So this starts from 1st week of Nov, '10, I booked a ticket from HWH (Howrah) to KYJ (Kayankulam), a Waiting list ticket numbered in 50's. The journey was a nonstop two day journey all the way to Kerala on one hand & me ALONE on the other. I had a thought that the travel date was a month ahead, so the ticket should get confirmed. IT DIDN'T.
So what, I have travelled on a WL Ticket before. I'll do it again. HUH, BIG DEAL!!!
BUT (there is always a but!!!), again I had an e-ticket, yes, the one we take print outs of. It has this rule that if the ticket is not confirmed as per the chart prepared(this is prepared 4 hrs before the travel timings). it gets AUTOMATICALLY CANCELLED. Unfortunately, the one with me got cancelled. SO at 4 hrs before the journey, I had no ticket, as per the stupid irctc rules (F*** ém).
I almost forgot to mention, I had never been to South India before, nor had any idea of the language they spoke, or the culture they had. So the people were completely strangers.
So, what do I do? See, I had 3 options:
- Book a Rs.10,000 ticket of flight (I would have liked this, but Papa, no way!!)
- Leave the event ( My friends would have killed me!!)
- Travel on a WL Ticket for 2 days (including a change of train in between). ( I would have suffered)
Take a wild guess, what I would have chosen. Yes, the third one !! Was I out of my mind?? Dunno. But , yes, I was sure to learn a lot out of it.
So I woke up next day (the day after the day I was supposed to travel), went to the nearest Ticket counter to get the ticket from Howrah to Chennai to Kayankulam.
AN ENCOUNTER WITH THE INQUIRY OFFICER
I had already started learning. See, I took two tickets one from HWH to MAS(Chennai) and from MAS to KYJ. This costs Rs.800 if each ticket is taken individually. I took the ticket.
But. here comes a concept of BREAK JOURNEY. I cancelled the recently taken tickets, and booked a ticket directly from HWH to KYJ with a break at MAS. This new ticket costs around Rs. 550, So I saved Rs 200 from it (Rs40, cancellation charges for 2 WL tickets).
I was informed about this by an inquiry officer at the counter. By previous experiences with the GOVT. officials at college premises and other places were more than terrible. So I approached this one with the same stern attitude, but later regretted this. This guy was a black Bengali man around 45-50, wearing the railways uniform. This man saved 200 buck for me and also didnt demanded anything in return ( chai- paani bhi nahi manga !!).
WHERE IN THE WORLD DOES A GOVT. CLERK BEHAVES LIKE THIS!!
I was forced to change my opinions (wait for the part where I describe my encounter with the TTs, those SOBs).
I was forced to change my opinions (wait for the part where I describe my encounter with the TTs, those SOBs).
So, here I was with the ticket for a two day journey without a confirmed seat.
Ok then!! Will describe the journey in the next post !!(else this one might become a burden to read!!)
Bbye!!
-CA