Jungle safari to Ranthambore was to start from Mumbai central, so our
travel from Chinchwad to Mumbai central started in a bus …. Its usual
practice of FONA to start any trek by coconut cracking ceremony .. so
this time although it was a trip rather than trek … we followed the
protocol ….we started around 12 noon from Chinchwad to reach Mumbai
central by ~4.30 pm ..
Obviously the security at the entry gate asked for Chai Pani (~100 Rs) as entry fee for bus and after reaching inside the traffic police also took 100 Rs as standing charges of 5 minutes !!! (hope Modi sarkar screws all such people spoiling India)
anyway … I was not so happy starting the tour by bribing people .. but no choice ….
our (so called) Jaipur Super fast express has to ply at 6.50 pm …so obviously we had plenty of time to roam around and have look nearby .. some photoshoot … and know more about the traffic !!
Honestly I was expecting much more crowd than what I saw inside the railway station !! it was almost empty like …
Since we had to wait for couple of hours we thought of going to air conditioned !!! waiting room on first floor .. where a person (see photo right side) was sitting doing nothing !!! he was not asking anything, people if wanted writing details in log book or can skip on wish .. after inquiring about his role there he was even not able to answer if he is employee of railway .. he said he is not employee but sitting there since someone pays him for that !! so much ignorance ? even someone keeps bomb inside the room no one ever knows . no security at all .. outside station police is collecting money from people and inside such stupid people sitting on entry of air conditioned waiting room !!!
You can see crowded waiting room where air conditioning system was not working !!
I was so furious about this that I scolded like anything to the outside person .. but he was not able to explain anything .. even he was not telling if he is railway employee !! so I decided to go to the station superintendent.
Superintendent cabin air conditioning was working fine, it was as large as ~1000 sq. feet … mann in mumbai where space costs in crores .. a person wasting so much space which must be used for public !! such a wastage ? as usual he was not present in his cabin (but A/C was running fine ! wasting government money and valuable electricity for the country) …
So I moved on to other cabin where it was written Assistant Superintendent .. there three persons were sitting and working … I was waiting there for 5 minutes alongwith Mandar .. but they did not notice or ignored us .. so I went in front of that person asking him about the compliant book .. then he asked the reason … when I told about the ignorance of person at waiting room and A/C not working he gave justification that due to fire A/C not working and the person sitting there may be temporary person !! His name was Milind Pawar (Station Superintendent- Mumbai Central). After having discussions I explained him that I am a blog writer and this bad experience goes on to my blog !! but I don’;t think that made him worry to 0.001 % (being it at my company which is private .. I could have sacked him for such ignorance !!)
So we came out of railway station to have some photography .. here are few of them … coolie sitting outside mumabi central railway station waiting for a train to arrive ..
Mumabi famous taxis .. plying on road ..
The train journey started precisely at 6.50 pm (so here railway scored 100% marks) and reached Sawai Madhopur at 11.30 am second day ..
This journey was better than previous experience of Kanha where we traveled into general class, being A/C class interference on each railway station was much less ! compartment was somewhat clean (but this was exactly opposite on return journey, means the compartment was dirty, toilet water was drained off ! so people using bottled water for things !!!)
Anyway I don;t think I would ever now dare to travel in train .. I know I will loose company of FONA friends in travel where we all enjoy playing cards and antakshari .. but i may prefer traveling by air .. to save time and have clean / hassle free travel ..
so now that we have reached Sawai Madhopur .. would start our journey to Tiger Moon resort in my next post ..
so what is that I observed during this journey through Indian Railways
1) Corruption – starts from the entry gate where we paid 200 Rs just to allow the bus to get inside for dropping members !
2) Corruption – continues inside the premises showing presence of non authorized persons working on behalf of official railway employee (and the station superintendent can not answer why it is like that !
3) Maintenance – systems like air conditioning at railway station or water availability in air conditioned three tier bogie is not responsibility of railway ! public is at its own
4) Security – it is left to GOD, people are on their own, no one is bothered who is going in where and how !!
5) Hygiene – 100% absent throughout the travel or on the railway station. ofcourse here people are more responsible than the railway, since they do not bother about littering, spitting all around without thinking of others
6) Food availability – Third grade food is supplied by railway using their own pantry car ! as well as food available on platforms is not upto the mark (below sub standard)
7) Railway – Not only the bogie but the rain tracks are not to any mark of standards, you get all kind of jerks in X.Y.Z directions, your travel is not stable at all ! when the driver applies brakes everything is shaky ? NVH (noise vibration and harshness) is to its worst situation, makes your travel a nightmare ! (here I am comparing travel abroad in railways where u simply travel without getting any NVH issues and btw we are also spending equal amount of money for maintenance, having said that Indian Railways has got highest staff density which is world record in itself)
8) we could even see TC (ticket checker) getting money from people to get them inside A/C three tire travel without ticket ! he was taking official fine from them as well as additional money (personal charges ?)
9) Travel inside three tier non A/C compartment is absolutely shit ?(experience from my Kanha tour) where through out the night u get hundreds of visitors disturbing you in sleep as well as fear of theft continues with dirt all around
!!!!! hope with Midiji asking all Indians to follow discipline in yesterday speech, he gave an example if every Indian decides not to litter that will be a step towards development and I fully agree with him.
Leave a Reply