As i left Jasidih for Puri
As i left Jasidih a little after half past one in the afternoon in train no 18420, the gathering around reminded me of the first mover advantage the lower berth occupants had. Given a middle berth, the man opposite me had extensively spread himself on the lower berth lowering the options for those who ever wished to sit on his side. B1 13 was the coach and the seat allotted and the one with seat no 9 had sleep induced pattern evolved since Samastipur station.
On my side there was a lady with a kid who frequently dipped themselves in colas and pepsis, with the kid being floored that all along he would have the soft drink roar. For some time i could manage to secure a sitting advantage which later got transformed to upper berth phase. Perhaps this realisation has dawned among lower berth occupants that lower berth is to be optimally utilised by them translating to spreading themselves during day time which others won't be able to make a sense.
Aasansol station came at 3.30pm and here Krishna Prasad the newspaper vendor seem to be a promising entry. Two boys hailing from Odisha joined the coach and they insisted the Samastipur Samaritan to get to sitting sentiment.One hour into their travel, the two boys moved to a side berth presuming it to be vacant. They were correct as for the entire train duration no one came to claim those upper and lower side seats.
As the train reached Kharagpur at 8 pm, the sole way to get meals was from platform and the options on offer comprised of masala dosa and puri bhaji in a reasonable range. Again here the engine had to be ploughed back like in Aasansol and once the deed was completed, the onward journey began. By this time the advantage of upper berth had also gone with a new occupant who had boarded from Kharagpur.
The conversation with the Odiya residents suggested they were auditors who had gone to audit a leading mattress accounts and late-night activity in capital of Bihar had made them board this train. Auditing fundas they may have stressed but somewhere one could make out a case of a false appearance. During this time the attendant enquired about the pillow and bedsheets and having seen some of it getting disappeared he squarely blamed the passengers. He went to the point of telling that if passengers lose their luggage nothing would be done as has been the case with bedsheets. Truth never came out whether bedsheets had been lost or some within the staff removed the same.
Train staff need to stick to their duty instead of giving passengers a rough time
Railways are to be blamed for recruiting arrogant staff and once the recruitment happens on a mass scale, who is bothered about a background check, the overriding concern is to get the job done. In Khadra Road in Odisha the other day while returning to Kolkata i came across one middle aged man with specks who was not willing to release a passenger from his clutches. It all happened in A B Rath CTI's office where one passenger who had boarded a train from Madhya Pradesh failed to get down at Bhubaneswar and finally got down at Khadra Road. Here the woman TTE at the exit point of Platform 1 seeing his ticket could have easily settled the issue by putting a penalty on him. Instead the woman asked the man to report to CTI's office on Platform 1 and here the man with specks who seem to be a peon asked him to hand over the ticket to him. He was not letting him go and forcefully trying to take the ticket from him.
When i went inside to enquire about seat availability and seeing all this happening told the peon to not extract the ticket from him. What the intention of people in CTI's office was to take the ticket forcefully from him and then make a case that this man travelled without a ticket and hence would release him if he paid them the cash. No penalty for travelling one destination beyond the permissible level was acceptable to these station people and this showed the parallel regime they were running in railways. First the passenger had the ticket which i had seen myself (showing a indore-bhubaneswar general ticket) and here the railway people wanted to make a false case against this passenger. And when i told the peon to let the passenger go otherwise a complaint would be made he seem to be least bothered about complaint. I came out and waited for my train.
Railways may be a mass organisation carrying a mass load but per se there is no discipline. THe problem begins from the window booking counter where still there are drawbacks which would never disappear. Since the railways are least interested in clipping the wings of TTEs, the seeds of inaction on misappropriation and mismanagement can be traced here itself. If no remedial measures are taken, things would continue like this.
Why you want to harass passengers? If someone has travelled beyond a permissible limit, levy a penalty, if someone has travelled without a ticket or lost the ticket during the course of journey, levy the penalty payable in cash as suggested in rule books. Never ever show the threat that you would send the passenger to prison as rule books suggest a penalty payable in cash is the way out. As for Khadra Road-Howrah station another incident came to light which i would mention later.
Reached Puri after 3 in the morning
Returning to Jasidih-Puri journey, with the upper berth too gone it was time to take the middle berth . When coach attendant came to hand over a fresh set of bedsheets i politely refused and subsequently hit the coach berth. Jajpur and Bhubaneswar were major destinations on the way and the train reached Puri a little after 3 in the morning. For a while i stayed outside and then went to the waiting hall. Here an entry to the register was duly made and the attendant refusing to entertain those with a sleeper class ticket. Here also a workable solution is in sight if a passenger with a sleeper class ticket pays 20 rs for one to two hours, he or she can gain entry with a receipt in hand.Bathrooms inside the waiting hall are fairly clean.
Took an auto and reached the heart of the town. Next to the Jagannath temple took a room which came for 300rs. The lodgewallah was quite cooperative.
