PART 2-
.
Peace ensued after all the boarding chaos as people settled into their seats and ‘BRACED THEMSELVES’ for a painful journey which was to follow. But some faces were still anxious and eyes were continuously scanning the crowd. The person seated near me was no exception. A careful observation gave me the #first revelation of the journey. All of them were touts and were waiting for their customers (who were soon to become our co-passengers) to arrive. The one seated near me finally handed a ticket, and a voter’s ID...
more... (most probably a fake one) to an old man, aged around 60 and assured him that nothing would happen. He went away saying ‘Sab baat pehle hi ho chuki hai’. I had known that this train is one of the favorites among touts and what happened in front of my eyes only strengthened this belief.
.
The train departed from NZM bang on time and started skipping stations, some of which are the temples of high speed action lovers, in its usual manner. And it has to maintain such an aggressive schedule to avoid becoming the victim of the King’s wrath, which starts following it soon. I drifted into a short nap after making a few updates in my trip diary, which broke only when it came to a halt at Mathura Jn. The next thing which drew my attention was an unusual commotion which I had never seen in this train before. Despite all the seats being full, there were still some passengers in the aisle and near the toilets. It was, a hard to believe, but the
#second revelation of the journey. There were waitlisted passengers in a chair car. This may not be the first case and many of you may have observed it before. For me, it was a shocker. This practice was initially prevalent in SL and 2S. But it seems the disease is now spreading to other classes as well. PKV Sir, a month earlier, had told me about the troubles he had to face because of these unauthorized entries, when he was on his way to Delhi in Howrah Rajdhani. I feel the day isn’t far when people would be gracing the floors of a Shatabdi.
.
Next two are not exactly revelations, but some gross negligences on the part of the railway staff, which proved more inconvenient to the passengers than the above two. Would conclude my report by highlighting them.
.
To be continued………