I stare at the montior.. Waiting for it to happen….
Waiting for the magical number to appear….
At the end of it, I could have two different kinds of reactions…
1: "I am lucky!!!!!! I made it… Wowww!!! "
2: "Shit man! Why should it happen to me??? Why me??"
No… I am not describing a casino in Las Vegas…
Its much more important than that...
It’s when I wait for the reservation to happen after I try booking my ticket to chennai and back on the Indian Railways Website…. And wait for the seat number to appear.. :)
The most dreaded numbers 1-8 and 65-72
For those who have not yet figured it out..
In every coach, these form the compartments right next to the toilet !!!
If you happen to get an opportunity to take revenge on a big time enemy of yours get him a ticket in one of these seats and you would have done more damage than what you had imagined..
This time while returning from Chennai, I had this dreaded seat of 71.. Side lower berth… The stink started to make its presence felt in sometime… And I readily had something to cover my nose…
I tried to divert my mind to all the nice things in life…Consicously trying to avoid thoughts about the stink…I didnt want to puke.. when I was interrupted by a guy sitting opposite to me, who was this 'namma-ooru-annachi' types
Me: "TTR eppa varuvaar?" (When will the TT come?)
He: "I think he will be coming in half an hour.."
Me: (kind of taken aback by the response in English to my statement in Tamil...)
"Oh..ok.Will he change the seat if there are other cancellations?"
He: "Yeah .. I think yes.."
My hanky goes back to cover my nose… I am suffering….!!
He: "Have you read this book?" ( points to "Who moved my cheese" in his hand )
Me: "Yeah, I have.."
He: "What does this book say? What do you like about it?"
Me: ( thinking.. ) Don’t you think this is heights of cruelty? Me dying because of the fragrance
around and you are asking me to give a book review!!!!!!!!!!
Me: Its about adapting to change… But realize that its not that practical..
See.. You would have got much better berths in the train previously, and now if you get a stinking berth, then how the hell can you adapt to this change????… Not possible…
He: (Has a 'Business World' in his hand… ) "What do you think about the stock market boom now?"
Me: (thinking… ) Oh God...Why cant a bull or a bear pounce on me and devour me right here?
Me: "Sir, I am not able to talk in this stink.. So please excuse…"
He: "Oh.. Ok ok.. Sorry…"
Don’t know whether his nose had special gabbu filtering agents sprayed, that inspite of everyone reacting to it, he didn’t…
Me took out the body freshner spray from my bag.. Sprayed liberally at the back and front side of my palm, on my hanky too… and covered my face with the hanky and my palm.. "Necessity is the mother of invention" I thought... and tried to sleep…
And early morning, say 1 hour before the train reaches its destination, please ensure that you stay nowhere near those seats…. Please… for your good…
So friends...For those who have not been lucky enough to experience it...in case you land up with seats in the above mentioned range don’t bother losing 40-50 bucks and cancelling the ticket.. and booking another one.. Or get a 3rd AC ticket if travel is not so frequent…
Didn’t sleep the whole night… And came back home only to find that my street had Vinayaka procession related celebration…Fully lit with colour bulbs..and with jarring loudspeakers..! Screaming "We will rock you"! Uhuuhuh !?!?!?!?!
ROTFL….
Sans the stink, putting up with loudspeakers,… I had a good sleep for 3 hrs and reached office late…
Monday, September 26, 2005
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25 comments:
My advice to you is dont travel in trains anymore. Travel by bus as there are no toilets in it.
U sure tht the stink was from the toilet or u forgot to spray deo on urself ;-)!!!(kidding)
NEways, have had a similiar experience on my way from Hyd to blore.
U just had to bear it for 8hrs.... i had a nice long journey of 12 hrs :(
i think , u can book properly when u go to railway station n book. U can give ur preferences also like lower berth n so on ....
or better , book in 3rd AC , shudnt make a difference to u ;-)
---monsh
Funny post.. i empathize.. Railways shud do something about this for passenger care..
