I parked my bike and got into the building to get the shock of the day. That was a pretty long queue for this reservation center in one corner of the city and a lone lady in the counter handling both enquires and ticketing. I was bit apprehensive in the beginning then decided will go ahead and get my work done.
It looked like it would be a long wait before getting to the counter, as I picked couple of forms from the tray and went and stood in the line. A man came enquiring whether it’s the queue for reservation. What the heck?!! He thought we all were standing in the queue to go to the looJ. But the moment I knew someone is behind me in the queue I felt little happy.
I was getting bored and started reading all the instructions that was return on the walls of the reservation center. As I was reading it I was distracted by a heated argument going on between husband and wife which ended, “Haan bol, Jaana hi ki nahi” Saying this he left the place and she followed him weeping. I knew that its not the end of itJ. Then happened the most common thing in a queue, a queue-jumper was confronting with people resisting him. Though he had explanations he was pushed to the back of the queue. Amidst all this chaos a lover-boy was having a romantic chat with his girl friend, a boy was helping a old man fill the form; someone was cribbing about the non-availability of tickets. And the queue was moving in a steady pace.
The man next to me was chewing tobacco and guess was drunk and it smelled strong that I had already started feeling a mild headache. But who am I to complain? Then came a dude carrying laptop, proudly flashing his identity card, had the ear phones on and talking loud in a fake American accent, probably with a client in America- sure he should be a SW engineer. His gestures were like he has never come to railway reservation center before. But at least I am not the one to believe itJ. He looked around, made some enquiries and left the place.
Next 10-15 minutes it was virtually quiet and the line moved faster. The golden moment arrived and I was at the counter. I had 2 forms for cancellation request with me and one of the instruction on the wall read, “Only 1 form per person will be entertained”. I reluctantly gave the forms to the lady in the counter and she was kind enough to process both of them. I was bit fortunate otherwise only half of my work would have been done.
With a sigh of relief I headed back to the bike thinking, when was the last time I came to the railway reservation center? Well that was when I was in my final year of engineering!!!! It was full 3 years and probably I was bit more conscious and carefully observing things because of such a long gap…. J J
No comments:
Post a Comment