As i left Jasidih a little after half past one in the afternoon in train no 18420, the gathering around reminded me of the first mover advantage the lower berth occupants had. Given a middle berth, the man opposite me had extensively spread himself on the lower berth lowering the options for those who ever wished to sit on his side. B1 13 was the coach and the seat allotted and the one with seat no 9 had sleep induced pattern evolved since Samastipur station.
On my side there was a lady with a kid who frequently dipped themselves in colas and pepsis, with the kid being floored that all along he would have the soft drink roar. For some time i could manage to secure a sitting advantage which later got transformed to upper berth phase. Perhaps this realisation has dawned among lower berth occupants that lower berth is to be optimally utilised by them translating to spreading themselves during day time which others won't be able to make a sense.
Aasansol station came at 3.30pm and here Krishna Prasad the newspaper vendor seem to be a promising entry. Two boys hailing from Odisha joined the coach and they insisted the Samastipur Samaritan to get to sitting sentiment.One hour into their travel, the two boys moved to a side berth presuming it to be vacant. They were correct as for the entire train duration no one came to claim those upper and lower side seats.
As the train reached Kharagpur at 8 pm, the sole way to get meals was from platform and the options on offer comprised of masala dosa and puri bhaji in a reasonable range. Again here the engine had to be ploughed back like in Aasansol and once the deed was completed, the onward journey began. By this time the advantage of upper berth had also gone with a new occupant who had boarded from Kharagpur.
The conversation with the Odiya residents suggested they were auditors who had gone to audit a leading mattress accounts and late-night activity in capital of Bihar had made them board this train. Auditing fundas they may have stressed but somewhere one could make out a case of a false appearance. During this time the attendant enquired about the pillow and bedsheets and having seen some of it getting disappeared he squarely blamed the passengers. He went to the point of telling that if passengers lose their luggage nothing would be done as has been the case with bedsheets. Truth never came out whether bedsheets had been lost or some within the staff removed the same.
Train staff need to stick to their duty instead of giving passengers a rough time
Railways are to be blamed for recruiting arrogant staff and once the recruitment happens on a mass scale, who is bothered about a background check, the overriding concern is to get the job done. In Khadra Road in Odisha the other day while returning to Kolkata i came across one middle aged man with specks who was not willing to release a passenger from his clutches. It all happened in A B Rath CTI's office where one passenger who had boarded a train from Madhya Pradesh failed to get down at Bhubaneswar and finally got down at Khadra Road. Here the woman TTE at the exit point of Platform 1 seeing his ticket could have easily settled the issue by putting a penalty on him. Instead the woman asked the man to report to CTI's office on Platform 1 and here the man with specks who seem to be a peon asked him to hand over the ticket to him. He was not letting him go and forcefully trying to take the ticket from him.
When i went inside to enquire about seat availability and seeing all this happening told the peon to not extract the ticket from him. What the intention of people in CTI's office was to take the ticket forcefully from him and then make a case that this man travelled without a ticket and hence would release him if he paid them the cash. No penalty for travelling one destination beyond the permissible level was acceptable to these station people and this showed the parallel regime they were running in railways. First the passenger had the ticket which i had seen myself (showing a indore-bhubaneswar general ticket) and here the railway people wanted to make a false case against this passenger. And when i told the peon to let the passenger go otherwise a complaint would be made he seem to be least bothered about complaint. I came out and waited for my train.
Railways may be a mass organisation carrying a mass load but per se there is no discipline. THe problem begins from the window booking counter where still there are drawbacks which would never disappear. Since the railways are least interested in clipping the wings of TTEs, the seeds of inaction on misappropriation and mismanagement can be traced here itself. If no remedial measures are taken, things would continue like this.
Why you want to harass passengers? If someone has travelled beyond a permissible limit, levy a penalty, if someone has travelled without a ticket or lost the ticket during the course of journey, levy the penalty payable in cash as suggested in rule books. Never ever show the threat that you would send the passenger to prison as rule books suggest a penalty payable in cash is the way out. As for Khadra Road-Howrah station another incident came to light which i would mention later.
Reached Puri after 3 in the morning
Returning to Jasidih-Puri journey, with the upper berth too gone it was time to take the middle berth . When coach attendant came to hand over a fresh set of bedsheets i politely refused and subsequently hit the coach berth. Jajpur and Bhubaneswar were major destinations on the way and the train reached Puri a little after 3 in the morning. For a while i stayed outside and then went to the waiting hall. Here an entry to the register was duly made and the attendant refusing to entertain those with a sleeper class ticket. Here also a workable solution is in sight if a passenger with a sleeper class ticket pays 20 rs for one to two hours, he or she can gain entry with a receipt in hand.Bathrooms inside the waiting hall are fairly clean.
Took an auto and reached the heart of the town. Next to the Jagannath temple took a room which came for 300rs. The lodgewallah was quite cooperative.
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