I just loooooooove watching movies.
Being in Pune which has a lot of multiplexes, I’ve been for a lot of movies every month. When I was pursuing my graduation in Goa there were no multiplexes so we used to go to theatres like Samrat in Panjim & Vishant in Margao. Even now when I’m down in Goa and meet up with friends for lunch in Panjim, a post lunch movie at Inox is always welcome. Atleast, one gets to escape from the torture of the sun and be as cool as a cucumber in the theatre.
Sometimes, I feel if I weren’t in HR, one of the ‘top 5’ options on my career list would be a movie usher at Inox. He he.. :-)
Watching movies in the theatre and on the TV/laptop are two different experiences. Now I’m sure you must be thinking that I’m referring to the wide screen experience. Yeah! That is one difference. But another major difference for me is that given a device, which has the FWD option, I can really make good use of it. This option applies mostly whilst watching hindi movies. All the naach gaana, unwanted masala can be easily done away with just one click. One can finish watching a 3 hours movie in 2 hours. That’s time management for you.
Also you don’t need to utilize your brainpower to guess the story of a hindi movie. Within the first 5-10 minutes of the movie, you know what the end is gonna be like. Or if you watch the last 10 mins you know what the movie must have been like. It’s very unlike a Hollywood movie, where you have to literally break your head guessing the script. Even if you miss the first 10 mins of a Hollywood flick you’re in trouble..
And if you’re a movie buff like me, I’m sure you must have realized by now that the chaps in Bollywood can’t write (or type or foresee) an original film script. Ok some of them confess that their scripts are inspired by a Hollywood movie XYZ.. But most of their movies are pure copies of Hollywood movies. The only effort they put in is to modify the story here and there to resemble an Indian setting. I guess that’s what they are paid for. ;)
Anyway, when I shifted here I realized I have a lot of free time, especially on Sunday and other holidays. So, some of the ways I pass my time out here is watching movies, blogging and internet surfing. My Mom feels I should be doing embroidery, knitting and crochet. I dare to think otherwise..
A friend of mine too loves watching movies and this time when I went to Goa, I flicked his CD/DVD case. Ok!!!!! flicked is too harsh a word and it sounds like I’m a chor. But no I didn’t rob it but took his movies with grace ;) By using the term ‘with grace’ I wholly imply that the movies are given to me. I added them to the pile of movies I already have at home.
I’m enclosing a list of movies that I have. Of course the no. of movies on the list will go on increasing as I add more. But if anyone of you is interested in swapping movies do let me know. After all, I’m only an email away......
Friday, November 30, 2007
Journey Back...
My return journey to Silvassa was simply unforgettable.
Whilst coming back to Silvassa my mom, aunt and two cousins came along. We had booked tickets in the first week of September on the Veraval Express but since ticket booking by the Railway Authorities starts 3 months in advance, we were on the Waiting List. I had a nice time teasing my cousin that he would have to sleep on the floor of the train & someone might ‘un’intentionally stamp him. I’m sure you guys must have guessed who the someone is that I’m referring to. Evil ‘ME’
When we checked the status of the tickets a day before the journey there was good news and bad news. To our good luck all the tickets got confirmed. But to our bad luck we were allotted berths, which were not close to each other in the train. We decided to negotiate with the other (single) people on the train. After all we were 5 of us against 1 so they would obviously feel sorry for us and shift for the sake of humanity..
A hurried morning of packing our bags and we were at Margao Railway Station 10 mins ahead of the slated departure. But damn.. the train was 15 mins late. We had to go to the next platform so heaving our heavy bags over the overbridge we reached PL2. Once there we asked the guy at the Tea Stall ‘Where’s the AC compartment?’ and he waved to the right and said, ‘End of that side’. We took all our baggage there and waited.
The train was really running late so my cousins started munching on chips. Then as a coolie went by we asked him, ‘Where’s the AC compartment?’ He said that side and waved towards the other end of the platform. Oh boy.. What ensued next was a mad run to the other end of the platform. We surely must have been a funny sight as we ran with our luggage.
Once there, we heard the stupid announcement ‘Veraval Express is arriving on Platform 2 shortly’. Sheesh.. So we waited and waited. The same announcement was repeated twice after a gap of ten minutes... Initially, every time the announcement was made some people got ready with their luggage but when the same announcement was repeated people didn’t seem to care. I guess the Railways should use a bit of marketing strategies here and try and promote their food/juice/magazine stalls. It sure would be nice to hear the Railway Authorities being courteous towards their customers.
