Streak of luck

This was one of those journeys undertaken early in my career, in the late eighties. I was still getting used to the big city life. My roots are in the village. I grew up as a child till my 10th year in a village. Those days everyone was known to everyone in the village. I remember, we never put a lock on our home door, even when my parents used to work on the farm which was around 5 km distance away. Nobody would steal anything. As such, there were no valuables in the house except the earthen pots, clothes, farming equipment domestic animals and the granary. This was the norm with most of the neighboring houses. People were honest and good. Now, my brother resides in the same house. We visit almost every year twice or thrice. Brother puts a padlock on whenever his family goes out. Things have changed. Well, I digressed a bit or maybe I wanted to prepare you for my behaviour in the ensuing experience. 

Just to refresh, I was employed in a PSU at Kanpur. After almost a year’s work, I opted to take leave and go home for a fortnight. Of the fifteen days of leave, five days will be consumed in travel only. I had to travel first by train to Mumbai (Then it was known as Bombay) and then take a train from Mumbai to Miraj Junction. Then take a bus to my native. The return route was the same way in reverse. Those days, there was something called an onward journey reservation, in a situation like mine, the journey from Mumbai to Miraj would be an onward journey. I would buy tickets for the full journey from Kanpur to Miraj and seek reservations from Kanpur to Mumbai and also provide details for onward journey like date of travel, train number, and starting and ending stations. Buying a ticket from Kanpur to Miraj gave the benefit of telescopic distance charging. The fare would be for total distance, which was far less compared to split point-to-point journeys, one from Kanpur to Mumbai and another from Mumbai to Miraj. The benefit was about a 25% reduction in fare. Indian Railways has withdrawn this facility and this benefit is now available only for circular journeys. In such cases, the ticketing clerk would take longer than usual time and you had to bear the brunt of people waiting in the queue. The ticketing clerk had to check and ensure that the onward journey train started after the arrival time of the train at the station, check the telescopic charge, and send a telegram message for the onward journey. Well, his job was also difficult.

Railways would send telegrams for the onward journey to the journey originating station, in this case, Mumbai. They would give a slip of the telegram sent for our record. The Railways would send the confirmation or not to the address mentioned in the form. Of course, the reservation needed to be made well in advance, sometimes around two to three months. That was the norm. The availability of reservations close to the date of travel was a miracle. Later on, Indian Railways introduced the Tatkal system and life became easier though costlier. Now they have a dynamic fare system also for some trains. 

In this case, I had booked my reservation in second class sleeper by Kushinagar (Gorakhpur) Express from Kanpur to Mumbai VT (then VT Victoria Terminus, now known as CST Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, now a day the train terminates at LTT, Lokamanya Tilak Terminus) and from Mumbai by Mahalaxmi Express from Mumbai VT to Miraj Junction. Why second class? One, it was cheaper, second, the number of seats available is far higher compared to Second AC or First Class and hence more probability of confirmation of reservation. Pure mathematics. It’s a better way of putting it than saying I could not afford higher classes and another reason is people in second-class sleeper are more accommodative as I have written in my earlier experiences. 

While my reservation from Kanpur to Mumbai was confirmed, the onward journey, I would know only at Mumbai VT station. Though we were supposed to be informed by the Railways, it never happened. I was to board at VT Station for an onward journey. As per the train schedules, there was a gap of about sixteen hours between the arrival of Gorakhpur and the departure of the Mahalaxmi Express. Kushinagar would reach around 4 am and Mahalaxmi would leave around 8.30 pm. Being a long route train, Gorakhpur Express ( Kushinagar Express) generally would arrive late on an average of three to four hours. This is what I had learned from my previous travels and from my friends traveling by the same train. However, Mahalaxmi would start on the dot from VT station. Leaving almost the day available to me. I had planned on seeing the Elephanta caves in the time available.

During this particular travel, I purchased some clothes for my family members and some leather products. Some of you may know that Kanpur is famous for its leather industry. The City once was known as Manchester City of India because Textile industries dotted the City. But due to the labour strike and Government Policy Changes, few but all Textile Mills were closed and many labourers went jobless. Save this for some other time. Let me come back to my experience. I had two big suitcases with me. They were heavy. As Murphy’s law has it the train you are on is late and the train you want to catch is on time. My train had started four hours late from the starting point and was late by eight hours late from my boarding station. I had hopes of catching my onward journey train as there was still around eight hours of slack time. But the delay kept on increasing with the progress of time. My train was running late by more than fourteen hours as it neared Kalyan and I was having nightmares as to whether or not I will be able to catch the next train. One may wonder if am I just spinning the yarn. It was common knowledge of regular delays in some trains frequently especially in the peak of summer and winter. Some of the trains were as late as 24 hours. Many get cancelled. This is typical to the Northbound, North East/North West bound long route trains. Over the years the delays have been managed better.

