Murphy's law states that "If anything can go wrong, it will".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murphy%27s_law
http://www.murphys-laws.com/murphy/murphy-laws.html
I first encountered the murphy's law when i was in school. One of my friends mentioned it and we had a bet that there was no such law. And that friend of mine bought a big thick book on murphy's law to prove that he was right and there is actually such a law.
There has been numerous instances throughout my life which are in line with the murphy's law. But the most recent one was the best.
I was coming back from my in-laws place - chattarpur to delhi. The journey is divided into two parts - part 1 from chattarpur to jhansi by bus. And part 2 from jhansi to delhi by train. Part-1 has to be covered by bus only - and the number of government buses are very low - they are rarely seen. Major bus operators are private who want to make the most by filling up as many passengers as possible per trip. The distance from jhansi to chattarpur is 135 kms. And it takes approx 3 hours by bus. Imagine standing in a very crowded bus for 3 hours without voluntarily movine a muscle. All muscle movements are involuntary - inspired by the movements of the bus and the pot-holes on the road.
So, the story goes that my train was at 6:11 pm and so, taking a buffer of 2 hours, i left from home at 1 pm and caught the 1:30 bus which should have left me at jhansi by 4:30 - max 5:00 pm - which leaves me enough time to go and catch the train. The bus i sat in ran at very slow speed - stopping at all petty stops and even on the road to pick up & drop passengers here and there. I realized that we were running very slow when we covered half the distance in 2.5 hours. So by 4:00 pm we were still 75 kms away from Jhansi. It seems that the bus driver and the passengers both realized this fact at the same time as well - so the driver started over speeding.
I got some hope that we will reach by 5:30 max - still giving me half and hour to catch my train. But then the inevitable happened - a railway crossing and a jam. The train crossed 15 minutes later and it took 15 minutes to cross the jam. Now I was sure that i will miss my train. But the bus driver started speeding. I think its max speed was 65 kmph on which it ran most of the way. Still stopping here and there to pick up and drop passengers.
I started counting milestones. When i saw that we were 20 kms away from jhansi and it was 5:30, i knew that i will either miss my train or as usual the train would be 15 minutes late and i will be lucky enough to catch it. As soon as i saw the jhansi border i jumped off the bus and ran looking for an auto. It was 5:50 and i was desperately hoping that the train would be late.
I flagged down an auto which was carrying 4 passengers and asked him how much time would it take to go to the station. He told me 40 Rs and 10 minutes - by the watch. I told him - i will pay him 50 if he makes it in 10 minutes. All 4 passengers were dropped at the nearby bus stop and the race started. The auto-driver, an old guy tried his best to overtake other vehicles and ride ahead but it seems that autos are not made to race. They are steady means of transport and cannot go beyond 30 kmph.
I was getting nervous and at 6:00, i asked him how much time - he said 2 minutes more. And then out of no-where we were in front of a red light and there was a traffic cop asking all vehicles to stop. I never expected this to happen. It meant that due to this red-light i will be missing my train. My mind went back to school and i recalled my friend who had taught me the murphy's law. And i made up my mind that - as per murphy's law, i wont be able to catch the train. I will miss the train by seconds. But i may as well try to catch it. Maybe my luck would work out and the train would be late.
So, after 5 minutes instead of 2 the auto left me at the station. I handed him 50 rs and ran. Running all the way shouting - "bhaiya hatna" / "jane dena". I saw people moving out of my way - looking at me with an expression of "WTF" in their eyes. I ran up the stairs and towards the 5th platform on which the train generally is. But reaching there, i saw there was no train. I was going to give up when i thought why not get an idea - by how much time i missed the train. And so, i asked a passerby. And he told me that the train was a bit ahead on the platform.
My heart leaped. And i jumped down the stairs. There was a cop standing there and he looked at me with tons of suspicion in his eyes. I asked him the bogie no - "C8" and he realized that i have come late. He told me go straight ahead and I again ran. It has been ages since i had done any physical exercise. And i was out of my breath. I had a heavy bag on by back. And i was sweating like anything. My whole body was paining and asking me to relax & slow down. But i still continued and finally jumped into the C8 coach.
Rushed inside and found my seat. The train whistled and started moving. I looked at my watch and it was 06:12. The trains are generally late by 10-15 minutes. But this time, as per murphy's law, he train was exactly on time.
If anything can go wrong, it will...
Showing posts with label indian railways. Show all posts
Showing posts with label indian railways. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Indian railways improved??
Well, today i am going to baroda. The train is at 7:30. I called for a cab. The distance from home to station is around 20-30 min.