Ultimately the train came an hour late..
Once inside the train, we found that our berths were in different compartments. So we decided to try our strategies.
Strategy No 1: Exchange a ticket with your neighbor and ask him to shift.
Expected End Result: The neighbor shifts to your friend’s place and your friend shifts to his. Mission accomplished.
Unfortunate Actual Result: Apparently there were a lot of families in the train and they would not shift. Would we have shifted if we were in their place???? Naa.. No way..
Strategy No 2: Catch hold of the TC.
Expected End Result: The TC checks his list and makes the necessary changes. Mission accomplished.
Unfortunate Actual Result: We caught hold of the TC (Hey naughty, not literally mind you but with our pleading sad faces) but he could not help us. He gave us all the seat nos of people traveling alone (that turned out to be 2) and asked us to request them. But since they were traveling long distance nobody was interested.
We then decided to compromise. No not really compromise but it was a Win-Win situation. Howzaaat? Simple. We won by getting all the seats confirmed and again won by getting the lower berths. He he..
Since, this was the first time my cousins traveled by train my younger cuz was running around like a monkey all over the train. He wanted to know how to climb the berths, what happens if he pulls the red chain, what’s the fine, whether there are snakes in the train, where the AC vents are, does the TC have a berth to himself, whether they cook in the pantry car… question, question.. Every time the train would go through a tunnel he would count the seconds it took to come out of it.
A sumptuous meal of Pulao and Chicken topped with docegrao and bhatk I was all set to take a short nap. But since my cousin was so excited, he would climb the top most berth and climb down again not forgetting to tickle poor Blen arranging her bed sheets on the middle berth on his way down. Boo hoo.. My brilliant plan of sleeping in the train after tiring myself at the wedding went down the drain.
Since this train starts from the South, it was filled with South Indians and they were all speaking in Malayalam. There was a family who went off to sleep after their lunch and they were very much annoyed with my cousin monkeying around. The old man told me to tell him to sleep. So, I told my cousin with a strict face. ‘Sleep!!!’ My cuz then remained quiet during which they settled back to sleep.
Hardly a minute later there was a long Vroooommmmmm.. and the old guy and his folks got up with a start. Courtesy my cousin switched on the (old antic overhead) fan. The old guy had had enough. He got up angrily and told my cousin, ‘Act as though you’re in class.’ Boy!!! Did he make a mistake??? The devil that my cousin is pat came the reply, ‘Nobody sleeps in class.’ Ha ha…
There were two cute lil gals in the train going from Goa to Ahmedabad and so the evening was spent chit chatting with them. My older cuz then took out a pack of cards and the older lil gal taught us a card game, ‘Go Fish’.
Post dinner we all slept keeping in mind we had to get up at 3:30 am. Mobile alarms were set and we went Zzzzzzzzzzz….. Since the train was running late we arrived at Valsad station at 4:40 am. We were just in time to catch the 4:50 Passenger Train to Vapi. Since we had to change platforms we hurriedly got all the luggage up the overbridge and down the other side. If I was traveling alone I would have probably crossed the tracks instead of taking the long way.
We got tickets (Rs.5 for 25 kms… cheap.. I advised my cuz since he was so crazy about trains to buy a Rail Pass and travel on unlimited trips via train) We boarded the train and sat sleepily for the 40 mins journey to Vapi. The train was a double decker but that did not interest my sleepy cuz.
Once we got to Vapi, we got into an Auto to get to Silvassa. Vapi has this typical odor of chemicals and has been labeled as the 3rd dirtiest city in the world. Boy!!! Anyway the rest of India (leaving Goa aside) ain’t so clean either.
Whilst coming back to Silvassa my mom, aunt and two cousins came along. We had booked tickets in the first week of September on the Veraval Express but since ticket booking by the Railway Authorities starts 3 months in advance, we were on the Waiting List. I had a nice time teasing my cousin that he would have to sleep on the floor of the train & someone might ‘un’intentionally stamp him. I’m sure you guys must have guessed who the someone is that I’m referring to. Evil ‘ME’
When we checked the status of the tickets a day before the journey there was good news and bad news. To our good luck all the tickets got confirmed. But to our bad luck we were allotted berths, which were not close to each other in the train. We decided to negotiate with the other (single) people on the train. After all we were 5 of us against 1 so they would obviously feel sorry for us and shift for the sake of humanity..
