The Great Indian Railway Thamasha!…
The thamasha is the only thing that comes in ma mind when i think of the Great Indian Railway Network! Nah not cos it’s not efficient, its one of the most efficient services in India, in fact it’s the invisible but strong backbone of the Indian economy. It takes millions of people daily across the vast spanning Indian landscape, from north to south, east to west, vice versa, in all the other possible combination’s. It takes people to work, its transports millions of goods daily, it indeed is the backbone of the Indian economy, cheap and reliably efficient backbone.
So wondering where the whole thamasha bit comes up?
The Great Indian Railways caters to all class of people, from poor to the filthy rich, let me make it clear everyone at some point has to travel via The Great Indian Railways…. The Railways is actually divided into different sections, to cater to the different kinds of people and different purposes, namely starting from general going up to the AC coaches…in middle 1st class n 2nd class sleeper, chair cars, Tatkal, and all the other blah blah’. General is basically for the short and easy and basic travel ..with those painful wooden seats where as all the rest are bit more luxurious, the upper one goes in class. General tickets are cheap, and mostly office goers and students use it for there daily commute. Now this is where the whole thamasha starts..ting tong ting… I mostly travel by bus to the GOC but then sometimes I use the railways, but mostly its a nightmare, if i don’t get to ma destination by day break.
WHY???
It’s very simple, the General coaches start over flowing and the crowds start flowing into the reserved compartments, and the weirdest part is damn YOU CAN’T EVEN QUESTION THEM, how many of them will you question, when the unreserved crowd will be 300 to 400 times more than the reserved crowd. Whom can you ask, they have a general ticket but there is no space there. So here is where the THE GREAT INDIAN TAHAMASHA starts..
It kinda irritates everyone to the core… when i think am gonna enjoy the GOC in the early morning’ the green around (the Railways cover one of the most exotic locations), the fresh morning smell….but where…as soon as the day breaks the all you can see is the crowd, jam packed, like a juicy burger! But the same thing doesn’t happen in the AC coaches, this is where the inefficiency of THE GREAT INDIAN RAILWAYS stands. Everyone is paying for a comfortable travel. The Tatkal tickets cost you as much as a third class AC, but then does it stop the crowd from entering the Tatkal coaches? Nah never! It’s not upto the class of AC…WTF??? I don’t really know’ Just feel like a VIOLENT MAD man!
It’s far better here in the Southern part of the Indian Sub Continent, I have heard and experienced the dreadful full stories about ravel in the Northern part where actually tickets don’t mean a thing!!
The inefficiency doesn’t really end in how the manage the crowd, but it extends to the huge network of Railway stations pan India. many one them are so confusing, that you will feel in a no mans land. Even all the announcements just seem to be a very low whisper cos the crowd
over powers. I know this is India, but why does it stop the govt., from providing better facilities to the commuters??? We pay for it, don’t we deserve to be treated better? Don’t we have the right for enjoying a righteous journey? I demand ma right for a righteous journey! BUT IS ANYONE LISTENING??? Nah all i see is deaf ears!
Oh at this point of time i would also like to share an e-mail, which ma friend had sent. its not about the inefficiency of the GREAT INDIAN RAILWAYS’ but a nice poetic feeling blunder! HATS OFF TO LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE, for making me laugh ma heads out with that first hand experience mail 
I have taken the bail before hand, Miss you cant blame me’ so here it goes…
1….2….3
Sub : Adventures from Merly Land
Hey Guys!
Hws you all doin? I was down in Cochin for Sarah’s wedding this weekend and it was a jampacked weekend! The wedding was gr8…i echo jills opinions about it and the couple! I am writing in to share an adventure only an absent minded person like me could go through…it definitely was an adventure by me. So here goes!
After the wedding me and J left with Nickru and parents till the junction where we could get an auto. It was raining and after we did what we had to do me and J rushed home coz i had to pack and we both had our trains scheduled for around 5.30 from South railwy station. So we went hom….packed up and we called for an auto to the station and reachd the station at 5 pm. I checkd up our platfrms and told J her platform on the other side…she waited with me for sometime and then
she went over to the next platform to board the Janshatabdi and i was waiting wid all my bags…i was soo tired and lazy i put my ticket…my phone and everything into the bag and i was standin witout anything in my hand…i was staring into oblivion wen all of a sudden the saving grace of this story landed right in front of me…M in his bright shirt! 
i asked him how come he was there and he said he just dropped S and A…saw them off…they had taken the veynad and that he was to travel till chalakudy… so i told him to run and take a sleeper ticket so that he could travel wid me and we could chat…so he came back wid d ticket and Allepey Chennai Express moved into the station…he helped me with my bags and we boarded the train…when we checked out there was this guy standing with his bags askig anothe person to get up coz 009 was his seat…and i told M…its MY seat! then we made both of them get up..and we both sat down..apam the other guy called up someone to reconfirm his seat and that made me look again at my ticket…and to my utter despair…I had boarded the WRONG
train!!!! my train was Guwahati xpress…which was scheduled for deprture from EKm NORTH at 5.15!!!!!!!! !! and here i was in SOuth at 5.30…i just dint knw wat to do..and just lookd at M..he kept his cool…as always…we jumpd off the rain..wnt to enquiry..askd whther the train was on time and stuff and they said its there in North but we wont get it…we ran…took an auto…the auto guy took off with me half in d auto and i screamd at him…i have no idea hw M kept his cool throut…we reachd north station…the train had left and Chennai allepey was moving into this station! Mubarac went and got me GC ticket and we jumpd into the train….my phone battery was almst dead…we exchanged batteries… and we went in search of the TTR…he raised hs voice at M and i told its ok…ill go sit in the GC…again he went and tried but to no rakshaa…finaallly train stopped somewhr and we both jumped out again and started running to the Ladies
compartment with alllll my bags and he threw my bags in and i jumped in…and he ran back…then wen he got out in Chalakudy he called me and came and checkd on me…i was sitting on top of the “berth”….berth alla…it was for luggage but i was on top of that…and thr was no space…in my life i havent been able to do
padmaasanam. ..out of desperation i masterd that also!!! Pat on my
shoulder..haha. …
Part 2 of my Journey…the characters.. .d scenes….d volley of abuses that were thrown left…right and centre….ill share that some other time… but trust me it was a journey of a lifetime for me! i dnt knw hw i sat thru those 12 hrs…i was practically numb to evrything that was happenin around me…but it actually put me through a lot of thought and meeting ppl who travel thru this everyday…serious thinking!
J….haha. ..i can imagine hw shockd u r…hheheh.. .ill call u…like my frnz say im always up2 some nonsense or the other! and for this weeknd this was wat i went thru 
Okie guys tc…all of u! and M was God sent angel that day! hw much ever i say thnx it wont be enuf…:) bbye all of u..tc
Little Miss Sunshine
(name withheld, as per bail application)
So getting back to the point, am just asking for better service. Where
one gets the worth for the money!!!!
fOsSil…the heart has it’s reasons that reason cannot know!!!
