My Dear friend, This is India

This blog is a collection of events that happened during one of my longest train journeys.

I was waiting for the Nagarcoil express - 16351 (Mumbai to Nagarcoil via Pune via Trichy) at the Pune station, feeling irritated thinking of the long journey ahead. As the train arrived, I checked the charts eagerly to see any female companion of my age near my seat. 

Having been disappointed again, I cursed my luck, boarded the train and arranged my luggage. 

The train started at 5.00 PM and within minutes of start of the train, a family approached me and requested  me to shift to the other 3AC coach, as they had got tickets split in both of the 3AC coaches. Thought lazy to change the coach, I still felt happy as I realized that there might be a chance to meet a female companion next to my seat. Seems unlucky guys are always unlucky, as the scenario remained the same in other coach too.

It was 9PM in the night.

Having chatted with the family for a long time, I went out to stand near the door and was just listening to the chat between the coach attendants. Hope most of you know that 3AC coaches are accompanied by coach attendants, whose responsibility is to give the bedding items.

The lady from the family came out and asked the attendant for a bedsheet. As the bedsheet was handed over to her, she started arguing with the attendant to give a neat and clean bedsheet. It was a white bedsheet, but due to repeated usage, the colour has slightly faded from it. But it was fresh and neatly ironed; still she wanted a fresh white bedsheet, not like the faded one that has been given to her just now.

The lady passenger argued and added that she would complain to the TC (Ticket Checker) for not issuing a fresh one. By this time, the attendant lost his patience and told her to go ahead and complain. As the lady passenger realized that argument is of no use, she took the besheet and went to her seat.

Her actions took me by surprise, as while we were talking inside, she was complaining that it is difficult for India to develop because of unwanted behaviour of people and now she is doing exactly the same!!!!

Isn’t the lady passenger asking for too much of comfort when travelling in a public transport? She could have paid money for her travel, still she should not have argued, as this is the maximum care that the railways could provide. She could have easily taken the bedsheet and left the scene at the very first moment, rather than having an argument.

Oh man, now I realized. We are living in India and it is not an unusual thing, if people speak in one way, but behaves in a completely different manner.

As I entered the coach, a passenger approached me enquiring whether the plug point near my seat is working or not. Even though I didn’t use the plug point till that point of the journey, I assured him that it would work and plugged his charger. To my dismay, it didn’t work and told him to try charging in the next coach.

Instead, he called the attendant and asked him to repair the plug point. The facial expression of the attendant showed the shock he had just got by such a request. As the attendant was explaining that he do not know how to repair, the dissatisfied passenger immediately replied, “I am going to complain to the Ticket Checker (TC)”

This time, it was me who was shocked rather than the attendant. What on earth an attendant who deals with bedsheet has got to do with electric repairs. The person who was arguing with the attendant looked like an educated guy and doesn’t he have common sense to think that an attendant cannot deal with this electrician type works.

Just because we have paid money to travel, it doesn’t mean that we own the train and can complain about anyone, for whatsoever issues we have. Feeling exhausted on just looking at the two incidents, I just wondered at the plight of attendant as how many passengers he has to encounter in his train journeys. It seems he is used to it and takes everything as just another argument and moves on.

May be none of the passengers has really complained to the TC or even if they had complained, it didn’t bother him much!!!! 

I was curious and asked the attendant whether he is not irritated by these incidents. He smiled and replied , "My Dear friend, This is India"!!!!

I went to sleep, awaiting eagerly for the next day expecting some interesting incidents.

Day2

As I was listening to songs, the train halted at Tirupati. I got down the train to stretch a bit to get rid of laziness. 

People got down from the train hurriedly and swarmed the dosa shop on the platform like a swarm of flies around a fruit. Everyone was busy buying dosa and few of them told the vendor to pour additional sambar.

While the passengers carried the paper plate to the coach, sambar started spilling on the platform. Even though the passengers are aware of this, they just didn’t care about it and started walking away. It was not the case with few passengers, but with more than 75% of the passengers, who got down from the coach.

The way the people behaved made me to think whether they are trying to clean the platform with sambar.

If the same thing happened in their home, wouldn’t they clean the place immediately? Just because it’s a railway platform, it doesn’t mean that they have all the rights to dirty it.

Why don’t they understand, that they have equal responsibility in keeping public places clean? The looks given by the people around conveyed the message, "My Dear friend, This is India"!!!

As I was looking at the dirty platform, the train started moving again. I entered the train and took a paper and a pen and started scribbling the rough draft of this blog. I got down at trichy, feeling happy to have added one more blog to my kitty.

It took me two months after the train journey to convert the rough draft to a fair one, after looking at the competition (Around the World with Expedia!) conducted by Expedia (http://www.expedia.co.in/)  in Indiablogger.

Worst but memorable incident (oops, its accident)

It has been a week since I wrote my first post. What is very special about 17-July, which made me to write my second post. I am celebrating the first anniversary of an important occasion. Last year, on the same day, I met with a bike accident. One of the most rememberable incidents in my life and am going to narrate the incident in this post.

The sequence of events started from 16-July-2009. The sixth part of Harry Potter (Half-Blood Prince) got released on this day. As we (Satyakiran-roomie & I)are great fans of Harry, we booked tickets for the show in Satyam at 10.30PM (First day, First show). My roomie was hosting a dinner party on that day. Hence, I started from office at 5PM. We went to the restaurant (Flamingo-Velachery; People in Chennai must have heard about this restaurant) at 7.30PM. At 10PM, we came out of the restaurant after having completely stuffed our stomach.