A hurried morning of packing our bags and we were at Margao Railway Station 10 mins ahead of the slated departure. But damn.. the train was 15 mins late. We had to go to the next platform so heaving our heavy bags over the overbridge we reached PL2. Once there we asked the guy at the Tea Stall ‘Where’s the AC compartment?’ and he waved to the right and said, ‘End of that side’. We took all our baggage there and waited.
The train was really running late so my cousins started munching on chips. Then as a coolie went by we asked him, ‘Where’s the AC compartment?’ He said that side and waved towards the other end of the platform. Oh boy.. What ensued next was a mad run to the other end of the platform. We surely must have been a funny sight as we ran with our luggage.
Once there, we heard the stupid announcement ‘Veraval Express is arriving on Platform 2 shortly’. Sheesh.. So we waited and waited. The same announcement was repeated twice after a gap of ten minutes... Initially, every time the announcement was made some people got ready with their luggage but when the same announcement was repeated people didn’t seem to care. I guess the Railways should use a bit of marketing strategies here and try and promote their food/juice/magazine stalls. It sure would be nice to hear the Railway Authorities being courteous towards their customers.
Ultimately the train came an hour late..
Once inside the train, we found that our berths were in different compartments. So we decided to try our strategies.
Strategy No 1: Exchange a ticket with your neighbor and ask him to shift.
Expected End Result: The neighbor shifts to your friend’s place and your friend shifts to his. Mission accomplished.
Unfortunate Actual Result: Apparently there were a lot of families in the train and they would not shift. Would we have shifted if we were in their place???? Naa.. No way..
Strategy No 2: Catch hold of the TC.
Expected End Result: The TC checks his list and makes the necessary changes. Mission accomplished.
Unfortunate Actual Result: We caught hold of the TC (Hey naughty, not literally mind you but with our pleading sad faces) but he could not help us. He gave us all the seat nos of people traveling alone (that turned out to be 2) and asked us to request them. But since they were traveling long distance nobody was interested.
We then decided to compromise. No not really compromise but it was a Win-Win situation. Howzaaat? Simple. We won by getting all the seats confirmed and again won by getting the lower berths. He he..
Since, this was the first time my cousins traveled by train my younger cuz was running around like a monkey all over the train. He wanted to know how to climb the berths, what happens if he pulls the red chain, what’s the fine, whether there are snakes in the train, where the AC vents are, does the TC have a berth to himself, whether they cook in the pantry car… question, question.. Every time the train would go through a tunnel he would count the seconds it took to come out of it.
A sumptuous meal of Pulao and Chicken topped with docegrao and bhatk I was all set to take a short nap. But since my cousin was so excited, he would climb the top most berth and climb down again not forgetting to tickle poor Blen arranging her bed sheets on the middle berth on his way down. Boo hoo.. My brilliant plan of sleeping in the train after tiring myself at the wedding went down the drain.
Since this train starts from the South, it was filled with South Indians and they were all speaking in Malayalam. There was a family who went off to sleep after their lunch and they were very much annoyed with my cousin monkeying around. The old man told me to tell him to sleep. So, I told my cousin with a strict face. ‘Sleep!!!’ My cuz then remained quiet during which they settled back to sleep.
Hardly a minute later there was a long Vroooommmmmm.. and the old guy and his folks got up with a start. Courtesy my cousin switched on the (old antic overhead) fan. The old guy had had enough. He got up angrily and told my cousin, ‘Act as though you’re in class.’ Boy!!! Did he make a mistake??? The devil that my cousin is pat came the reply, ‘Nobody sleeps in class.’ Ha ha…
There were two cute lil gals in the train going from Goa to Ahmedabad and so the evening was spent chit chatting with them. My older cuz then took out a pack of cards and the older lil gal taught us a card game, ‘Go Fish’.
Post dinner we all slept keeping in mind we had to get up at 3:30 am. Mobile alarms were set and we went Zzzzzzzzzzz….. Since the train was running late we arrived at Valsad station at 4:40 am. We were just in time to catch the 4:50 Passenger Train to Vapi. Since we had to change platforms we hurriedly got all the luggage up the overbridge and down the other side. If I was traveling alone I would have probably crossed the tracks instead of taking the long way.
