Saturday, July 22, 2006

Two Happening Weeks

In the past few years, Jun-Jul have typically been languid or filled with nostalgia. (2004 and 2005 posts) for me. This year is proving to be an exception though. Had many more things to talk/write about but wasn't getting time in last few days. Domino Effect is what we probably could call these chain of events. It all started on evening of Fri, July 7. Now, there are 3 threads which I would like to talk about. Other two would deserve separate posts :)

Okay so coming back to Fri eve, I was doing tp in Navlur office canteen where one event called "IME idol" was going on. One guy was singing "breathless" and he breathed so many times that Shankar Mahadevan would have committed suicide after seeing that ;) Okay, Fri eve part is purely eventual, tp is what I'd been doing in Chennai in last so many months. Either there was some IME icon going on or me and Prasad (my buddy in Navlur who's from Latur :) ) were relishing cup-corn and gossiping about his latest crush ;) . At 5.45 the asst. of our delivery manager called on my cell. She, obviously, talks in typical tambi (tamil) accent.
She: "Raamanaa... where are you maa ? This is Harini here"
Me: "Tell me Harini, I'm here at the IME icon."
She: " Listen ma, Prasad wants you to see him imm. He is going to schedule an interview at 6 and you may need to travel immediately."
Me: "(silent) 6 is 15 mins from now! what interview, which technology, which project, ...location???"
Me: "Okay Harini, I'll be there in 5 mins."

At 6.30 after a brief discussion about skills and tech, we were talking about my possible travel date to the onsite manager. Since he wanted me there ASAP, I gave my consent to the plan of travelling on Tue, 11th jul. Next 2 days was the weekend and nothing was going to happen on that front. So, after making a few calls to home, I was ready with my itinerary (Wasn't that quick? :) ) I would travel to Mumbai on Tue, meet the parents there at sister's place and board the Lufthansa flight from Mumbai. (And pack my bags in between!) I wanted to have my 4th visit in last 10 months to Tirupati on sat. (This was the earlier trip) And this one was going to be different!

I had 6.25 AM train for Chennai and barely managed to reach the station at 6.20. The time I could have printed on my ticket was 6.27. Now, generally this train does not leave on time, but the that day it did! A coolie suggested that I should board the Mumbai bound train, get down at Renigunta and take a bus tirupati. I jumped into the train, and started finding place in the general bogie. The journey was dull; I finally got down at Renigunta at 10 AM. Now, after getting down, a TC asked me for ticket. Thinking that I've done no wrong this time and have travelled in general bogie, I showed the ticket to him.

He: "This is a super fast train, sir. You will have to pay a fine of Rs 260."
Me: (silent) "What the heck!"
Me: "Boss, I have the ticket and have travelled in general bogie only."

It turned out that this train was a super fast and I should have bought an additional Rs 10 ticket for that. These guys seemed to have some collection target to be met and had stopped many passengers like me. Having got used to plastic money, I was only carrying Rs 250 hard cash with me. Damn! This 5 ft 2 inch middle aged creature was staring at me demanding with his button like eyes. His shining bald head made me think of my dreaded future ;) And that made me dislike this guy much more perhaps.
Me: "Boss, can't we settle this between us? I don't have enough money with me, you keep this 100."
He: "No, you have to pay Rs 260. (250 fine for the 10 bucks additional tickets that I din't know to buy!) and I'll give you the receipt."
This guy seemed hell bent on putting Rs 260 in Lalu's rail dept instead of 200 in his pocket :(.
Me: "Okay, I'm ready to pay the fine, but I'm 10 bucks short of 260!"
He: "I don't know that. You tell this in court then"
(Utter crap... %#%*%$)
Me: "Okay, do we have an ATM at this station."
He: "Yes, it's there at the gate."
I searched for some change in the bag and counted the total money I had. Rs 262! I paid 260 bucks and got the reciept. Done, now I looked around and came to know that there's no ATM here and nearest one is at Tirupati. Ticket to Tirupati? Only Rs 5. Total amount of cash with me - One Re 1 coin and two 50 paise coins :(
For a few moments, I was clueless as to what would I do. I was already at railway platform and din't have enough money to get to ATM or have breakfast (It was 10.30 and I was really getting hungry) I remembered giving away 2 bucks to the beggar in train and thought I could have had that money to reach Rs 5 target needed to get to Tirupati and ATM. One weird thought brushed through my mind. If I have been giving away 1,2,5 bucks to beggars, I might as well sit here and beg for ;) And I started to think of the competition. I mean, there were already many beggars on the platform and my ipod and pepe jeans would have done anything but make me strong contender in the competition ;) So, I went back to that tc fellow.
Me: "You told that there's an ATM here but it's not."
He: "Oh yes, I was wrong, you will have to go to Tirupati. Rs 5 is the bus ticket. Bus stand is nearby"
Me: (silent) "@#$$#$#$" "I dont even have that. what do I do now?
This guy suspected that I was lying. What the heck..why I would I lie for Rs 5 after paying 260 in fine! The guy then took out a Rs 5 coin out of his pocket and said "For sympathy sake I have to pay Rs 5 from my pocket" I grabbed that and thanked him. Reached Tirupati, took out the money from SBI ATM and vowed to keep some extra cash with me in future ;) On the way up to the Tirumala hills, one bus broke down in middle of the road. We had this big queue of vehicles behind it and people trying to get that bus off the road. Somehow, the bus had jammed and would not move an inch however the people pushed. At times, people would be pushing in opp. directions from front and back ;) Total chaos! It was fun watching it. I then got a lift from a guy who was able to get his bike through.
On my way back, the Tirupati-Chennai train stopped at Renigunta. There was very little chance of finding the same tc on the station. I had a Rs 5 coin with me. Just went to that cabin and checked if the tc fellow was still there. He was there indeed and recognized my face in the crowd. It was only in the morning that he had met me, after all. Now, I thought I will be embarrassed to have borrowed 5 bucks and returning it. But actually, the fellow was embarrassed when I took out the coin.
He: "No no you need not to do that. Don't think bad of me, I was just doing my duty."
I put the coin in his hand and thanked him again.

8 Comments:

Blogger Shripad said...

That was really an exciting incident! I bet, that guy won't forget you for days ;)
Anyways, and, from a tambi place you landed up in Tampa! :D When r u comnig back?

6:11 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ha Ha Ha ,that was wonderful experience.we are habituated to think that all railway Tcs are there to loot us :)

11:19 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

ha ha ha..... weird events but how do you manage to always land up in these kind of situations?
lol...

4:10 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Hey,
Stumbled across your blog.
You write very good :).
This one is very intersesting incident.

10:30 PM  
Blogger FIVE ELEMENTS said...

hahaa...really weird but interesting chain of events :) nice post Raman !

11:33 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

hey this was such such a aa wonderful experience...well i hope this is not gonna change u.. u still will travel d same way..without cash in hand... :)

5:15 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

A very good narration

Joshna

10:14 AM  
Blogger Rams said...

Thanks Joshna.

10:17 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home