Considering the distance to be covered to reach theatre and the traffic, we realized that we need to race with time to reach the show on time. He was my pillion rider and we both enjoyed the breeze(Not on every occasion, we have a breeze hitting upon us in Chennai) while going in the bike (Apache RTR 160 FI).



The fastest part of the ride was, when I clocked 4mins while riding in the Mount Road (Anna Salai) from Nandanam to traffic signal at Satyam (nearly 5 signals in between these two signals). People in Chennai would realize as how fast this ride was:) We reached the show exactly when the minute hand touched 6, while the hour hand was between 10 and 11.

Like every Harry Potter fan, I enjoyed the movie very much. It was a pleasant ride on our way back home and I slept by 2.30AM. I woke up at 4.00AM to receive my friends mom (Ansar's mom; she is a best friend of mine). I accompanied her till the her destination and came back to room by 8AM. I slept by 9AM and woke up at 10.30AM to meet a friend of Santhosh (Santhosh is one of my best friends. Currently, hiding in US:D and not showing his face at all). Even though, I was feeling very much sleepy, still I woke up, took bath (something which I hate at times:D) and reached Adyar by 12Noon to meet his friend.

I met Avinash (Santhosh's friend) and bought a T-shirt to present to Santhosh. All those formalities got over by 1PM. Now starts the real story...

I was feeling very sleepy and very much hungry too as I didn't eat breakfast. After thinking a lot, I felt it is good to go to office, which is 2kms from Adyar. Main reason being, I can go to Virudhunagar (not the name of the place, its the name of restaurant) located in the food court and taste Chicken briyani over there. Antha chicken briyanikku asa pattu than, accident nadandichu (those who don't understand Tamil, plz bear with me)

I took the bridge over Buckingham Canal (not in England, its in Chennai) from Adyar to Rajiv Gandhi (R.G.) Road. Successfully reached the side lane of R.G. Road. I was driving towards the Tidel Park Signal at a speed of 65KMPH (koncham over kolluppu than). While I was about to enter the Rajiv Gandhi Road from the side lane, I just closed my eyes for a moment(lack of sleep took a toll on me) and opened. The very next moment, I realized that I am going to meet with an accident.

Inorder to prevent a collision with another bike coming in the R.G. Road, I applied brakes (Applied the front brakes at a speed of 65KMPH), the worst thing I did. Collision averted successfully!!! In a fraction of seconds, I was thrown away from the bike (flew from the bike). I slided for a distance of almost 70ft in the road, with my bike sliding behind me. Luckily, the bike hit the side ramp and stopped.

What were the injuries??The jeans pant in the right knee was torn off, and blood was oozing out. Blood was oozing out in the right hip, with my white T-shirt slowly turning into red in this part. The front side of the white T-shirt looked black in colour (As the T-shirt cleaned the road, while I was sliding). Right palm was full of scratches, as 70% of the palm was covered with blood. Then, minor injuries (I say minor, because the intensity was less compared to the right side of the body) on the left elbow and knee.



What was the first thing I did after getting up from the road. I slid my hands in the pant pocket, took my mobile out and checked whether it was working fine or not:) (The mobile costed Rs. 13,000/- & my mind was engrossed in this electronic instrument rather than my body, at that instant). Even in that tension, I smiled happily as my mobile was not damaged (itha than, ranagalathulayum gilugiluppunu solrathu). I turned back to have a look at my bike. Badly damaged:(

The accident happened exactly opposite to Tidel Park. I phoned one of my colleague cum friend (Arvind). "You look like a beggar in this costume", by Arvind(He commented on seeing me). Few vehicles passing that way stopped and offered help.

Then, I went to hospital, TVS Showroom (to leave my bike for repair) and reached home.

Even though it was a worst day, I don't want to forget the accident. It taught me few lessons, which I have implemented after my recovery.
1) Never ride a bike when you feel sleepy.
2) Don't overspeed
It took me three weeks to recover(recovered 80% by 7-Aug) from the injuries.

I think that I have narrated too much about this accident. Chal, c ya!!!

Meet you all in the next post:)

My First bike ride in the hills

This is my first blog and am completely clueless as how should I start this blog. Here goes the story!!!

I love to ride bikes and used to ride APACHE (RTR 160 FI), when I was in Chennai. Its been a month, since my college started and I did not get a chance to ride a bike during this duration. My college is situated on the top of the hill (the area is named as LAVALE). By God's grace, I got the chance on 10-7-2010 (Saturday).

My classes got over by 2.30PM, and I went to play Badminton in the evening by 4PM. The game got over by 5PM, and four of us planned to go to city by bike. One bike and four persons (What a perfect plan!!!!). Now, we are on the lookout for a second bike and then I remembered my roomie (Nice that he is down with a fever (sorry Siddharth), due to which I used his bike).

Our planned start was at 6.30PM and we did started in time (Time management, as we are managers!!!!). What next??A happy ride as everyone would think!!

Of course, the onlookers felt happy, as I was moving the bike rather than riding. Even a child would say that these vehicles need Petrol to run. Very less amount of petrol in bike (cursed my roomie then). We were much dependent on the other bike as their job was to go ahead of us, to get petrol for our bike. I moved the bike till the start of the slope. My pillion rider (Raunak) was as happy as me on seeing the slope. Then I kept the gear control in 'Neutral' and we descended down the slope.

It was a cloudy evening and with cool breeze hitting upon us, our bike slowly descended down the slope and gained momentum. Luckily the brakes worked:) and I was in full control of the bike in each curve.

It was my first ever bike ride in a hilly area and what a way to start, by using a bike which has got less petrol in it:) On reaching the end of the hill, we covered nearly 2kms, before our fellow biker found a shop which provides Petrol. My mouth opened into a broad smile on seeing it. We continued the journey and had a nice time in the city. Happy ending:)