Indian Railways & Vigilant Citizen

On May 26th 2008, I and my husband were traveling from Hubli to Bangalore by train. We were the first to enter the compartment at about 6.10 pm while the train was scheduled to leave at 6.40 pm. It was a reserved second sleeper compartment. At around 6.15 pm, a shabbily dressed man entered the compartment and placed a huge bag on the upper berth, which was reserved for us. I asked him to remove the bag and he replied in a rudely that he will be traveling in the train only for a short distance and got hitched to his phone. A few minutes later, a family entered the compartment and asked this person to vacate the seat he was occupying. He readily obliged and walked out of the train, leaving his huge bag on our seat.

The compartment was crowded within no time as people without reservation mobbed the place. Even at 6.40 pm, he was not back and I was really tensed with the situation. I and my husband were the only people who have seen him keeping the bag while all the others were of the assumption that the bag belonged to us. My husband searched in vain for this man in the bathrooms and on the platform.

The train was delayed by 20 minutes for reasons unknown. The train started to move at 7.00 pm but still there was no sign of this man. I walked straight to the TCs to inform them of the incident.

There was this hefty looking TC, who told me in certain terms – “Madam please go and complain to the ASM in his office at the other end of the platform”. I was shocked at this response and said “What!!!”, and to this the reply was “ASM means Assistant Station Master.” ………… I was so angry with this TC to the extent that I started shouting…..“Do you mean to say that I need to go the ASM to complain when the train is in motion?” The other TC, who was listening to the whole argument, asked me to show him the bag.

All he said after seeing the bag…..“This is very much common in this train. People with general tickets get into the reserved compartments to travel upto Haveri. If the person does not come until we reach Haveri, then let us do something.” And to my utter shock, the train would take another one and half hours to reach Haveri.

The train gained momentum and the compartment is awfully crowded with people traveling with small kids. Suddenly this man comes within our sight, running as fast as he could to catch the train. He gets into the running train and settles comfortably.

I do agree that I was being very skeptical about the whole issue. However, I also feel that skepticism is a virtue in these days, where bomb blasts are the order of the day. Skepticism could have warded off the bomb blast at Gokul Chats in Hyderabad and so would have at other places targeted by anti-social elements.

Though the train incident was one of my worst fears, the attitude of the railway staff………….one asking me to jump off the running train to register a complaint…. the other preferring to wait for another 1.5 hours to take any action………is an example of the people in public service shying away from their duties toward vigilant citizens.