Some good to know facts about Indian Railways, its the worlds largest employer(wiki mentions as 16 lac employees). India is the only country which has a “Railway Budget”. During the past 5-6 years I extensively used the Ahmedabad-Mumbai route which is considered to be the busiest train route in the world.
It was a Friday late night 11:30 PM train from Mumbai to Ahmedabad. The train route follows. Mumbai-Borivali-Surat-Bharuch-Vadodara(Baroda)-Ahmedabad. I had a confirmed ticket in the second sleeper coach and my berth number was 6 which means the upper berth. It always feels relaxed when seat is confirmed and even more better if its not the side upper. I sometimes think of giving suggestion to the Indian railways to consider height as a factor and priority while booking tickets, specially when someone is taller than 6 feet ;-). I dont know whether such a suggestion would be considered valid. There are enough reservations already in-effect and addition of one more exception would not be a problem :-D
OK now coming to the point. My berth number was 6. But when I boarded the train at Borivali someone was already sleeping. I could not make out if the person was he or she. But as it was my berth I wake up that person.. she was a girl and asked her, “My Seat number is 6”. She replied instantly saying to me, “My seat number is 3, can you take 3”. Initially I was bit perplexed as to why this absurd kind of seat exchange and that too the berth is just the opposite one. Passengers generally exchange berths when they want to be in groups, else elder people wish to have a lower berth in case they have problem climbing to middle or upper berth. But my priority was (confirmed+upper) berth seat so I told her “yes, I would take 3”.
Ticket checker usually comes in 15-20 minutes so I thought to get my ticket checked and then go to sleep. TT had not arrived but as other passenger wanted to sleep I need to climb to my new berth#3. No sooner I climbed to the upper berth than I saw a thin layer of oil spilled on almost the entire surface of the berth. Just as this moment I could understand and link facts as to why the girl decided to exchange berths. Now comes the cunning part of her. Right from the beginning she was behaving as if she was in deep sleep so no-one could wake up her. In the beginning after I agreed to the berth exchange request she quickly slept in a manner as if nobody should disturb her. I again wake up her and told that the berth#3 was not clean and it has oil on its surface. The girl replied, “Is it? Zyaada kharab hai kya?” . I could easily understand her foxy and sly nature, but still keeping cool I asked her, “Did u already know about the dirty seat thats why u shifted to berth#6? and asked for exchange”. . She replied,” No, I dont know abt it at all.”.. further added that,”my friends had come to drop me at station and so I just slept”. But I was knowing her intention. How could any person occupy a wrong place. I told her, “ I want my original place and asked her to get down.” She told me to contact the TT so I could get a replacement. Rather I asked her to get down again and she should contact to TT as it was her berth which was spoilt. She further asked me to call the TT. I was not able to understand as to why should I be made to wait and suffer for no fault of mine. Then I had to be a bit bolder and told her, “you have almost wasted half hour of my time keeping me in wait state, please get down and do whatever you want... contact the TT and ask for a replacement of berth.” She raised her voice saying, “You have no manners, instead of helping me you are telling me to vacate the berth.” She added, “ I always travelled in AC class”.. I dont know why the hell she was telling this to me. She came down and without even examining the berth#3 she directly went to the TT. This makes it clear that she intentionally did this. Other co-passengers told me, “yaar tumhare mein bahut patience hai”. Another senior female passenger also told, “jaan buj ke ladki shaani baan rahi thi”. Even the TT told her that, train has no vacant berth so please clean by yourself, but she could manage to get a berth after some time through her crafty means.
It is said by some famous person perhaps by Gandhiji, “The sympathy, kindness, love, respect and behavior which you bestow upon someone, the same you would get in return from that person”. Don't know whether this fact is true in real life :-?
It was a Friday late night 11:30 PM train from Mumbai to Ahmedabad. The train route follows. Mumbai-Borivali-Surat-Bharuch-Vadodara(Baroda)-Ahmedabad. I had a confirmed ticket in the second sleeper coach and my berth number was 6 which means the upper berth. It always feels relaxed when seat is confirmed and even more better if its not the side upper. I sometimes think of giving suggestion to the Indian railways to consider height as a factor and priority while booking tickets, specially when someone is taller than 6 feet ;-). I dont know whether such a suggestion would be considered valid. There are enough reservations already in-effect and addition of one more exception would not be a problem :-D
OK now coming to the point. My berth number was 6. But when I boarded the train at Borivali someone was already sleeping. I could not make out if the person was he or she. But as it was my berth I wake up that person.. she was a girl and asked her, “My Seat number is 6”. She replied instantly saying to me, “My seat number is 3, can you take 3”. Initially I was bit perplexed as to why this absurd kind of seat exchange and that too the berth is just the opposite one. Passengers generally exchange berths when they want to be in groups, else elder people wish to have a lower berth in case they have problem climbing to middle or upper berth. But my priority was (confirmed+upper) berth seat so I told her “yes, I would take 3”.
Ticket checker usually comes in 15-20 minutes so I thought to get my ticket checked and then go to sleep. TT had not arrived but as other passenger wanted to sleep I need to climb to my new berth#3. No sooner I climbed to the upper berth than I saw a thin layer of oil spilled on almost the entire surface of the berth. Just as this moment I could understand and link facts as to why the girl decided to exchange berths. Now comes the cunning part of her. Right from the beginning she was behaving as if she was in deep sleep so no-one could wake up her. In the beginning after I agreed to the berth exchange request she quickly slept in a manner as if nobody should disturb her. I again wake up her and told that the berth#3 was not clean and it has oil on its surface. The girl replied, “Is it? Zyaada kharab hai kya?” . I could easily understand her foxy and sly nature, but still keeping cool I asked her, “Did u already know about the dirty seat thats why u shifted to berth#6? and asked for exchange”. . She replied,” No, I dont know abt it at all.”.. further added that,”my friends had come to drop me at station and so I just slept”. But I was knowing her intention. How could any person occupy a wrong place. I told her, “ I want my original place and asked her to get down.” She told me to contact the TT so I could get a replacement. Rather I asked her to get down again and she should contact to TT as it was her berth which was spoilt. She further asked me to call the TT. I was not able to understand as to why should I be made to wait and suffer for no fault of mine. Then I had to be a bit bolder and told her, “you have almost wasted half hour of my time keeping me in wait state, please get down and do whatever you want... contact the TT and ask for a replacement of berth.” She raised her voice saying, “You have no manners, instead of helping me you are telling me to vacate the berth.” She added, “ I always travelled in AC class”.. I dont know why the hell she was telling this to me. She came down and without even examining the berth#3 she directly went to the TT. This makes it clear that she intentionally did this. Other co-passengers told me, “yaar tumhare mein bahut patience hai”. Another senior female passenger also told, “jaan buj ke ladki shaani baan rahi thi”. Even the TT told her that, train has no vacant berth so please clean by yourself, but she could manage to get a berth after some time through her crafty means.
It is said by some famous person perhaps by Gandhiji, “The sympathy, kindness, love, respect and behavior which you bestow upon someone, the same you would get in return from that person”. Don't know whether this fact is true in real life :-?
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