Hey Sudha, u shud hve complained to the TTR like how Ambi did in the movie Anniyan.hahaha
true, i can undrestand the trains going to north india are even worse, ore kaleej trains, pesama u take de bus.
pesama u shud have asked the guy if he was contributing to the stink!!
@mayur
bus, can never sleep.. and i end up having a backache
@g
you too very lucky to experience this?
great :D
@monsh
even if u go in person, you can jus give the berth preference(which can be done online too), and not the seat number..monsh..
@anon
thanks :)
@mayur
anniyan style laya?.. ROTFL.. :)
@vatsan
north india ku pora trains, unbearable.. anga specific seats kadayaadhu..full train e stinking dhaan.. :D
oy sudha.. u missed on the constantly switched on lights and the non-stop disturbance at the entrance of the compartment
venkat
the best way is to stay in b'lore itself...but i need sumone to irritate here at home sis...so better get accustomed to these kinda travellin :D
yeah ... I know what u mean ..freaking irritating .
and about the vinayaka festival ..they play savvu melam too ..
yeah...totally agree...really woooorrrssst seats...72...cant even stretch up there...if the stink was bearable enuf...
reminds me of my return trip from cochin where I had to sleep near the doors after ending up with a waitlisted ticket.fortunately tht coach turned out to be a brand new one,fresh from ICF.so it was not tht stinking.
but the best option is bus.rajahamsa or airavat would be better for daytime journey while the former is unsuitable for night.
ur profile says u r a student.but u've mentioned tht u were late for "office".pls explain.
yeah... its give up... even if it is not stinking badly, for some reason or the other there is always some disturbance near the doors (lights on, people going to toilets, etc.,) and u definitely don't get good sleep... but those bglr-chennai trains are better than the ones that travel for more longer times... anyways, i think we shld be glad that at least we don't have to frequent the toilet as much as in other trains because of the "just 6-7 hr" travel...
I never had to come across this expecience (the seat one), and hope I never do.
Thanks God.
Sudha, I pray for your speedy recovery from the episode.
Imagine a dialogue in our Hindi movies...'Kameeney, tujhe woh toilet waley seats milen, aur tere jeb main koi rumaal na ho!'
hey sudha seat near toilet ,okay i give u an idea ,dis time if u get a seat near putup a counter and start collecti money and by the end of the journey u can buy anew bodyspray and a phneol bottle gifted by u to the railway dept.
nice coincidence !
me 2 chn 2 blr..
seat no. 70 !!! same gabbu !!
Its always good to have a bad experience.it helps u to make a right choice the next time
@venkat
nee vera.. the lights near the toilet can NEVER be switched off!! So sivarathri dhaan..
@veejay
seriously! :(
@sush
so u want me to come to chennai so that you can irritate me??? next time talk about me taking you to pizza hut.. i shall respond appropriately.. ;)
@jagan
i know you will empathize.. namma ellam train makkal...
@maduraiarian
yeah.. valandha makkal ku chance illa...
@sheks
yeah.. i wish i cud travel by bus.. me into the corporate world since july.. forgot to change in the profile.. :)
@naikutti
perfect observations! me too fell the same
@div
lol.. thanks for the speedy recoveryt thing.. bunked office yesterday to compensate for the sleep lost.. ;)
@awakeningcoma
semma idea! ;)
@sujays
oh! same pinch.. comapny kuduthadhukku nanri.. :)
@anonymous
theres unfortunately no question of making a choice anon.. :(
hmm me's had more cruel experiences .. afterall you would have to adjust during extreme situations in these trains .. if you've not realized what me's speaking about .. its about those unreserved compartments .. In my last 10 years of living alone, had lotsa travelling on these things with extreme atmosphere.
Festivals have morphed into entertainment days ... I don't think anyone is upto these religious rituals nemore ... signs of a dying culture :(
@awakeining coma- ROTFLMAO ..nalla idea maams
@saravana kumar
paavam neenga! :)
@tamizhan
hee hee.. and the blogroll..kewl! :)
"special gabbu filtering agents"... me's ROTFL!!!
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