We got tickets (Rs.5 for 25 kms… cheap.. I advised my cuz since he was so crazy about trains to buy a Rail Pass and travel on unlimited trips via train) We boarded the train and sat sleepily for the 40 mins journey to Vapi. The train was a double decker but that did not interest my sleepy cuz.
Once we got to Vapi, we got into an Auto to get to Silvassa. Vapi has this typical odor of chemicals and has been labeled as the 3rd dirtiest city in the world. Boy!!! Anyway the rest of India (leaving Goa aside) ain’t so clean either.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Enchanted by Divar
Travel has always been one of my passions. Unfortunately for me, I’ve studied in very strict schools & colleges and long distance tours were a big No-No. Even today when I see school children go to other states and countries on tours I get real J…
I also love nature a lot and one of the places in Goa which is a perfect blend of natural beauty and has totally enchanted me with its beauty is Divar.
Its located just across the Ribandar road and one needs to travel to Divar by ferry. Whilst traveling by ferry one can see a lot of barges in the water. The barges are used to transport iron ore. As one alights from the ferry, there is a bus waiting which I guess is used to ferry people to the village and back. The road is a long narrow one and one can catch a glimpse of the village from the ferry point. The bus & ferry timings are coordinated in such a way that as one alights from the ferry there’s a bus waiting for you to go to the village.
At the ferry point there is a bus stop (read concrete structure) but I don’t think people use it. The only people who probably use it are the rowdy boys (or gals) who have scribbled a lot of gupshup on it.
The mangroves out there remind you of the backwaters of Kerala and one will notice a lot of wildlife like birds, insects, frogs or even scary snakes. Now it all depends on how you look at nature. Mind you, snakes can be cute too. There was this small fishing boat (Pic) tied to a tree and it looked very inviting. Now before you think that I went and untied the rope and went for a boat ride naaa.. I spared the fishermen the trouble of rescuing their boat.. So, thoughtful of me.. He he..
There is also a small white washed grotto where there are Holy Statues. (Pic) And just across it there is another Statue of Hindu Gods. This is pretty common in Goa and shows how people live in religious harmony.
Whilst going on the winding road to Divar if one sees the top of the hill, the Divar church is visible whereas if one strains one’s eyes to see on the right hand side, the steeple of the Old Goa church can be seen.
Once you enter the sleepy village you will be totally mesmerized by the pin drop silence. Of course the humming of birds and the occasional vehicle sound exists but that’s totally negligible. The beautiful old Portuguese houses are a treat to the eye especially if you have an eye for Goan Architecture.
At the top of the hill is a church and next to it is a Cemetery. One can get an amazing view of the Mandovi river as well as Ribandar from here. You will also be charmed by the pleasant breeze blowing out there. The entrance of the Cemetery has a sign in Konkani which reads, ‘Aiz Mhaka Faleam Tuka’ (Pic) Translated in English it means, ‘Today me tomorrow you’. Ok the grammar ain’t right. Lemme change the sentence without altering the meaning. Hmmmm…. Its something like, ‘Today its me, tomorrow it’ll be your turn’. Sure gives you that creepy eerie feeling. Booooo……
The famous festival of flags called Bonderam is held here annually but unfortunately I’ve never been for it. My brother has been for it and he said its really nice. I sure hope to go for it someday.
So, people if you want to be surrounded by nature then the island of Divar is the place to be.
I also love nature a lot and one of the places in Goa which is a perfect blend of natural beauty and has totally enchanted me with its beauty is Divar.
Its located just across the Ribandar road and one needs to travel to Divar by ferry. Whilst traveling by ferry one can see a lot of barges in the water. The barges are used to transport iron ore. As one alights from the ferry, there is a bus waiting which I guess is used to ferry people to the village and back. The road is a long narrow one and one can catch a glimpse of the village from the ferry point. The bus & ferry timings are coordinated in such a way that as one alights from the ferry there’s a bus waiting for you to go to the village.
At the ferry point there is a bus stop (read concrete structure) but I don’t think people use it. The only people who probably use it are the rowdy boys (or gals) who have scribbled a lot of gupshup on it.
The mangroves out there remind you of the backwaters of Kerala and one will notice a lot of wildlife like birds, insects, frogs or even scary snakes. Now it all depends on how you look at nature. Mind you, snakes can be cute too. There was this small fishing boat (Pic) tied to a tree and it looked very inviting. Now before you think that I went and untied the rope and went for a boat ride naaa.. I spared the fishermen the trouble of rescuing their boat.. So, thoughtful of me.. He he..