The trick here is how do you decide at what time you should call the cab so that the cab drops you at the station on the right time - neither too late nor too early. So, what you do is take a buffer of 30 minutes for boarding the train and give the cab a buffer of 30 minutes. So in my case, i took the target to reach station at 07:00 (30 min buffer at my side). And called the cab at 06:00. Bingo, so now as per IST(Indian Stretchable Timings), the cab would turn up at 06:30 and drop you at station at 07:00. The problem here is that the cab does not give a damn whether you catch the train or not. So at 05:55, buzzed the cab driver and ask him when he is going to arrive. Basically, you are acting as a wake-up call for the cab driver. He is not supposed to catch the train, you are, so it is your responsibility to wake him up and remind him of his duties and ensure that he arrives on time to pick you up. Just hope that the cab driver is not some person who does 2-3 snoozes to his alarm before waking up. So buzzed him again in 10 min to ensure that he is up and in his cab and driving. Also it is necessary to control your anger in such situations, else you may burst everything up.
So the cab comes at 06:35. The driver is aware that he is late, and since you have told him that you need to be at station at 07:00 to catch the train at 07:10 (just make up some time and have at least 15 min buffer), he will surely break all speed limits to achieve his aim of dropping you at station at the right time. So strap your seat belts and put your life in the driver's hands and wait. I think, more accidents & traffic jams happen due to the fact that people dont take into account the time that would be required in travel. For them, if they are late in getting up, they would try to make up for the lost time during driving. So over speeding and driving in the wrong lanes - results in either accidents or traffic jams.
Well, so i am again at the famous Indian Railways Station. Its crowded with autos. My cab is stuck behind the autos and unable to move ahead. Why is there so much jam here? Oh, people have parked their cars on both sides of the road leaving only a small path for a single car to move ahead. And the autos are trying to move back looking at the jam ahead. So traffic is crawling and there is a jam.
To talk about jams, i remember a jam where i was at the heart of the jam. I was stuck in the jam for around 1 hour. It happened just near a crossroad with bright red lights and the traffic police trying to control the traffic. Cars on either side of the red light covered both the to and fro lanes. Cars which were going to come towards us had no where to go cause the way was jammed up with cars moving in the other direction. And we had no where to go cause the road ahead was blocked with cars facing me. And to add to it, the bus drivers and cab drivers try to squeeze out of whatever place is available. Making the jam more jammed.
Sorry, i wandered. well, so i am at the station finally, totally crowded. No place to move. Its dirty as always. The enquiry counter has a huge queue. If i get in the queue, i will surely miss my train - by the time my turn comes. Why do they have a single enquiry counter and a very arrogant person at the other side. Maybe that is the bussiness model to reduce requests - poor UI. The only good thing is that this time the train is on time (i am lucky).
So after being on the station for 10 minutes, the train is here. All the doors are locked. People are standing and waiting so that someone opens the doors. Some guy with no uniform opens the doors and people start rushing inside. Again there is a jam, if you stand aside and give way to someone, you will have to stand aside till the complete batch of people have crossed. Cause no one is going to give way to you.
The caterer comes for orders of breakfast. Options - the same as always - omlette or cutlate. I dont think, indian railways has chefs. I order an omlette. The order is delivered after an hour and the omlette tastes burned.
Yes, there has been some improvement, check out the new power-plugs at all places in the train. Cool... So now i can plug in my lappy and maybe do some productive work or play some games.
So this time, we saw some movies and i sat on my lappy throughout the train. Though there was a problem with the electricity. As soon as i put my lappy on charge, the mouse used to move around automatically. But anyways, linux and windowmaker are good. You dont need mouse to move, everything is possible using the keyboard.
And yes another improvement in the indian railways, the variety of junk food. Last time when i was travelling they were selling burgers and pizzas. I did not dare to try one. And everytime they sell samosas and everytime i try these samosas. I dont remember them being good even a single time. I dont know why i try them, when i am aware that they would be terrible. And the ketchup they give with the samosas are so thin that it seems they have converted a single bottle of ketchup into atleast 15 bottles and added sugar to it. This time they were selling chinese noodles. It was ok - just too much oily. I did not dare to try the onion pakodas or potato vadas.
Now i am waiting. The train is supposed to reach vadodara at 22:00. I hope it is on time, though the train has been making a lot of unscheduled stops.
We are on time. In-fact 5 minutes before time... That is an achievement...
The trick here is how do you decide at what time you should call the cab so that the cab drops you at the station on the right time - neither too late nor too early. So, what you do is take a buffer of 30 minutes for boarding the train and give the cab a buffer of 30 minutes. So in my case, i took the target to reach station at 07:00 (30 min buffer at my side). And called the cab at 06:00. Bingo, so now as per IST(Indian Stretchable Timings), the cab would turn up at 06:30 and drop you at station at 07:00. The problem here is that the cab does not give a damn whether you catch the train or not. So at 05:55, buzzed the cab driver and ask him when he is going to arrive. Basically, you are acting as a wake-up call for the cab driver. He is not supposed to catch the train, you are, so it is your responsibility to wake him up and remind him of his duties and ensure that he arrives on time to pick you up. Just hope that the cab driver is not some person who does 2-3 snoozes to his alarm before waking up. So buzzed him again in 10 min to ensure that he is up and in his cab and driving. Also it is necessary to control your anger in such situations, else you may burst everything up.
