Half bunk rail travel

Sat, 13 Jan 2007 18:41:37 GMT

A lot of people I know prefer to take the overnight sleeper bus from small town A to big city B. I’m not one of them. I don’t care how great the bus may be from the exterior and how plush the interiors may be… it still has to travel on (oxymoron alert) Indian roads. Since I prefer a night ride with minimal bumps and jerks and totally devoid of the feeling that you’re going to be sent crashing through the window, I do believe that the overnight train is the best way to travel. You don’t do much… get in the train, go to sleep with the knowledge that a pair of metal chains are going to ensure that you don’t fall 5 feet onto the floor (I almost always get the top bunk. Even if do get the lower bunk, there’s always some girl/ lady in the compartment who requests me to “get on top”) and in the morning, the attendant wakes you up to let you know that everyone else is now on his way home and he’d appreciate it if you did something on similar lines.

Of course, in order to avail these services, you need a ticket. There are only two ways of getting a train ticket on the day that you intend to travel.

1. Get hold of a good travel agent who’ll do it for you.
2. Book tickets online, get wait-listed and perish all thoughts of rail travel.

A couple of days back I needed to get back to big city B in a hurry. My travel agent told me that I had a confirmed ticket. Indian Railways did not agree… or rather agreed to only half of that statement. I was not surprised. Railway Logistics Management (“RLM”) is a complicated subject and expertise in that field is restricted to the employees of the Indian Railways.

The ticket status stated RAC, which is railway terminology for “Really Adding to Confusion.” It entitles you to half a bunk and no discounts on the fare. If the person entitled to the other half happens to be a huge guy who got there before you did and decided to spread-eagle himself on your half as well, you risk life and limb by waking him up and asking him to move a bit so that you have a place to sit for a while. Eventually, you hook up with other RAC passengers and start searching for the Ticket Checker…who, in spite of his expertise in RLM is a harried man as he struggles to predict the particular station from which you shall be entitled to a full bunk. My friend and colleague D, who is a lot more adept at dealing with lower rung bureaucrats came back with the following piece of information.
“We’ll get confirmed bunks at Myanmar.”
“Myanmar!?!” Was my response. Understandably so. Our train was supposed to be heading west.
“Manimar!” He said. “It’s the name of a station that comes in 90 minutes later”

90 minutes is a long time. Especially when the coach attendant said that every bunk has only one set of pillows, sheets and blankets to go with it. RAC means you’re entitled to half of each. I didn’t quite feel like waking up the huge guy who’d been gracious enough to give me one-third of the bunk to sit on and ask for my half of the pillow. I did however, to his annoyance, inform him that his feet weren’t really doing a good job as a substitute for a back rest and hence would have to vacate that position immediately. He had some choice words to say to me which were interrupted by the TC showing up with the news that two empty bunks had mysteriously emerged in the coach and could be used by us.
“How did that happen” I asked.
“Just take them and stop asking stupid questions.” He said. He also gave me the “obviously you know nothing about RLM” look that made me feel quite stupid.

Lessons learnt. Don’t worry about people coming in the middle of the night and waking you up for sleeping in bunks you have no clue how you got hold of. They probably don’t have a clue about RLM either.

RAC isn’t that bad. In fact, here’s a list of the top 5 people I’d love to be RACed with:
   1. Maria Sharapova
   2. Ayesha Takia
   3. SBGIRRCA
   4. Celina Jaitely
   5. Riya Sen

Back in Bombay now...feels great to be home. Hope to make the most of it this time!

This is practice: Travel

Half bunk rail travel