Confirmed Tickets

Ever rolled up your sleeves upto the shoulder to defend your stand in public, and then realized that you were the one who was wrong and then you had to suck your words back in?Thank God I didn’t have to do it yet but here’s a funny and embarrassing incident, which leaves you thinking, what if it was me, it could have happened to me.

This time in India we had to take two long 14-hour long journeys after so many years and it was so much fun. Gulping down endless cups of tea/coffee with samosa/kachori/pakode /pohe on different platforms made it a culinary experience as well. Also when others open their packed meals,diffusing the aromas of parathas/pooris/achaar, you forget all manners and etiquettes and are forced to peek into their plates to ogle at what they are eating.And when finally people retire to sleep in their berths,there are the distinct,individual trains of snoring,which eventually lull you to sleep.

Coming to the story, as we boarded the train to Delhi,there was some commotion in the bogey.Since we had a lot of luggage to deal with,which wouldn’t fit under our berths, P had to ask people to move their bags a little bit here and there and they were all very nice people, happy to adjust.While on a train,the keywords are bhaisahab and adjust.
Koi nahin bhaisahab,adjust kar lenge.
So,after getting settled there was still half an hour for the train to leave,time to take off the shoes and put your feet up.

Then the argument rang loud and clear to all who were present.Two people were allotted the same berth for the long journey. One was an elderly gentleman, the uncleji,who claimed to be traveling by the same train for 30 years and there was no way he would get down and or be moved to a different seat.Also he had bought the confirmed ticket on tatkal reservation,so he had paid a premium price, which was another reason why he wouldn’t budge.

The other was a young man who had another confirmed ticket.He was also irked by the situation and kept blaming the reservation software.Everything is computerized,still they make such huge mistakes!
Who do they get to write the damn software?

And the onlookers would nod understandingly and narrate incidents when similar thing happened to their relatives/friends.And everyone gave the assurance that once the TTE is there,it will get resolved.

The uncleji kept demanding to see the young man’s ticket to check if was confirmed and not waitlisted/RAC,but he wouldn’t oblige.Finally someone suggested to look at the reservation chart.Turned out that the uncleji’s name was there and again he was on a high.The young man tried to calm him down but then he also lost his temper and marched out to look for the TTE.(There were still 15 mins for the train to leave.)

After 5 mins the young man came inside running,pulled out his bag from under the berth and started running madly toward the door.What happened,uncleji asked.
“Meri ticket 6th ki hai ,aaj to 5th hai”is all he could say before disappearing into the crowd at the platform.

All is well that ends well but we had to endure uncleji’s long lecture on how careless,absent-minded and disrespectful, the young are these days!