The Puri-Howrah ride
As i set out to leave Puri, the dilemma was on the train i should take or break journey at some station to reach Howrah. Settled for a train which departed at 8.05 in the morning. The fare till Khurda Road was rs7. It reached Khurda road at 9.22. And herein the first visit was to the reservation centre which seem to work at a comfort level desired by its staff. Well, there was no counter as current reservation and all reservations were meant for trains that evening or the coming days. Two to three attempts to gauge the position on Falaknuma Express coming from Secundarabad and heading towards Howrah and Dhauli Express from Puri to Howrah were met with a tepid response. One does not know what can make the railway staff gain a motivational quotient. Who can motivate them? I am not suggesting the queue of seeking reservations was big; there were two queues of 10 to 15 people each.
Choice between Falaknuma and Dhouli
With no current reservation counter, i took a general ticket true for a superfast train and truly disposed to the idea that either it would be falaknuma express or dhouli express. As i have already stated, during the waiting period, i was witness to a spectacle of a railway staff trying to snatch a ticket from a passenger. The Falaknuma Express came on Platform No2. A very strong possibility that had i encountered the TTE of sleeper or AC coach, the first thing he would have done is flatly refuse accommodating me in the coach against a receipt that he would have had to issue me. Passengers are entirely to be blamed for taking a general ticket and then boarding sleeper or ac coach with an understanding that no receipt is to be issued and the passenger and TTE have an "enduring journey pact". Though this is not true for all but majority of passengers stoop to this low which gives the leverage to TTE to exploit those who don't wish to engage them in the first place.
The general coach i was in, it was not that crowded as it is normally, still there were scores of passengers standing in the aisle and near the doors. Made a request and shared a seat with a gentleman who was coming from Secundarabad. Till the period i was seated with him, he narrated an incident where GRP seeing the crowd the previous day had taken huge sums from at least 10 passengers.Difficult to verify the incident but there is a clamour that the force meant for railways should be equal to its task of maintaining order. Fleecing the passengers brings a bad name. The entire base to this railway-fleecing-revelation is that they carry a huge load across length and breadth of the country and there would be aberrations howsoever stringent measures are in place. If railways are able to tide over the missing links, beginning from TTEs and Railway Force, some notable praise and wish it can be recipient of . Foremost is that those working for the government don't realise this that at least they get their salary on time and are meant to serve people. If they begin to give blows to people in general coach or those in general sphere of life, they don't understand the world is round, they are destined to have results which won't be sound.
Woman guard at Baleswar
Coming to the Howrah ride, the train left Khurda Road at 10.26, reached Bhubaneswar at 10.55, Cuttack 11.30, Jajpur 12.25, Bhadrak 1pm and Baleswar at 1.55. At Baleswar i spotted a woman guard giving the signal. A little before Cuttack i secured a different seat. One passenger had knife marks on his chest which he explained as a result of a skirmish. At least some had taken off their shirts given the previous night they had spent in the crowded coach. The train reached Kharagpur at 3.30. At half past 6 the train reached Howrah. A word of praise for the drivers of the train which had an engine no 22318. Mind you till 4.30 the train had maintained its momentum and speed. There after it slowed down and due to heavy rush at Howrah, the delay could not be avoided. Sizeable bananas on the way at Khurda Road and Kharagpur came handy. The mineral water dispensed inside the coach was for rs10. Not sure of the quality, this set of mineral water was by no means adulterated . And passengers longed to have this set of mineral water.
On a broad scale the journey in a general coach was safe except it was a little taxing. A little over eight hours, the showering of tea with tea bags helped to reduce the physical pain. As for seating the best course is to not leave the seat for the entire journey. A change of seat may warrant a movement, otherwise just stick to the place and all things begin to fall in place.
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