There is also a small white washed grotto where there are Holy Statues. (Pic) And just across it there is another Statue of Hindu Gods. This is pretty common in Goa and shows how people live in religious harmony.
Whilst going on the winding road to Divar if one sees the top of the hill, the Divar church is visible whereas if one strains one’s eyes to see on the right hand side, the steeple of the Old Goa church can be seen.
Once you enter the sleepy village you will be totally mesmerized by the pin drop silence. Of course the humming of birds and the occasional vehicle sound exists but that’s totally negligible. The beautiful old Portuguese houses are a treat to the eye especially if you have an eye for Goan Architecture.
At the top of the hill is a church and next to it is a Cemetery. One can get an amazing view of the Mandovi river as well as Ribandar from here. You will also be charmed by the pleasant breeze blowing out there. The entrance of the Cemetery has a sign in Konkani which reads, ‘Aiz Mhaka Faleam Tuka’ (Pic) Translated in English it means, ‘Today me tomorrow you’. Ok the grammar ain’t right. Lemme change the sentence without altering the meaning. Hmmmm…. Its something like, ‘Today its me, tomorrow it’ll be your turn’. Sure gives you that creepy eerie feeling. Booooo……
The famous festival of flags called Bonderam is held here annually but unfortunately I’ve never been for it. My brother has been for it and he said its really nice. I sure hope to go for it someday.
So, people if you want to be surrounded by nature then the island of Divar is the place to be.
Traveling by Train
Trains… When I was a small kid this very word used to bring cute little steam engines puffing fluffy gray clouds in my mind. Naaaa…. I’ve never been on one, but I’ve seen a lot of them, as a kid on my darling idiot box. Before you ask me why I bestowed such an elaborate title on my TV.. It’s because it’s the only box I used to hate to love and love to hate. Confused??? Keep guessing..
But during the last 2 months if the same word ‘train’ is used to coin a question to me like “Have you booked your train ticket to Goa?” its more than enough to give me a nightmare. L
It all started when I shifted to Silvassa. I realized that if I travel by bus from Silvassa to Goa in a break journey format (Silvassa/Vapi-Mumbai & Mumbai-Goa), I’d not only be doing a break dance in the 2 buses but I would also be forced to travel very frequently to the physiotherapist and the doc for my aching limbs and probably broken back.
This time when I went to Goa for my cousin’s wedding in October, I bought the Trains at a Glance (book) from Mumbai but that proved to be useless as Vapi is not listed as a major railway station there. So, I went online to check for trains. The Indian Railways has a website where one can get a lot of info about trains.
I got my tickets booked to Goa and since my Mom, Aunt & cousins wanted to come back with me we got our tickets booked 2 months in advance.
2 months in advance. Yeah, I know.. Big trouble. We got tickets with fancy WL-XYZ and PNR nos printed on them. Railway Booking to any destination in India starts 3 months in advance. Which means one has to plan his/her journey well ahead. If one goes even a day later most of the tickets are already taken. I guess this is ‘coz the Travel Agents play a nice trick by booking all the tickets in their name and then releasing them as and when they get Bhakras.
Anyway, I’ve learnt a good lesson about booking tickets. The best bet is to book your ticket 3 months in advance and then if you can’t go as planned cancel your ticket. It’s a hundred times better to pay the cancellation fee then to spend sleepless nights thinking about your waitlisted ticket.
Hmmmm… When I was in Pune I used to mostly travel by bus. Booking a bus ticket was never a hassle with telephone booking. I used to book tickets over the telephone and pay the amount on the day of the journey. This also implies that I used to book tickets last minute and also cancel and book the same as per my convenience.
The bad decision maker that I am, the days that preceded the journey were filled with FPC (Frequent Phone Calls) to my Mom filled with FAQ like, “Should I leave tomorrow or the day after?” “Should I leave on the 3rd or the 4th or the 5th ?” Hence, most of my trips used to be on the spur of the moment, so much so that sometimes I used to book a ticket on the same day (sometimes even in the afternoon) of the journey.
Added to that the lone train which used to run on the Goa-Pune route was not a direct train. It’s a Goa-Delhi train with Pune as one of the stops in between. It also had real odd timings (it arrives at 4 am in Pune & since I always traveled alone there was this eerie feeling of what if I remain sleeping?) So traveling by train for me was a big No-No. But my bike has been twice on that route (my very lucky bikey).
