[silversteed]

Something from my side. Me and my friend had gone to Dindigul to attend a colleague's wedding. We had booked our return ticket in the GUV express that reaches Dindigul at 2pm (guess so) without knowing the horror the SL journey was going to be. We sat in our seats, and since it was daytime, many pax got in, encroached our berths. Both of us were very tired and somehow we managed to make 2-3 people of the total 4-5 encroachers move out. There was another gentleman who also joined us. So we were a three-strong team and the TTE was also supportive. So far so good. Now, this gentleman, who said, is working for IAF starts talking. He started talking nonstop, many many topics started flowing and among others, about how the "IT peoples" have become the reason for the exorbitant fares charged by buses from Chennai and Bangalore- "If they ask 1000 rupees for a seat, they'll say take 1200 or 1500 but take me home". And we were nodding our heads laughing inside. When we reached some station that was 30min or so away from Tambaram, we let the cat out. The expression on his face, priceless!!! The way he started blushing, and covering up his idiocy (or candidness?).... wish i could capture it all in HD Video!

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Another incident, which my dad narrated to me, when I told him about this thread on T-BHP and also my experience. It was in the 70s, and he was travelling in SL to Delhi. The train reached MP. It was late at night. Many people got in and sat on his berth which was the Lowest. When he found it difficult to sleep because of the crowd and their high dB conversation, he objected. He told them it's a reserved coach and he wanted to sleep. Now, one of the men asked him if he's breathing (Saans le raha hai kya, <some expletive>?). Dad replied yes. The man said, if you make another sound, that will also stop. Now dad didn't utter a word and lied down in whatever cramped position that they left him in.

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One more incident. This time it was my collegemate and some juniors who were going to attend an IEEE conference in Kolkatta. Somewhere on the way, a few eunuchs (i don't know another word, rights activists please excuse if i used a wrong term) boarded with their clapping and other antics. Almost everyone in the coach paid 5 or 10 bucks and got rid of them. My friend decided to play the hero and said boldly that he won't give a penny. Let me add that there was a family in the adjacent "room" (it was an SL coach, uhmmm, the 8-people arrangement). With that blunder of his, so many people got a live show of some "very inviting" stuff. Hope I don't need to explain more

[MX6]

Aah yes the Eunuchs. How can one forget them!
I flopped on the upper berth of my sleeper class coach years back only to be disturbed by their loud clapping and Eh Salman kind of comments. They were causing quite a lot of displeasure to married men and people travelling with children. The Bachelors parted with 10s and 20s just to not get molested.
I decided it's time to put it to end.
I whipped out my SLR and a notepad and pen. Since I was unshaven, I easily passed as a scribe and started asking them questions.
I just told them that I'm a photo journalist who wants to make an article on their wretched lives and take photos too which would feature in my magazine.
That left them scurrying to all parts of the train. It took all but a couple of mins to get rid of that menace and all the ruckus they were creating.

[rajushank84]

I have traveled by train very few times, but at all times I have faced one kind of irritation or other. That's why I prefer to just drive, however my wife prefers trains

Last time was when we were newly married, we were traveling to Bangalore from Chennai. We had literally wasted a couple of hours just getting to Egmore station when we would have been somewhere near Vellore if we had just driven. Anyway. After getting to the Egmore station after a lot of hassle, and the train *finally* showed up, we found the seats were numbered for three berths but there were only two. So no one was sure which seat was which seat number, and the TT didn't show up for a couple of hours!

I found it amusing with some people demanding that the lights be switched off, as early as 10PM! What is the rule/law on that? Is it that all the lights be switched off even if one person in the cabin demands it? Or, is it that the light can be kept on for reading if the person next to it needs to read for some time? Is there any cutoff time for that? Anyway what happened was that the TT showed up quite late, till then we were all just sitting and waiting for him, and after he took his own sweet time to assign berths, the lights had to be switched off!

Anyway, that's when I decided it is much, much better to travel by car! Yes, maybe we need to find toilet stops, but apart from that the sitting position is way more comfortable in cars, can stop wherever needed, and most of all no need to interact with all kinds of indecent people!

Or just pay a bit more and fly!

[aargee]

Originally Posted by MX6

Good to know that you cleaned initially using the newspaper.

Yeah, I'm responsible for my sibling's deed right? Be it good or bad.

