Sampark Kranti: Bangalore to Delhi

[I wrote this as I was trying to reflect upon Indian railway budget 2008 and does it addresses the issues faced by a passenger like me. It’s a long post. So, read it decide if budget answers my concerns. Most of the incidents are true but might not have happened with me or on same trip. Names changed. ]

'Sharma, hurry up mate aur ye Jayant ko bhi nahane jana tha?' Verma shouted. "Arre bhai Verma, pure do din nahane ko nahi milega" Jayant shouted from shower. It was already 5:30 and we had to leave for Yeshwantpur station as early as possible to beat the evening rush. "bhaiyya, 200 lagega, jana hai to bolo" Auto rickshaw guy was at his usual arrogant best. "Ok, boss, 150 le lena" I requested. "160 final !!" Rickshaw vala said in a resigned tone after too much of haggling. Though I felt like winning the argument but I wished only if Bangalore had good metro or super efficient bus service, we need not argue with these rickshaw drivers. Hope Lalu or whoever listened to my wishes. And we started off towards Yeshwantpur station. Traffic, pollution or auto's terrible noise were not the things on our minds. All of us were so happy and chirpy that we were going back to our home to celebrate Diwali. "Verma, tum to ghar jaake bas sofa todoge?" I was being cheeky. "Han, jaise tum ghar jaake rotiyan banaoge" Verma retorted. It took us almost 1.5 hours to reach the station from Kormangla. Station was swarming with people. I wondered if we will ever have station working where crowds will not stretch them above their working capacities. Most of them northies waiting for sampark kranti. Everybody carrying at least two suitcases which would lead to many others to believe that they are taking diwali goodies but I can definitely assure at least one was full of stained clothes which would get washed along with Great Diwali B(w)ash!!!! There were few girls as well. All struggling with their luggage and I heard one of them asking her friend if we get trolies in station. I and Jayant looked at each other with shallow disgust.

"Jayant, Karan ka phone aaya?" I asked while I was looking around for him and suddenly somebody patted on my back. "Kaha reh jaate ho yaar? Main Mysore se yaha pahunch tum se pehle and you guys can not come on time from Bangalore itself?" I knew it was Karan. "Acha, pata chala train kaunse platform pe aa rahi hai?" I asked Karan as I knew him that he must have checked that. "Those buggers at inquiry office are not answering these questions. I asked a coolie who told it might come at platform 4. Ye log ek public inquiry aur public announcement system bhi nahi laga sakte yaha. Kya ghatiya management hai railways" he had started cribbing. thank god it was railways and not infy. "Han tere liye ab yaha ek bada sa bill board aur check0in machines bhi lagayenge is saal. chal abhi chal" Jayant winked. We took the over bridge and reached platform 4. there was some construction work going on the platform and as it seemed the coolie who had hinted Karan about train, had also hinted everybody on the station as the platform was so damn full. "Karan, our tickets are not confirmed yet, we are still in RAC" Verma was telling him. "yaar, there should be a system to check the ticket status and all at all station" It was me who was cribbing now. "we did check it on internet but it was RAC only" Verma added. "Ok, let me go and ask station master about it" Karan said. "tere ko station master bhi janta hai yaha ka?" Mohit Ritwani pitched in. "Han, janta hai. tere se matlab" Karan retorted. Both were room mates but not really mates. Dont ask why. We waited and waited. Karan came back dejected "sale ne muh pe mara gate mere. No accountability in this organization yaar" he was angry.

Verma went to buy some water. At least that’s what he said. We yawned over another 30 minutes. And then Verma called me "Reservation chart has been placed at platform 1 and train will also come here only. Come here". "ki masla hai yaar?" now I was angry. "we again pick up the luggage and go there. What the hell" We crossed the bridge again to reach platform 1 "where is the reservation chart yaar?" Karan asked Verma. "le ye le, ek hissa aur ek vo jameen pe pada hai aur baaki vo vaha ek group khada hai unke pass hai" Verma replied. "yaar, ye bande hai ki junglee, sala chart hi faad diya" Karan said before going into crowd. He came back with another piece of chart. We were still RAC 38, 39, 40. "what corruption is this yaar? Diwali train is sold out and no seat for us even though we booked tickets on second day of booking. this is ridiculous" everybody was cribbing.

train arrived on time on our platform. After hell a lot of jostling, we got into train and luckily found our seats as well. 5 (6 if you consider Karan) of us on 1.5 seats. it was too bad. whole of train was full upto brim. No space in corridors, near bathroom, on floor, on seats, on doors. No space at all. Delhi was still two days away and we were struggling to get through the first night itself. "there is too much corruption, usually people get seat even when they are in waitlist. Here we couldn't one in even in RAC!!!. Cant they add few more trains on Diwali?" we were yet to get over our frustrations. Night was struggle. Everybody was feeling sleepy but there was no place even to sit let go sleep. Some how we scrapped thru the night.

Next day, me and Verma started with our regular "check-out girls while you brush" tour. This was our normal way of getting thru the "night in train and morning at doors" blues. Oh boss......train was full of them. there was one particular group who looked to be amritsari babes (now, dont ask me how I guess all this.) They were five and sab ek se badkar ek. We came back and then others went to on geri route. It was via pantry. Jayant came back and told "Pantry guys have rented their coaches as well to other passengers for 200 bucks" That was too much. TT was no where to be seen and we were struggling with our 1.5 seats. So, "checking out babes" tour were more frequent as that way you need not share a seat with some one where by you are squatting on one half of tashreef and he is squeezed to core.