But now after gaining some experience in long distance travel via train I wish I had traveled by train on the Goa-Pune route.. Even if I would have remained fast asleep in the train I would probably wake up and find myself in a new place.. Wow!! Adventure… Cool eh???
Its not that I’ve never traveled by train. The first time I traveled by train was from Goa to Mumbai. Then also to Karnataka and probably close to a dozen times on the Pune-Mumbai route. But these journeys have all been short distance ones (except for the Goa-Mumbai one which was planned well in advance) so there never has been a hassle involved in booking tickets.
Anyway, back to the tickets.. Our ticket nos read WL-7,8,9,10 & 11. What ensued next was that my aunt and I had to go on an educational spree asking people the million dollar question, “Will our tickets be confirmed?”
Everyone had his or her own opinion. Mind you, people can be really challu*… They don’t wanna make you feel bad so they mostly prefer answering in the affirmative. We were told not to worry and our tickets would be confirmed. Different people gave us different opinions:
1) Many people cancel their tickets so your no would surely go in the Confirmation List. [What if they don’t cancel????????]
2) You have to be after the TC to confirm your seats. Maybe even give him a small little bribe. [Eeeeeeh…. That’s unethical..]
3) Pray and pray and pray to God. [Yeah, I did pray. Only difference was that I prayed that people on the Confirmed List should cancel their tickets]
4) I was also told that if you’re on the Waiting List in the General Compartment, sometimes they even add a General boogie compartment if the Waiting List nos. are high but in our case we had AC tickets so whether they would add a boogie or not it would be of no help to us. [We would probably have to do the Boogie Boggie Dance in or on (the top of) the Train to get a seat..]
5) Then one of my office colleagues told me that AC tickets were the most difficult ones to get confirmed. And he related his experience when he had to go on a long distance train with a Wait Listed Ticket standing in the small place between the train doors.. [Yeah.. hold your nose.. Its the same space which is near the loo..]
Anyway, keeping all these opinions in mind we would check faithfully every alternate day the status of our tickets. My aunt over the phone & me online.
Sometimes, we would debate whether we should cancel the tickets v/s taking Tatkal tickets. We ultimately decided on settling for the ‘Let’s wait and see’ option. Further research on the Internet gave us Guidelines & Cancellation terms and conditions. There are a lot of rules and of course there’s fine print too. We also saw that the Railways very cleverly woo you with the tricky sentence, ‘Railway Chart can change last minute.’
Slowly our ticket nos crawled up.. From WL 7 to 6 to 5.. and ultimately it became confirmed a day prior to the journey. Kindly refer to my next posting on the Journey back to Silvassa for further details about the so-called confirmation.
So, its only after shifting to Silvassa that I’ve literally been forced to learn the A-Z of Indian Railways. For coaching classes on the same you can always contact me although I think the above write up is more than enough..
*The meaning of Challu = Smartie Smart. There can be different versions of the word Challu if you didn’t know. Eg. Naughty Challu, Evil Challu, Matlabi Challu, Bugging Challu, etc.. etc..
But during the last 2 months if the same word ‘train’ is used to coin a question to me like “Have you booked your train ticket to Goa?” its more than enough to give me a nightmare. L
It all started when I shifted to Silvassa. I realized that if I travel by bus from Silvassa to Goa in a break journey format (Silvassa/Vapi-Mumbai & Mumbai-Goa), I’d not only be doing a break dance in the 2 buses but I would also be forced to travel very frequently to the physiotherapist and the doc for my aching limbs and probably broken back.
This time when I went to Goa for my cousin’s wedding in October, I bought the Trains at a Glance (book) from Mumbai but that proved to be useless as Vapi is not listed as a major railway station there. So, I went online to check for trains. The Indian Railways has a website where one can get a lot of info about trains.
I got my tickets booked to Goa and since my Mom, Aunt & cousins wanted to come back with me we got our tickets booked 2 months in advance.
2 months in advance. Yeah, I know.. Big trouble. We got tickets with fancy WL-XYZ and PNR nos printed on them. Railway Booking to any destination in India starts 3 months in advance. Which means one has to plan his/her journey well ahead. If one goes even a day later most of the tickets are already taken. I guess this is ‘coz the Travel Agents play a nice trick by booking all the tickets in their name and then releasing them as and when they get Bhakras.