Originally Posted by MX6

I'd have cleaned it up completely myself, and dropped all the muck in the place where the attender of the A/c coach sleeps!

I hope you aren't serious!!!

Originally Posted by MX6

I just told them that I'm a photo...they were creating.

Why would they fear a reporter? I din't quite get the logic here.

Once when I was on my way to BLR, we encountered these people somewhere at Ambur or so. Those days I never knew the consequence of messing up with these people, so I never paid attention & turned away my face towards window. They called me few times (very funny, they called Blue TShirt Brother lol), but I never paid attention & they went away.

[noopster]

Trains in India stink. A lot of times, literally as well as figuratively. This is why I fly long distance and drive short-medium distance!

[anku94]

Originally Posted by MX6

Aah yes the Eunuchs. How can one forget them!
I flopped on the upper berth of my sleeper class coach years back only to be disturbed by their loud clapping and Eh Salman kind of comments. They were causing quite a lot of displeasure to married men and people travelling with children. The Bachelors parted with 10s and 20s just to not get molested.
I decided it's time to put it to end.
I whipped out my SLR and a notepad and pen. Since I was unshaven, I easily passed as a scribe and started asking them questions.
I just told them that I'm a photo journalist who wants to make an article on their wretched lives and take photos too which would feature in my magazine.
That left them scurrying to all parts of the train. It took all but a couple of mins to get rid of that menace and all the ruckus they were creating.

That reminds me. Once we were going on a tour to Lonavala (Our coaching centre's counselor was a student at Kaivalyadhama Ashram there), we were a group of ~45 students and two assistants and the counselor. No one paid when those eunuchs came. Even when one of them said that (s)he'll be marrying the assistant. Poor guy had to be the brunt of jokes for rest of the journey. Might not sound too much funny, but it was a riot when watched live.
----------------
On the same journey, since we boarded from Ambala which is almost the starting point of the train, there were no encroachers in our two coaches. But we got plenty of them the next day. It was sickening.

So when the next one tried to sit in our compartment (all the seats in there were ours), two of us simultaneously started protesting his antics. Needless to say, he was flustered and couldn't decide which of the two to counter first, and the result was that he could counter neither and quietly went away.

Now that I analyze what we did, I think it's a pretty powerful tool. Not if there are already encroachers where you're supposed to sit, but powerful in driving some of those adventurous beetles who come along once you've seated.

[vivekiny2k]

Originally Posted by Samurai

BTW, in villages and small towns, Infosys is a generic term for software/call-center company. Lot of locals in my village refer my company as Infosys.

so we can say that OP was infosys'ed

[SirAlec]

Take the day train (office rush hours) towards North East that passes through Bihar and UP and AC coaches are also not spared.

Except for Rajdhani which passes through night all the others are jam packed.

[EssYouWe]

Haha! This was an interesting read.

I remember taking the Rajdhani to Kharagpur for a debate. We had cockroaches crawling all over. It really was a gross experience.

I traveled Delhi-Dehradun in the AC Special once. It was Diwali that day. Their were 4 passengers in all the 3rd AC coaches. 2 Filipinos, a Hippie and I. That was awesome fun.

[supremeBaleno]

Eunuchs capitalise on the fear/aversion that most people have towards them.
Best approach : Dont look away. Just look straight at them and tell them to buzz off. It works.

Originally Posted by rajushank84

I found it amusing with some people demanding that the lights be switched off, as early as 10PM! What is the rule/law on that?

I would think they are right. Infact I think the rule would be more like 9PM. I dont know if there is a rule for switching off lights, but I guess the rule for putting up middle berth for sleeping would apply here, which if I am right is 9PM to 6AM.

Not sure what is the responsibility of the coach attendants in a/c - apart from providing bedrolls, blankets etc. Does it form part of their job to clean up after us ? If we intentionally or otherwise dirty the place (such that it would inconvenience others), I would think we need to clean it up. But then I am not sure of the exact rules here.

[noopster]

Resurrecting an old thread that I happened to revisit. Am planning to travel on Konkan Rail on Mumbai-Mangalore, Mangalore- Gokarna and Gokarna-Mumbai sectors around New Year's. Have reserved seats/berths for all sectors but since AC was sold out I opted for sleeper class. Reading this now has me worried because we are going to be in a big family group with children and old people. Should I reconsider?

[narayans80]

Originally Posted by noopster

we are going to be in a big family group with children and old people. Should I reconsider?

