happy journey...

I have travelled by train quite a number of times and now I have got very well accustomed to it. But unlike few of my friends, I prefer to travel only with a confirmed ticket. The only journey in waiting was while I was travelling to ahmedabad and that gave me quite a good experience never to take up such adventures here after in life! My mom always tells me not to let those W/L chepaks occupy space at our feet or they will slowly move and make our good night sleep not so good and I believed her, until I myself was travelling in waiting and was begging for a place sufficient to just hold on to the seat. But anyways, that was one nightmare. My last journey though, was quite an experience. I was travelling from Hyderabad to Nellore in Charminar Express (No, it doesn’t give us a view of the Charminar as I told one of my friends and he even believed me!) That same friend had advised me not to travel by sleeper and had explained to me the funda of how the living standards of an average middle class man had increased and how I was living with my own little perceptions. But not having received the last month’s salary has had quite a bad toll on me and I had to book sleeper tickets.

The journey started quite well with my seat getting confirmed. The ticket collector (TC) came, checked the ticket and went away. As the train crossed station after station, I was amazed by the number of people getting on the train and running behind the TC with their W/L, RAC tickets. One person even had a W/L e-ticket who still ended up getting a seat along with a full blown session on e-ticket rules. My respect for that man in black coat grew, in spite of not having gone through a professional management course, he seemed to have managed quite well! The TT seemed to have space for every possible passenger. I was a little irritated looking at the crowd, it looked more like a second class compartment. But I had no option and resentfully went to sleep.

My return journey was by Simhapuri Express and though it is supposed to be a lower grade train as compared to Charminar but surprisingly it was much cleaner and less crowded. I was quite happy until the TC came and told me that my ticket was RAC! I was already low leaving my parents and was hardly in a mood to talk to anyone. And to add to my agony, hell RAC! And as per the past experiences, even W/L might get converted but RAC, no chance! They are like those few unlucky auto walas who get sodexos from their passengers. They get paid but don’t know how to you use it. I had already started hating the TC for no reason of that poor soul. Not in a mood to request or revolt, I just laid down in one corner of my seat hoping the other person just cancels his/her ticket after checking its status. But nonetheless I knew I was being far too optimistic and thought I better get some sleep before I become uncomfortable. It must have felt like just a moment’s sleep when I was woken up by the announcement at the dreaded station. I adjusted my sheets and sat straight with crossed fingers as I saw a group of people entering my compartment, followed by the TC. The fellow passengers started adjusting their bags when the TC finally came up to me and told me with a plain face and in as less words as possible, “Your seat has been confirmed, happy journey!” I couldn’t believe what had just happened. I sat there smiling for a minute trying to digest the fact. On talking to my ‘could be’ RAC partners I found out that they too had got a confirmed seat. I was pleasantly surprised. In this world of unbearable corruption, there are still a few people who stand by their values. Maybe it wasn’t about values for him, may be he just considered it as a part of his job. But he hadn’t realized what he had just done for me. It was a lesson to note down in my “rules to live your life” notebook. Thinking of it, respect from some random person might not be significant to you but it might be significant to that person. Influencing people to be more honest to their work, more honest to humanity, will ultimately helps in building a better world.

It was not the joy of getting a seat but the joy of realizing that such people still exist that didn’t let me sleep there after.