So the cab comes at 06:35. The driver is aware that he is late, and since you have told him that you need to be at station at 07:00 to catch the train at 07:10 (just make up some time and have at least 15 min buffer), he will surely break all speed limits to achieve his aim of dropping you at station at the right time. So strap your seat belts and put your life in the driver's hands and wait. I think, more accidents & traffic jams happen due to the fact that people dont take into account the time that would be required in travel. For them, if they are late in getting up, they would try to make up for the lost time during driving. So over speeding and driving in the wrong lanes - results in either accidents or traffic jams.
Well, so i am again at the famous Indian Railways Station. Its crowded with autos. My cab is stuck behind the autos and unable to move ahead. Why is there so much jam here? Oh, people have parked their cars on both sides of the road leaving only a small path for a single car to move ahead. And the autos are trying to move back looking at the jam ahead. So traffic is crawling and there is a jam.
To talk about jams, i remember a jam where i was at the heart of the jam. I was stuck in the jam for around 1 hour. It happened just near a crossroad with bright red lights and the traffic police trying to control the traffic. Cars on either side of the red light covered both the to and fro lanes. Cars which were going to come towards us had no where to go cause the way was jammed up with cars moving in the other direction. And we had no where to go cause the road ahead was blocked with cars facing me. And to add to it, the bus drivers and cab drivers try to squeeze out of whatever place is available. Making the jam more jammed.
Sorry, i wandered. well, so i am at the station finally, totally crowded. No place to move. Its dirty as always. The enquiry counter has a huge queue. If i get in the queue, i will surely miss my train - by the time my turn comes. Why do they have a single enquiry counter and a very arrogant person at the other side. Maybe that is the bussiness model to reduce requests - poor UI. The only good thing is that this time the train is on time (i am lucky).
So after being on the station for 10 minutes, the train is here. All the doors are locked. People are standing and waiting so that someone opens the doors. Some guy with no uniform opens the doors and people start rushing inside. Again there is a jam, if you stand aside and give way to someone, you will have to stand aside till the complete batch of people have crossed. Cause no one is going to give way to you.
The caterer comes for orders of breakfast. Options - the same as always - omlette or cutlate. I dont think, indian railways has chefs. I order an omlette. The order is delivered after an hour and the omlette tastes burned.
Yes, there has been some improvement, check out the new power-plugs at all places in the train. Cool... So now i can plug in my lappy and maybe do some productive work or play some games.
So this time, we saw some movies and i sat on my lappy throughout the train. Though there was a problem with the electricity. As soon as i put my lappy on charge, the mouse used to move around automatically. But anyways, linux and windowmaker are good. You dont need mouse to move, everything is possible using the keyboard.
And yes another improvement in the indian railways, the variety of junk food. Last time when i was travelling they were selling burgers and pizzas. I did not dare to try one. And everytime they sell samosas and everytime i try these samosas. I dont remember them being good even a single time. I dont know why i try them, when i am aware that they would be terrible. And the ketchup they give with the samosas are so thin that it seems they have converted a single bottle of ketchup into atleast 15 bottles and added sugar to it. This time they were selling chinese noodles. It was ok - just too much oily. I did not dare to try the onion pakodas or potato vadas.
Now i am waiting. The train is supposed to reach vadodara at 22:00. I hope it is on time, though the train has been making a lot of unscheduled stops.
We are on time. In-fact 5 minutes before time... That is an achievement...
Monday, May 07, 2007
Indian railways
It has been almost 27 years since I was born and since i had been traveling in the indian railways. But with increase in time the indian railways has become from bad to worse. It is actually an ordeal to travel in railways. Then why am i writing the post today and not before. Well, i actually realized it yesterday.
At indian railways, the trains are never expected to arrive on time. All trains run late. And if you are standing at one of the platforms, you will constantly hear - "train x which was supposed to come at time y is delayed by delta minutes/hours. The inconvenience caused is deeply regretted". And the announcer would never sound as if he/she was regretting anything. It is said in a matter-of-fact way - as if we are supposed to know that the delay was naturally expected - just like you expect corruption in each and every section of the government of like you expect to get ketchup free with your samosa.
Let me brief you as to what happened last night. Had been to the delhi station to put my mom on the train for baroda. First of all - it had been a long time since i had been to the railways. So i had to enquire about where the parking was. And very few people seemed to know where it was. And since there is no visible board giving directions - i had to run here and there to get the location of parking space.