As a large group, I assume you are all booked together in the same coach. In which case you shouldn't be bothered much. In 2S, the key issues would be related to seating. Especially some preferring window seats and some aisle. There is also the menace of unreserved sitting in reserved seats, its a pain if you are alone or small groups. With large groups, it may not be felt that much.

Another major issue is related to food, be prepared for both at the origin station itself. Quality of food is variable, even food that's served in Shatabdi is nothing home to write about.

You'll have to write off or leave it to chance are cleanliness and coach maintenance, its a non existent thing. Except for 1A coaches in some famous trains. Long hauls regardless of coach are maintained poorly. Short hauls, overnighters you'd be lucky. If you are boarding at origin, trains are relatively clean to start off.

[perty]

What worries me more about train journeys nowadays is frequent reports of stone pelting on trains by urchins, which leaves train passengers injured. So far, this seems to happen when trains pass through slums within city limits or in the city outskirts (mostly Bangalore, but I don't know if such incidents are also reported from other cities), so whenever anyone I know talks of travelling by train, I advise them to keep their windows closed

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by noopster

Trains in India stink. A lot of times, literally as well as figuratively. This is why I fly long distance and drive short-medium distance!

Even the Shatabdi level of trains. Irrespective of the Class of Travel, yes our Trains smell absolutely horrible. One realises that one smells of IRON + Stale Food and a lot of other worse things when one disembarks.

Same with our long distance buses - even the famed Volvo type buses. I think it is just our overall climatic conditions and quality of maintenance and quality of passengers that contributes to these horrid smells.

Why, for heaven's sake, even these taxi's (many of them, irrespective of whether Uber or OLA or whoever) smell terrible.

Dubai Taxis - the RTA Camry cabs - some smell ok, many smell horrible - most are driven by Pakistanis or Indians or Bangladeshi drivers with generally poor personal hygiene.

The Limo cabs (Lexus's) are a cut above but they are also 20-30% more expensive.

I really can't bear these horrible smells. Perhaps I ve become more sensitive over time.

I also tend to fly long distances and drive short distances.

But the fact is that if at all one is stuck in an Aeroplane with a smelly character next to one, then that is also sheer torture. Hence it may be sensible to carry a Zorro Type mask at all times.

I tend to carry one of those eye shades which I use to cover my eyes and sleep on a plane. One way to mitigate bad smells is to spray Cologne or something nice smelling onto the Eyeshade and thus avoid the neighbouring bad odours and at least manage the journey.

Ref Stone pelting - I was in a Shatabdi express reaching Bangalore at about 930pm or so one day in the year 2013.
As we were nearing Cantt. Station, one of those nasty little street urchins by the side of the track, flung a mid sized rock at our bogey. It hit the double glazing and there we went - a big "star" appeared on the outer layer, with cracks emanating from the epicentre of that "star"...

Long ago (year 1998) I was driving my soft top Gypsy in Thiruvanmiyur in Madras near where that new big Metro station is nowadays. A wicked little urchin by the side of the road flung a rock at me as I was passing - it hit my Gypsy's front windshield and I was really lucky that the stone wasn't large enough or thrown strongly enough to have broken or crazed the windscreen.

[haria]

Originally Posted by noopster

. Should I reconsider?

I don't think you should. Things should be fine. Nevertheless, please stock up on some eatables like biscuits, snacks, etc - especially when travelling in that sector. Couple of years back, my colleague and his family was stuck up for more than 18 hours because of some rock-fall which had blocked the tracks.
Food and water was mighty scarce, since it was in the middle of no-where and my colleague had a harrowing time - all the more because his toddler son was also with them. They paid closed to Rs.100 for a mineral water bottle and paid hefty amount for some snacks also.


Speaking generally, though people do barge in reserved sleeper class compartments, handling them politely but firmly, have always worked for me. I encounter this frequently - especially in Kochuveli express which leaves bangalore in the evening. It is a mad rush inside as folks traveling to Banagarapet always crowd into all sleeper coaches. Off late, There is a continuous announcement in the railway station about NOT boarding a reserved compartment without proper ticket. But this is not adhered to, I guess!

Originally Posted by perty

What worries me more about train journeys nowadays is frequent reports of stone pelting on trains by urchins, which leaves train passengers injured.

There used to be quite a few of such incidents in the late 80s and early 90s. Don't tell this has resurfaced! Sadist behaviour!