I checked the train schedule for Mahalaxmi. (In those days I used to carry Railways Time Table with me as a habit for reservation combinations, telescopic benefits, train numbers schedule information and many other information as no online information was available then). It was almost 8.30 pm and my train was yet to reach Kalyan Junction. I was sure of missing the Mahalaxmi train from VT as it would start at 8.30 pm. There was no way I could reach VT before 8.30 pm. Mahalaxmi would reach Kalyan by about 9. 20 pm. I decided to get down at Kalyan if the train reached by 9 pm and take my chances to board Mahalaxmi from Kalyan. 

To my luck, the rain reached Kalyan just in time. Luck in multiples. As the train arrived at the station I faintly heard the announcement of the arrival of our train. As the train came to a halt, I heard the announcement for Mahalaxmi and I was all ears. The train was to arrive in another ten minutes and to my luck, I did not have to change the platform. Mahalaxmi was to arrive on another track on the same platform. This was one of those lucky days, I thought. Otherwise, many times change in platform is announced at the last minute and we have struggled with the luggage in changing the platforms and just making it. 

I alighted and my next job was to search for my reservation. I asked the TTE standing on the platform where I found the reservation chart. He said it’s near the stairway for the platform. The station was full of people, I could see a sea of heads and bodies only. I managed to sight the stairway which was at quite a distance. Now, I cursed myself and carried the luggage all the way. Somehow traveling light is not in our habit. There was a rush at the board which had reservation charts displayed. Charts of all the trains running in the next two hours will be displayed on the display board. It is a norm that the chart gets finalized or is prepared two hours before the departure time from the origination station. I could not carry my luggage in the crowd. I had to leave both on the platform and started making my way into the crowd. To my bad luck, the chart of Mahalaxmi was torn, though the display board had a sliding meshed door and a locking system. As such, I had little hope of getting the reservation. By this time the train arrival announcement was made and I could hear the shrill horn of the arriving train. I turned back to see my suitcases and they were there. I had forgotten that Mumbai is notorious for luggage theft. It had not crossed my mind at all while leaving the luggage. As an afterthought now, I think unattended luggage is safer than one that is guarded. 

When the train arrived, I had no idea whether I would get a seat or not, forgot about the berth. Anyway, I had slept enough during my other journey. As the train halted, in front of me was a second sleeper coach. The reservation chart is normally pasted on the outside of the coach. I had a look at it to see my name or any vacant seats but to my bad luck that also was half torn. I was disappointed. I just got into the coach. I boarded, kept my luggage by the side, and stayed near the entry door. All the seats were full. There were a few like me standing also in the pathway at the entrance. 

The train left the station. After some time, I struck up a conversation with a side lower berth person who happened to be traveling alone and to my good luck happened to be from Belgaum. I told him my situation and requested him to help me. He agreed to accommodate me. He did not have much luggage and I could manage to tuck my suitcases beneath the berth. After some time TTE came. As the seat I was sitting was the first one as one entered the coach, he straight away came to me and asked for my ticket. I showed him my ticket. It was a paper ticket which mentioned starting station and ending station and a reservation for the first part of the journey, but the reservation for this train was not there. He asked me to vacate as I did not have a reservation. I showed him the telegram receipt, explained that I was coming from far away and had to travel further, and requested him to check and help me. Each of the TTEs will have a complete reservation chart with them. He was reluctant and said he had never seen onward journey confirmation happen. Then I requested him to let me have a look at the chart. Reluctantly, murmuring he started to look. When he turned to the page of the coach I was sitting, he looked up at me and presented a surprised look. He said you are sitting in your allotted seat. Luck had smiled on me once again. He took my ticket and wrote on it the berth number. I wondered at the system. This was the first and the only time in many travels I had made, that the telegram system of onward journey reservation had worked for me. Present Gen Z would not understand these and the difficulties faced by Gen X. Now they have the luxury of booking from the comfort of their home, from anywhere to anywhere with a multitude of options to choose from.

Surprisingly, the passenger who was sitting, who had accommodated me did not have the reservation. He had boarded at the starting point and found the seat empty. He was just hoping that nobody would turn up and he could make his way with TTE. Anyway, I accommodated him. I was hungry and took a meal from the train and we both ate. I locked my suitcases with a chain to the leg of the berth and sat with my legs spread on the seat while my co-passenger sat across. Slowly I was swept into the night of the journey. 

What makes me remember this journey is the serendipity or the steak of luck I had. Firstly, the train though it was running too late, reached just in time for me to catch the onward train defying Murphy’s Law. Secondly, my decision to get down at mid-station worked. Third, my suitcases remained in place unattended for close to ten minutes on the Mumbai platform. Fourth, the arriving train and departing train were on tracks on either side of the same platform. Fifth, the seat I sat on desperately turned out to be reserved for me, without me knowing it. 

Anything could have gone wrong, I could have missed the train, lost the luggage or TTE might have asked me to get off the train. Nothing of that happened. Sometimes, if it’s your day, luck will smile at you in ways you cannot imagine. And we must cherish those days and smile and be happy reminiscing about them rather than drooling on the unhappier ones.