Dear Lalu bhaiya

Just back from a Kolkata trip.. Took the Yashwantpur-Howrah express both way, and am in a mad rush to jot down the trip memories..

We had reserved the side berths (upper and lower) of sleeper class both way so that the cosy little family of ours can have whatever privacy a sleeper class can afford us. So we board our coach from the KR Puram station and to our shock, our seat numbers are stuck over lower and middle berths.. NOT side berths.. Obviously, my first reaction was one of fury on the eguy that he did not book the tickets right and now we have to stick with 36 hours of sharing living space with strangers, who'd find the little boy the obvious solution to the journey's boring moments, their interacting with him often involving physical closeness which, to a paranoid mom like me, means a definite infection..

Then I understood where the blame should rightly be placed. It's Lalu Bhaiya's handiwork! When we had booked the tickets, each sleeper coach had 72 seats (8 seats X 9 compartments), but when we boarded the train, Lalu's men had added one more seat to the side berths!! So now there were 81 seats, with one SIDE MIDDLE BERTH! Hence the reshuffle of the seat numbers.. The middle berth is well concealed, meant to be unfurled only in the night.. (damn me, didn't take any pictures..)

And o the pains of that side middle berth (i happened to sleep on it on the return journey) It is meant for dwarfs.. Even though I am not highly gifted in the vertical coordinates, I could not sit, no matter how i bent my body.. Now Lalu bhaiya you would ask, why do you need to sit deviji, middle berths are meant for sleeping.. Yeah, but you see bhaiya, moms of infants have to sit up a few times in the night trying to put their baby owl to sleep.. In the regular middle berth, it is possible to sit, if you keep your neck bent down, this side M berth, it is IMPOSSIBLE. So, in our case, we had to fold up that middle berth, move everything back on the lower berth, put the kiddo to sleep and then again move back to the middle berth. This, we did twice in a night..

Then came the part where I have to wash the kiddo's milk bottles et al at the sink in the narrow corridor which can hold 4 people standing comfortably.. I head over there with the bottles, dishwashing liquid, brush.. At the entrance of that corridor I am blocked by a crowd of 10 people. 2 are waiting for the bathroom, 2 are passengers without reservation, 2 are charging their cellphones (oh! didn't you know?! there are free electric outlets at the train corridors now) and 4 are waiting to get their cellphones charged.. So, against some resistance I reached the sink by displacing one passenger, who waited on the precarious vestibule joint.. Getting back from the sink was again a fight..

Lalu bhaiya, WHY the electric outlet? How many passengers really asked for it?! If high flying businessmen can be without making phone calls via their cellphones on long transnational trips, sleeper class passengers can not? I do admire the vision behind the idea and the technology that enables it, but the reality is that it is only serving the purpose of playing loud music and watching obscene movie clips on those cellphones.. (i am a witness of the latter happening in my neighboring compartment). Let people use their time to read books, chat up with their co-passengers, catch up on sleep, and let IRCTC save some electricity and use the money on killing some of those cockoraches in the coaches!

Now, if you really really want to help ppl make that extremely urgent call when their phone has lost charge, you can stock on battery run phone chargers. Rent it to people for money. Let them come to the pantry, pay and charge their phones there. Only people who really need it will pay for it.

Now, criticism apart, a few things that do deserve a honorable mention. The well-uniformed railway staff that came frequently to clean up the floors - until this journey i have only seen beggars doing that. The toilets were also cleaned well at every big station, and there was non-stop water supply throughout the trip. The frequent rounds of waterbottles and refreshments that the pantry maintained. Above all, maintaining an ON THE DOT train timing on both stretches.

So, to maintain the Shubh Yatra, Lalu Bhaiya, please keep up the good work and think a bit about your discerning passengers before impelementing half-baked ideas (to repeat - the side middle berth and the electric outlet)