Be AWAKE when you book tickets...

It was January 1, 2003. I was at my hometown and was leaving
to chennai for work after some 3 days leave. Before I left, I
decided not to come back without getting an another good job.

Yeah, the day came that I got the offer from Oracle on March 13th, 2003.
So I decided to go home after some 2.5 months. After my night shift work
came back home, had bath, went to the booking counter before it opens,
feeling damn sleepy, waited till the counter opens and booked the tickets.

And I started on a Saturday morning after my night shift work
in Kovai Express, reached home. From there I went to my
grandma's place and from there went to Erode to catch the Blue Mountain
express to come back to Chennai.

I caught it, saw the coach and seat number. Got into that coach and got surprised.
There wasa person sleeping already in my berth.

I woke him up and told, 'This is my seat'.

He sleepily said, 'No, this is my seat. I booked it from Coimbatore'.

I said, 'No, I booked it from Erode only. But mine is confirmed ticket'.

He said, 'Mine is also confirmed ticket only'.

I very confidently asked, 'Okay give me ur tickets, let me check'.

He said, 'Mine is already verified by TTE, U give me urs, I will verify'.

I said after loosing some % of confidence, 'Okay fine! Check it' and gave the tickets.

He was going thru my ticket for some 30 seconds,
suddenly jumped out of joy and literally shouted,

'Hey man, you have booked it for yesterday!'.

Me, ':( is it?'.

I got the ticket back and verified. Yeah the travelling date
was for the previous day.

'Oh! Shittt!'.

This is what happens when you book ticket early in the morning
after your night shift work and you fail to verify it in that counter itself.

The TTE came and I explained him the situation. He was very
understanding and told me to get down @ Salem station, get an open ticket
and if possible catch this train itself or come inthe next train.

That was a real bad day and the things were not over yet...

I got down at Salem and walked towards the ticket counter.
I saw there was an another TTE at the gate, but I thought
that he wud also understand my situation like the former one
and let me go.

But he was a different kind, very adamant on the fine for
travelling without a ticket from Erode to Salem. I tried to
convince him for 20 mins, but not successful. Finally started
counting how much I had in my purse.

Oh! My God! I had only 167.50 Rs. Where as the fine and
the open ticket to Chennai costed me 166 Rs. And what was
left in my pocket was just 1.5 Rs. I asked that TTE only,

'Sir, please give me 2 Rs.I need to catch a bus from central station to myplace in Chennai'.

He was VERY UNDERSTANDING and gave me that 2 Rs.
I think this was the first time that I begged for money to some unknown....

Then I came to the platform to catch my next train.

That was a real real bad day and things were still not over...

Since it was Sunday, all the train were coming full. What I had was
a general ticket and I find no place even to enter into the general comportment.

In the meantime, I saw the first TTE. He felt so sorry for me and
told after hearing what happend with that rude TTE,

'I didnt want to put that penalty for you, otherwise I myself would
have given you this ticket'.

Finally I got into one train where I found a place to stand. It was a
bum-shattering experience, coz after sometime I got a place to
rest half of my bum. I was very tired because of the two days
travelling and roaming.

I thought I was sitting there, but actually fell down 2-3 times because
of the sleep. Finally reached Chennai central with that 3.5 Rs. I thought
I would get some money if ATM is available, but I found no ATM in the visinity.

That was a real bad day that all the Mylapore buses coming were
either LSS, in which the charge wud be 4 Rs or the luxurious buses in
which the charge wud be 7 Rs, whereas what I had was only 3.5 Rs.
I waited for some 45 mins to get the normal buses.

May be I could have taken an auto and on the way I cud have get
some money in the ATMs. But in Chennai, autos are horrible and
would loot lot of money from you.

So it is always better to check your tickets as soon as you get it at the counter.