ONCE UPON A NON COVID -19 LOCKDOWN PERIOD 166

I had a most harrowing experience during our train journey from Tirunelveli to Bangalore / Karmelaram on 26 th of April exactly 4 years back .We were four of us , myself and my better half both on the wrong side of 60 with my daughter in law and grand son aged near 3 and with considerable luggage to boot. The placard at the Tirunelveli Railway station showed the Tiruchendur to Tuticorin passenger to be arriving at 4 pm on platform No 1 , but surprisingly there was alraeady a rake of 2 coaches without the engine parked on the  platform . All efforts to get any information regarding the platform number of the arriving train turned futile as the passenger enquiry office was bare with no one in sight and also no announcement of any sort over the public address system. With just a few minutes to go we rushed to platform number two purely on a hunch with the kid and luggage in tow and just about  managed to catch the Tuticorin / Mysore Express at Maniyatchi. Worse trouble was to follow us in S 6 compartment . We had confirmed reservation on 2 lower berths and a single lower in the same bay .
What awaited us at Madurai was even worse . A group of 8 lady students ( lady is very much a wrong term to use ) after a probable visit to Kodaikanal boarded the train . 5 of them had accomodation in our bay and the balance 3 in other bays of the same coach . They immediately demanded that we shift to the 3 berths in other bays . keeping in mind our age , luggage and kid we flatly refused. All of them made themselves comfortable in our bay itself with hardly any space to move or have our dinner. Our complaint to the TTE made no difference as to put it very mildly he seemed to relish the company of the pretty young girls and asked them to inform him of any further objections from any where. The lights in the entire coach save our bay were off till well past midnight with loud chatter and whatnot.
Will the Raiways have Passenger Comfort as their prime motive .
We arrived at Karmelaram without sleep and lamenting the state of our Railways . Will the authorities who matter take note and act.

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