my luggage, coach was little different today, as curtains and blankets were removed from AC coaches. All I was offered was a pair of bed sheet and pillow but the temperate was moderated, so it didn’t bother me, so it took some time to get the feel of AC.

I realized that janitor of the coach was making periodic rounds of coach at regular interval, initially it was scary initially but later I got used to it. Then the ticket checker came asked my seat number and glanced over my Id card and went back. He was in mask and gloves, I have never seen them with these additional gears as they are mostly in black coat with white trouser, so was little surprised.

By 8 pm onwards rounds of janitor was intensified and they were accompanied by ticket checkers as I could hear their footsteps till 12.00 am, after that I slept.  Morning when I woke up I realized that the whole drill of periodic rounds by janitor and ticket collector was done to safeguard our interest as we passenger were less in number and were scattered in our seating arrangements. So staffs of Indian Railways made regular rounds, in order to prevent us from any towards incident as we were prone to them in this Corona time.

I would like to my express my heart felt gratitude to all staffs of Indian Railways for thinking so much about us passenger even in this pandemic situation. Thank you and keep up the good work

Travelling with rodent in Train

Travelling between Kerala and Bangalore has become a routine for me now. But this time the journey was with an unwanted guest in our coach. As per my analysis guest didn’t create any trouble for passengers of the coach. Lucky passengers

I reached station 45 mins before the prior departure of the train, hate running behind the train with luggage. From college days I have heavy luggage issues, no idea how I pile up so many things? Only time I travelled with a backpack was when I had to travel back home within a week after reaching Bangalore. I felt good about it. That’s my strategy for all my travel but rarely succeed in it.

Since Bangalore was the starting destination, train was placed in platform 20 mins before the scheduled departure, waited till most of the passengers to my coach had boarded in. Despite good 20 mins time in hand I could see, people rushing towards the door of the train, the moment it is placed on platform and trying to open the door. It’s the case with general, sleeper and AC coaches, while the latter have confirmed tickets still.

I got into my AC 3tier coach and got seated onto my seat. Placed my luggage bag beneath the seat and laptop bag next to me, I was allocated site lower birth. I hate it so requested my co passenger to exchange out seats while retiring to bed. He agreed happily to it.

It was dinner time when I noticed something, a small object crawling beneath my birth, oh god it was a rat. It passed twice my seat, I was worried for my luggage bag. I informed the coach attender about the rat and they said it will be taken care of. I knew they will do their job hence I went to bed after dinner. Still this rat thing was in the back of my mind.

I got up in morning and first thing I did was to take out my luggage bag and check it. Was delighted to see no harm to my bag, because I was unaware the damaged caused then. After freshening up it was breakfast time, I feel more hungry in train than at home. Usually I buy breakfast but for this journey I had packed it from home. Parantha and scrambled egg, I had kept a small paper bag next to my luggage bag beneath the seat, had kept my breakfast in the bag.

Parantha was wrapped in aluminum foil whereas egg was in a container. When I took the paranta out of the bag, saw it was not the way how I packed it a day before. Reason parantha was out of the foil and seemed like someone had chewed it or was cut with some sharp object. I was wondering how can this happen in AC coach? Then it striked me, of our unwanted guest in train, the rat, I saw previous night beneath my seat, was the culprit. That bag had other stuff also and I was scared that damage will be more. Hence I checked the bag immediately but rat didn’t touch anything else except the parantha packed in the foil. It had eaten good amount of it.

Seems likes I was not destined for homemade breakfast hence I bought breakfast as per the custom carried so far, wondering, why did the rat eat only parantha and left other things untouched? Should be thankful to rat that it didn’t damage any other thing because breakfast could be bought but few other things can’t be replaced easily so soon.

That was my journey with a rat the first and last time I hope……

My tussle with IRCTC tatkal booking

IRCTC has always been in center of controversy for its tatkal booking. As a result of which government has done lot of amendment to improve it for the benefit of the masses. Latest being Tatkal booking will be open to masses from 10am to 12pm (for online users), during this period agent will not entertained.

Sree wanted to book ticket for his hometown, he had already procured a bus ticket but wanted to try for train. He asked me if I could help him or not. I told him let me try because booking ticket for tatkal quota is a tough nut to crack.

Next day I logged to IRCTC at 9.45am wanted to keep the things ready and book it at the earliest, sree was trying from his end. We didn’t wanted to take any chance. I entered the date, location , quota and then pressed the search tab. All I could see was it trying to review information, a circular movement in screen. I waited for 15 min then I was logout of the page automatically stating “Timed out”.

Again logged in, this time I  was finding difficulty in location column, the website had become too slow by then. Somehow after 5 mins I was able to reach the option to book tickets and there were some 25 seats available by then. Immediately I click the book tab for taking me to the next page but again got stuck with the rotatory movement, which ended up in page timed out for the second time.

Post that I tried to log in 3-4 times but circular motion was the only, thing which prominent on the screen than anything else. I made my last attempted since it was 11.20 am. This was I was able to clear all hurdles, just to find out that the confirmed tickets were sold out and waiting list was available. During all these me and sree were in constant touch with each other.

Finally he told I should have gone to the counter to procure tickets rather than wasting time in front of laptop trying to book ticket online.  I have never stood in queue to book tickets under tatkal quota but have heard people come a sleep overnight at stations to be the first in front of the booking window, when it opens up to booking next morning.

Though the current facility has benefitted masses to a great extent but something more prominent need to be for helping people who can’t make it to the railway stations.  

Will their be an end to tatkal ticket woes?

Tatkal tickets were introduced to benefit passenger who opt for last moment travel due to some unforeseen necessity. Passengers have welcomed it with open heart. But railways keep changing the rule which is creating problem for the passengers to keep pace with.

Booking ticket through net is another big boon to people who find it difficult to reach station and book tickets. People working in IT sector are too happy about it because now they can book ticket from their office cubical. In the busy schedule of 9-6 IT professionals are left with little or no time to locate a railway booking centre. Most people opting for it are from IT industry or tech savvy people.

Even tatkal tickets could be booked through it if we do it with in the stipulated time. But logging into IRCTC at 8 am is a tough job, if we are can easily log in else will have to wait to decongest the traffic online.

Latest reform brought in tatkal ticket has not at all been welcomed by people like who have been addicted to IRCTC for booking tickets. Now in order to book tatkal ticket we need to be at the ticket window when it opens up at 8 in the morning. No idea why and for who’s benefit this plan has been incorporated. 

Now I will have find an agent who will help me in booking ticket in case of an emergency or opt for bus to travelling home.  Railway agents are the only person who have benefitted by the recent move of railway ministry.

If government wants us to go back to old day then the why was this modernization done and for whom? You can give somebody excellent quality service once and then they it back. I do accept the fact that their were few issues with tatkal ticket which forced ministry to take this decision but it could have been in dealt in more passenger friendly manner than being loop sided to agents.