THE TATKAL WARS
Most of the schemes introduced by the Government of India becomes a battleground of sorts. With the huge population of India, it always becomes a snatch and take away game.
One of these games which people of almost every section of the society have to face is the very famous “Tatkal scheme”.
“Oye yaar, Dusshera pe ghar ja rahi hai?”. “Nahi yaar, waiting me hai aur tatkal me toh ticket milne ka sawaal hi nahi uthta.” A very common scene witnessed by me among my friends and I have been a part of it too sometimes. No Dusshera, no Diwali at home because we don’t know about our holidays in advance to book a ticket for it and we don’t trust the tatkal scheme.
Today I actually got the opportunity to witness the grandeur of the entire set up. Three years away from home during Diwali was too much for me to bear and this time anyhow I wanted to reach there for this awesome festival. It got into my mind, heart, stomach, every part of my body. All my nerves were screaming for me to get home. And I was helpless. I knew I could never make it through the tatkal ticket service.
But then I suddenly realised that there are tickets booked in tatkal and there are those few lucky ones who get through it. With all the scary stories of people spending the night at the railway station to get hold of a ticket to the horrific images of a never ending queue, I decided to give it a shot.
A crowd arguing and giving each other killer looks awaited me. It was early in the morning of early winter and there was a slight chill in the atmosphere which hit me deep like ice as I got mentally prepared that I could not get hands on my ticket. To add to the commotion, a group of rowdy aunties bullying each other and teaching the males the lesson of “ladies first” joined us. Places of people who had not slept the entire night was mightily taken by these aunties who had completely different notions of female empowerment.
I waited patiently though I was feeling that my brain was revising all the slang I had ever learnt. I had my friends trying for the online booking but that my dear friends is a totally new game and during Diwali, a most difficult one to win as such. I was well aware of the fact that the trains in my route would be booked within 10 minutes and what I realised that the booking counter suffered from lack of staff and shortage of power. There was a man telling everyone to believe in God. (Yes, God. Make me one of the lucky ones what so if I am the fifteenth in the queue, what so if the place suffers from frequent electricity cuts, what so if I there is only one reservation counter, what so if my booking is for one of the busiest trains in one of the busiest routes.)
After 30 minutes full of commotion, irritation, arguments, I finally reached the booking counter with my friend informing me that hardly two tickets are left. (Oh well, they would be gone by the time he enters my name in the system.) 5 minutes later I found myself saying to my mum on phone, “I got my ticket”.
That moment was like a moment of true victory. It was no less than a battle won. And ya, by the way, the ladies who had bullied their way to the front could not get a ticket for any of the trains of their choice. 🙂