Anyway, I’ve learnt a good lesson about booking tickets. The best bet is to book your ticket 3 months in advance and then if you can’t go as planned cancel your ticket. It’s a hundred times better to pay the cancellation fee then to spend sleepless nights thinking about your waitlisted ticket.
Hmmmm… When I was in Pune I used to mostly travel by bus. Booking a bus ticket was never a hassle with telephone booking. I used to book tickets over the telephone and pay the amount on the day of the journey. This also implies that I used to book tickets last minute and also cancel and book the same as per my convenience.
The bad decision maker that I am, the days that preceded the journey were filled with FPC (Frequent Phone Calls) to my Mom filled with FAQ like, “Should I leave tomorrow or the day after?” “Should I leave on the 3rd or the 4th or the 5th ?” Hence, most of my trips used to be on the spur of the moment, so much so that sometimes I used to book a ticket on the same day (sometimes even in the afternoon) of the journey.
Added to that the lone train which used to run on the Goa-Pune route was not a direct train. It’s a Goa-Delhi train with Pune as one of the stops in between. It also had real odd timings (it arrives at 4 am in Pune & since I always traveled alone there was this eerie feeling of what if I remain sleeping?) So traveling by train for me was a big No-No. But my bike has been twice on that route (my very lucky bikey).
But now after gaining some experience in long distance travel via train I wish I had traveled by train on the Goa-Pune route.. Even if I would have remained fast asleep in the train I would probably wake up and find myself in a new place.. Wow!! Adventure… Cool eh???
Its not that I’ve never traveled by train. The first time I traveled by train was from Goa to Mumbai. Then also to Karnataka and probably close to a dozen times on the Pune-Mumbai route. But these journeys have all been short distance ones (except for the Goa-Mumbai one which was planned well in advance) so there never has been a hassle involved in booking tickets.
Anyway, back to the tickets.. Our ticket nos read WL-7,8,9,10 & 11. What ensued next was that my aunt and I had to go on an educational spree asking people the million dollar question, “Will our tickets be confirmed?”
Everyone had his or her own opinion. Mind you, people can be really challu*… They don’t wanna make you feel bad so they mostly prefer answering in the affirmative. We were told not to worry and our tickets would be confirmed. Different people gave us different opinions:
1) Many people cancel their tickets so your no would surely go in the Confirmation List. [What if they don’t cancel????????]
2) You have to be after the TC to confirm your seats. Maybe even give him a small little bribe. [Eeeeeeh…. That’s unethical..]
3) Pray and pray and pray to God. [Yeah, I did pray. Only difference was that I prayed that people on the Confirmed List should cancel their tickets]
4) I was also told that if you’re on the Waiting List in the General Compartment, sometimes they even add a General boogie compartment if the Waiting List nos. are high but in our case we had AC tickets so whether they would add a boogie or not it would be of no help to us. [We would probably have to do the Boogie Boggie Dance in or on (the top of) the Train to get a seat..]
5) Then one of my office colleagues told me that AC tickets were the most difficult ones to get confirmed. And he related his experience when he had to go on a long distance train with a Wait Listed Ticket standing in the small place between the train doors.. [Yeah.. hold your nose.. Its the same space which is near the loo..]
Anyway, keeping all these opinions in mind we would check faithfully every alternate day the status of our tickets. My aunt over the phone & me online.
Sometimes, we would debate whether we should cancel the tickets v/s taking Tatkal tickets. We ultimately decided on settling for the ‘Let’s wait and see’ option. Further research on the Internet gave us Guidelines & Cancellation terms and conditions. There are a lot of rules and of course there’s fine print too. We also saw that the Railways very cleverly woo you with the tricky sentence, ‘Railway Chart can change last minute.’
Slowly our ticket nos crawled up.. From WL 7 to 6 to 5.. and ultimately it became confirmed a day prior to the journey. Kindly refer to my next posting on the Journey back to Silvassa for further details about the so-called confirmation.
So, its only after shifting to Silvassa that I’ve literally been forced to learn the A-Z of Indian Railways. For coaching classes on the same you can always contact me although I think the above write up is more than enough..
*The meaning of Challu = Smartie Smart. There can be different versions of the word Challu if you didn’t know. Eg. Naughty Challu, Evil Challu, Matlabi Challu, Bugging Challu, etc.. etc..
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