By afternoon, there was not even a drop of water in pantry and the owner minted loads of money by jacking up the rates. "We should complain about it" Mohit Ritwani was fuming. "but who will listen and also we dont have time to go behind these people for couple of bucks" Karan was dejected. Both used to share the griefs but never accepted each other as friends. Back at our seats, we were busy playing cards and cracking same stale jokes. Suddenly I got a call from dad who was worried as it seems that some train has gone off the rails near hyderabad due to heavy rains and some 10 people have died. I assured him that ours is on track and don't worry, I will reach home by Sunday evening. All of us went into mute mode after that call for a while. Though Indian rail tragedies were becoming synonymous with Indian hockey team’s losing streak but news of somebody’s death can make you dumbstruck (at least for a while)

By night, we were in Nagpur and as all of us were pissed off with train's food. We went out to have something on platform. Whole of platform was full of stalls. "He is making omlette on same tawa as paranthas. I wont eat anything here" It was my turn to maaro nakhra. "ok. lets have poori from that stall" Jayant said. "yaar, ye poori pet kharaab to nahi karegi?" I was not relenting. "Ab station pe yehi milega. Khana hai?" Jayant was getting agitated. "ok". I gave up but I was thinking about our level of expectations from platform food which is supposed to regualted by govt. authorities (is it?) After dinner, others sat for another round of gupshup and I went for another geri round. No Luck. All babes were asleep under white sheets. I came back to see Karan sleeping on a seat which was vacated by uncle in Nagpur would be empty till Gwalior (as TT told him after taking 50 bucks)

Next day, it was sunday and we were in periphery of Delhi and I could feel and smell the air of my land (or was it people relieving themselves in fields nearby? Yuck!!!) I will never remember those station names and their sequence which come before Delhi (there are just too many). But who cares?? I was standing on the door trying to catch the smallest of waves of telephone signals but to no avail. Dont know if I read it right but railways were trying to provide full mobile phone coverage and also on-board internet and TV service. "In your dreams only Ashish" I said to myself. In the meantime, we reached Gaziabad and a welcome message from airtel landed into my inbox. Wow, I dialed home and told my mom that I will be at home before Diwali pooja!!!! But this train wasnt feeling the adrenaline rush which I was feeling. it had got even slower. "Signal nahi mil raha hoga!!" wondered my fellow passenger. hope they would look into improving the station's efficiency in handling number of trains.

We reached new delhi station and it was 11:30. "Only 45 minutes late. No issues, lets rush for bus stand" Karan requested. Me and Jayant were still looking for those amritsari kudian and out they came. Wow. hain? what is this? there family is already at station to take them home. So, they were delhi babes. We were dis-appointed that we may not get to meet them on our way to chandigarh or at least till bus stand or at least till the taxi stand outside station. "as though you would get something if they came" Karan was mocking us. "achha chal ab" I moved on. Another crowded platform, another over bridge but this time it was not a issue at all. We had no more trains to catch and were reaching home. In five minutes, we were outside the remits of Indian railways which everybody is extolling for turn around but which still is a appu (white elephant) and has long way to go if it has to achieve its motto of "life line of nation".

Cheers,
Ashish

P.S. As one can guess, I have loads of complaint against railways but I definitely salute their tenacity and operative effectiveness in covering so many routes, carrying millions of passengers and supporting crores of families. Its worth appreciating but if we have to sustain this and move forward, we would require loads of work to be done on infrastructure and facilities.

A day in london life.

I was in London almost a year back
where ppl say, life is so fast that mere mortals would crack!

Yes. I tend to agree,
but as usual only to certain degree!

So, let me describe to all of you,
a day of my life in London, less of city more of zoo.

Work was like girls in spain
but getting up early is always a pain!

Another 15 min wouldn't do any harm,
sweet sweet sleep, let me snooze the alarm.

while ironing, my mind would deliberate,
should I carry my lunch? or shall I take a sandwich to munch??

I would run to station to catch 8:10 London Bridge train,
but most of the time, my run would end in a vain!

Huffed puffed I used to run the London Bridge walk,
most of the times alone but sometimes with another Infy guy to talk!

Standing on Monument platform I would pray,
God!!! please help me blink over this another dull day.

Sitting at the desk, awfully bored I would think and crunch,
How come Vinish is so busy!!! why is he not sending any mails for Lunch?

At 12:15, he would come say "you guys carry on,
I am going to fitness first to improve my body tone."

At lunch, mukund would argue over chicken biryani,
"Sachin is no good now" was the standard kahani.
Subbu was my mate in this banter,
"Sachin is our saviour and the god" we would canter!

Time after lunch was so damn boring,
sometimes, I would hear Tim snoring.

Its 4:30 and Office is already empty,
Just now, Simon left with humpty and dumpty
Ya..ya I know, its 6'o Clock,
Time to turn on the PC lock.

Another London walk run,
but this time its fun.
Me and Mukund are running for a ferrari one two,
Mukund!! there is slow moving traffic, please help me shoo.
6:25 train to brighton used to be the target of the dash,
oops its on platform 6 instead of 8, run if you wanna catch!

"Next stop is east croydon, please mind the gap between the train and platform" a sweet voice would break my zen.
should I go to muks house or to my den?
Its so damn cold, i need some aag,
I better hit home and cook some saag. (bad rhyme, I know)

At home, after the standard net surfing,
what should I do next? I would be cringing.

One day, when everything was dull and boring,
A thought came that I should start blogging.
As usual with my style,
out came some blogs in no while.

But then I was bored again, and I got lazy,
no topics to blog, things were again dull and hazy.

Now, almost a year since then.
I got a feeling that I should blog again.
so, here am I writing.
this small piece which I think is rhyming.
Hope that this time unlike last
i would keep blogging regularly and fast.

Thanks for your patience,
Ashish Sharma