Mathura Mix-up
It's perfect India - What was to be a two hour train ride turned into a ten-hour ordeal, complete with begging dirty children, hassles, yelling arguments with Indian men, and misinformation from all quarters.
We bought train tickets from Mathura to Delhi, on the Kerala Express, train #2625. We asked the station master - The Kerala Express was to leave from platform 2 at 1:30 pm. So we camped out on platform 2. We had time to spare. We'd sit, eat a samosa and drink tea. No problem, no problem.
An hour passes, and its 1:40. Ten mweinutes late, small change in the world of Indian trains. Then over the loudspeaker, the garbled announcement comes: "sdf!!ke@iu sdf?lj djfk Kerala Express, aso$^i Delhi f^lj??kh sd#fjn, now arriving, platform 1." Platform 1? OK, over to platform 1, quickly. Glance at the ticket: Kerala Express. Look at the train: big sign: KERALA EXPRESS. Look at each other, shrug. Platform 2 / Platform 1. Small change. I ask a guy on the train: "Yehi tren Kerala Express hai??" He acknowledges: "hunh."
Ok. On the train we go.
Another look at the ticket : seats #s 58, 60, & 72. We find the seats. Luggage is there. hmmm.
After some discussion in Hindi and mixed english, we find the our seats are all taken. So we go to find the ticket master. I show him my ticket. "Kerala Express?"
yes. Kerala Express. "tara hamro seats nahi hai": but our seats are taken. The ticket master is confused. He tells me "this ticket - not valid." My blood pressure rises.
It takes us a half hour of raised voice argument to determine that we got on the wrong train. But no, you might say, our ticket is for the Kerala Express, and this train IS the Kerala Express. But no, this is the wrong Kerala Express.
As it turns out, at Mathura Railway station, at 1:30 pm there are TWO Kerala Express trains arriving, one going north (to Delhi - our train), the other going south (to Agra - not our train). Instead of getting on the Kerala Express train #2625, we got on the Kerala Express train # 2626. Who knew???
In hindi, one may say: Kuch Snag Hai - some snag is there.
Hoo boy was i steamed.
All we could do was to ride the train to Agra, and then figure from there.
When we arrived, i marched straight to the station master, and told him what had happened. I guess i took an aggressive stance, and i told him that this was a railway mistake. He told me that this was not a railway mistake, that it was my mistake. He said to me, "In my twenty-nine years of service here, many people have come by this same mistake." So i told him (in a slightly raised voice), yes, this is a railway mistake - how am i to know that there are two trains by the same name, arriving at the same station, at the same time? He interrupted me to coolly tell me that this was my mistake, and i must simply buy another ticket, from Agra to Delhi. I consequently laid into him that if for twenty nine years so many people have come to him with the same mistake, that maybe the railway would somehow change this situation to make it a little bit less confusing for everybody, and he decided in the middle of my sentence that he had a very important phone call to make.
So we bought a ticket. (In india, ladies go to the front of the line. I gave money to Deb.)
After hours of waiting on the train platform, the train arrived (late) and we boarded, headed for Delhi. After five hours, late, dirty, tired and hungry, we arrived back in Delhi, to fly out the next day.
We bought train tickets from Mathura to Delhi, on the Kerala Express, train #2625. We asked the station master - The Kerala Express was to leave from platform 2 at 1:30 pm. So we camped out on platform 2. We had time to spare. We'd sit, eat a samosa and drink tea. No problem, no problem.
An hour passes, and its 1:40. Ten mweinutes late, small change in the world of Indian trains. Then over the loudspeaker, the garbled announcement comes: "sdf!!ke@iu sdf?lj djfk Kerala Express, aso$^i Delhi f^lj??kh sd#fjn, now arriving, platform 1." Platform 1? OK, over to platform 1, quickly. Glance at the ticket: Kerala Express. Look at the train: big sign: KERALA EXPRESS. Look at each other, shrug. Platform 2 / Platform 1. Small change. I ask a guy on the train: "Yehi tren Kerala Express hai??" He acknowledges: "hunh."
Ok. On the train we go.
Another look at the ticket : seats #s 58, 60, & 72. We find the seats. Luggage is there. hmmm.
After some discussion in Hindi and mixed english, we find the our seats are all taken. So we go to find the ticket master. I show him my ticket. "Kerala Express?"
yes. Kerala Express. "tara hamro seats nahi hai": but our seats are taken. The ticket master is confused. He tells me "this ticket - not valid." My blood pressure rises.
It takes us a half hour of raised voice argument to determine that we got on the wrong train. But no, you might say, our ticket is for the Kerala Express, and this train IS the Kerala Express. But no, this is the wrong Kerala Express.
As it turns out, at Mathura Railway station, at 1:30 pm there are TWO Kerala Express trains arriving, one going north (to Delhi - our train), the other going south (to Agra - not our train). Instead of getting on the Kerala Express train #2625, we got on the Kerala Express train # 2626. Who knew???
In hindi, one may say: Kuch Snag Hai - some snag is there.
Hoo boy was i steamed.
All we could do was to ride the train to Agra, and then figure from there.
When we arrived, i marched straight to the station master, and told him what had happened. I guess i took an aggressive stance, and i told him that this was a railway mistake. He told me that this was not a railway mistake, that it was my mistake. He said to me, "In my twenty-nine years of service here, many people have come by this same mistake." So i told him (in a slightly raised voice), yes, this is a railway mistake - how am i to know that there are two trains by the same name, arriving at the same station, at the same time? He interrupted me to coolly tell me that this was my mistake, and i must simply buy another ticket, from Agra to Delhi. I consequently laid into him that if for twenty nine years so many people have come to him with the same mistake, that maybe the railway would somehow change this situation to make it a little bit less confusing for everybody, and he decided in the middle of my sentence that he had a very important phone call to make.
So we bought a ticket. (In india, ladies go to the front of the line. I gave money to Deb.)
After hours of waiting on the train platform, the train arrived (late) and we boarded, headed for Delhi. After five hours, late, dirty, tired and hungry, we arrived back in Delhi, to fly out the next day.
posted by Mark Heffernan at 7:06 AM
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