Tatkal

I have realized in my 4 years of stay at Mumbai that going home at times is such a pain in the a**.

As such I only get to go home twice a year: in summers (May-July) and in winters (Dec).

And every year, specifically in summers I haven't been able to get a direct train to LUCKNOW. Once i had to stay in Bhopal, once in Jhansi and once I took a flight (which by the way was sponsored by RIL during my Internship period). Now in the last year when I have a lot of stuff to take home, I am again not been able to get a reservation. Recently only they have opened a reservation counter in the campus itself. So I thought it would be easy to book a tatkal-ticket from here.

As everyone had advised (and also from my past experiences) , I knew that to get a confirm ticket in tatkal quota ,I will have to be 1st or 2nd in the queue. I along with my friend reached the window at 5 am and what we find is that we were already 5th in the queue. Even one of them (a girl going to Kolkata) was standing there since 1 am; now this is the level of desperateness for going home.

Reservation started at 8 am. I had already made one of my friends to sit on computer back in the campus to try online booking. But today was a day of bad lucks. By the time our number came it was already 33 W/L in sleeper and 13 W/L in AC. Even my friend was not able to get the online ticket. The funny thing is that all 4 people who were ahead of us in the queue, got confirmed ticket.

I am seriously thinking that are we really so many people?? I mean at 8 am reservation starts and by the time it is 8:05 you have all seats filled (250 seats in sleeper class and 32 seats in third AC) .

Actual reason (as told by few insiders from railway itself) is that there are these dalals which go for bulk booking. Now I really don't understand that why can't this be stopped? These dalals charge some 300-400 etc over the actual ticket price, and if you are buying a tatkal ticket then it means u will be paying a minimum of 500 etc over the actual cost .These reservation and tatkal scheme is to benefit people and not these dalals. This has become a proper business...its like selling a movie ticket in black (which actually is illegal). Well sitting here and shouting on my blog won't help me....Tomorrow again I am going to try and let’s hope that I get it this time......