Well next - get information about the platform where the train would arrive. And the only way to get this information is to stand in queue - after about 100 people and wait your turn. The uncleji at the enquiry window - does not give a shit about who is on the other side of the window. I had time to enquire - what about people who arrived late and need the info - can they wait in queue for 30 minutes to enquire about which platform they should go. It seems the situation in delhi was worse. Its better in baroda - where there is less crowd and the information is properly displayed on the general information board.
Now - since i know which platform i have to go, i will have to spend rs 3/- to get a platform ticket - so that any Ticket Checker cannot catch me and ask for a 50/- or 100/- ghoos for travelling without a ticket. They usually do. There has been so many instances with my friends where the TC simply asked for a Rs 50/- note to let them go. And the way to avoid this hassle is to get a platform ticket. And to get a platform ticket is another hassle. On new delhi station, it is really difficult first to locate the window which gives platform ticket. Officially platform ticket should be available on all windows. But it seems due to scarcity - its there only on one window. And the queue in front of the window is huge. Hmm, there are always queues at all windows on indian railway stations. It seems that the indian railways is very low on manpower. Well actually thats how Laalu prasad yadav - our respected railway minister brought the operating cost of Indian railways to 78% - the best in the world.
And after getting the platform ticket, we proceeded to the platform. Wow, what a place. It seems that people like to live on the platform. Everywhere - there are people sitting, chatting, boozing, gambling. You have to look for space to put your foot to move forward. I think, this is what they mean by population explosion.
What happens in baroda station is that there is a display on the platform which says where each coach will come for the train. So it becomes easy to move and get placed right in front of the coach. But in Delhi - the capital of india, the numbers on the boards are misplaced so that you have to drag your luggage and run in between the crowded platform to your bogie.
And then the trains are always crowded. It is difficult to get a ticket in a train in indian railways. There is always a waiting list and extra people on the train for whom it is important to reach their destination, but were unable to get a reservation. There are people sleeping on the floor, outside the loo and sitting on your berths.
60 years of independence, and indian railways - it seems - stays where it was.
At indian railways, the trains are never expected to arrive on time. All trains run late. And if you are standing at one of the platforms, you will constantly hear - "train x which was supposed to come at time y is delayed by delta minutes/hours. The inconvenience caused is deeply regretted". And the announcer would never sound as if he/she was regretting anything. It is said in a matter-of-fact way - as if we are supposed to know that the delay was naturally expected - just like you expect corruption in each and every section of the government of like you expect to get ketchup free with your samosa.
Let me brief you as to what happened last night. Had been to the delhi station to put my mom on the train for baroda. First of all - it had been a long time since i had been to the railways. So i had to enquire about where the parking was. And very few people seemed to know where it was. And since there is no visible board giving directions - i had to run here and there to get the location of parking space.
Well next - get information about the platform where the train would arrive. And the only way to get this information is to stand in queue - after about 100 people and wait your turn. The uncleji at the enquiry window - does not give a shit about who is on the other side of the window. I had time to enquire - what about people who arrived late and need the info - can they wait in queue for 30 minutes to enquire about which platform they should go. It seems the situation in delhi was worse. Its better in baroda - where there is less crowd and the information is properly displayed on the general information board.
Now - since i know which platform i have to go, i will have to spend rs 3/- to get a platform ticket - so that any Ticket Checker cannot catch me and ask for a 50/- or 100/- ghoos for travelling without a ticket. They usually do. There has been so many instances with my friends where the TC simply asked for a Rs 50/- note to let them go. And the way to avoid this hassle is to get a platform ticket. And to get a platform ticket is another hassle. On new delhi station, it is really difficult first to locate the window which gives platform ticket. Officially platform ticket should be available on all windows. But it seems due to scarcity - its there only on one window. And the queue in front of the window is huge. Hmm, there are always queues at all windows on indian railway stations. It seems that the indian railways is very low on manpower. Well actually thats how Laalu prasad yadav - our respected railway minister brought the operating cost of Indian railways to 78% - the best in the world.
And after getting the platform ticket, we proceeded to the platform. Wow, what a place. It seems that people like to live on the platform. Everywhere - there are people sitting, chatting, boozing, gambling. You have to look for space to put your foot to move forward. I think, this is what they mean by population explosion.
What happens in baroda station is that there is a display on the platform which says where each coach will come for the train. So it becomes easy to move and get placed right in front of the coach. But in Delhi - the capital of india, the numbers on the boards are misplaced so that you have to drag your luggage and run in between the crowded platform to your bogie.
And then the trains are always crowded. It is difficult to get a ticket in a train in indian railways. There is always a waiting list and extra people on the train for whom it is important to reach their destination, but were unable to get a reservation. There are people sleeping on the floor, outside the loo and sitting on your berths.
60 years of independence, and indian railways - it seems - stays where it was.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)