May 02, 2008

Happy to Help

Title copied from my Mobile service provider's advert.

Yesterday, an acqaintence at work approached me with a request. His uncle and aunt were to travel from Hyderabad to Mumbai and all the trains were packed to capacity. And he did not want the discomfort of a bus and could not really afford a flight. Apparently this chap was talking over his phone when a friend overheard his conversation and they came to me, asking me if I had any tricks in my bag.

I knew that just one day in advance in the peak summer rush, one would not get a confirmed ticket even in the Tatkal quota. Even then, we both headed straight to the reservation counter to check out. The counter clerk asked us to forget the thought of getting a confirmed ticket! There are four direct trains from Hyderabad/Secunderabad to Mumbai and all were packed.

It was then that my brain started working, as a railfan's should. I asked him if changing trains was acceptable. On getting an affirmative, I checked out the status for the weekly Secunderabad-Manmad express and got a Tatkal ticket booked. From Manmad to Mumbai, booked them on the recently introduced Aurangabad-Mumbai Jan Shatabdi express. Now, interestingly the counter clerk had never heard of this train and even I could not recollect the train number. So, a call to another fellow railfan later, got him a confirmed seat on the Jan Shatabdi. The train from Sec'bad reaches Aurangabad at 4.40AM & Manmad at 7.30AM, while the Jan Shatabdi follows it and departs from Manmad at 7.55AM. I was profusely thanked by the acquaintence for getting this ticket booked.

But the best part was when the counter clerk thanked me for the info and the next thing I knew was that a few minutes later, he was booking a similar ticket for another traveller to Mumbai !


A wide smile and a wave later, I was on my way !

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PS: Basic Train reservation enquiries like Trains between Stations, Train Schedules, Accomodation, Fare, etc are now available at Railway Zone @ www.vrijilesh.com


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31 comments:

Chakoli said...

:-))))

how sweet gesture:-)))

Good one...

Even I want to go home...shud I ask u to book ticket??;-))

btw u have been tagged..:-))

Vrijilesh Rai said...

Thanx Chaks..
yep, u can take advice from me for booking a tkt.. I'd be ready to give u some.. or maybe u should get in touch with one of our gangmen in Pune..

Cinderella said...

Vrij..that was damn nice as well innovative of you.
I'm going home this 17th. Havent booked ticteks yet. Any suggestions ?

B'lore to Bhubaneswar.

:)

Vrijilesh Rai said...

Cindy.. Thanx :)
From SBC to BBS, you have only 2 trains on 17th, the Prashanti and the Yeswantpur-Howrah. I am assuming that you will travel by AC. 3AC is running Waitlist 8 and 2AC has WL7. Sleeper class has 17berths available. What you can do is book a Tatkal ticket on the 12th early morning at 8AM sharp. Only 32 berths are available by tatkal in 3A and 10 in 2A. 3A will cost you Rs 1500 and 2A Rs 1954. Prashanti exp starts from Bang City at 1400hrs(generally pf5) reaches BBS at 2055hrs. I would not suggest the Howrah train because it reaches BBS close to midnight. For further enquiries, I am available at vrijileshATgmail

Cinderella said...

Thankyou so much Vrij ! This is such a kind gesture. I'll book my ticket on 12th then. Thnx.
This must have taken you time man.
Thankyou.

Pri said...

a smart and sweet gesture...next time any of us has problems in reserving tickets, we know whom to ask ;)

cheers!!

Vrijilesh Rai said...

Cindy... gr8.. and it took me precisely 2 mins to get the above details!!

Vrijilesh Rai said...

Pri.. of course, of course.. ur most welcome :)

Anonymous said...

Hi Vrij,
My first comment on ur blog-blogspot.
Wow... so for rail way queries there is another website which ateast i can rely on.
You are into railways man...!!!

Vrijilesh Rai said...

hey LG.. gr8 to see u here.. and hope to see u here regularly :)

Yep.. u have another site to rely on :)

Cinderella said...

I just saw the new 'happy to help' ad. The lil girl and the brand ambassador ?!

Damn cute...

Keshi said...

Vrij matey book me a ticket to Mumbai from Sydney plz. :)

Keshi.

Chakoli said...

gangmen...!!! who is dat nw??:PPPP

just booked my tickets... for a jrny in mid june..still got waiitng of 1....grrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!

Chakoli said...

btw wen are u taking up the tag??

Pramod said...

Oh My God!!! thats some thinking!!! Now i know whom to approach for ideas when i cant get confirmed tkts :):)

Vrijilesh Rai said...

Cindy.. havent chkd it out as yet.. hope to do so during tonight's match!

Vrijilesh Rai said...

Keshi darling.. Unfortunately, Indian Railways does not have any train service on that route. Whenever they do, I promise to book one for you free of cost!

Vrijilesh Rai said...

Chaks.. we railfans call ourselves 'gangmen'. Actually the termed is derived from railway's official lingo. U must have come across workers who keep checking the tracks, oiling the points, etc .. those people are called gangmen by railways. A group of such people assigned to a particular section is a gang.

For June u got WL1 ur lucky.. for some trains even August booking has gone WL!!!

Vrijilesh Rai said...

Will take up the tag soon!

Vrijilesh Rai said...

RP.. it was commonplace thinking for me. :)
And yes, u can surely approach me!

Chakoli said...

Ohhh..
when I was young I used to envy those guys... as they could wrk with all trains arnd...:PPP
nw I know hard that job is:-))))


thats what.... u know for diwali vacation... I was in ofc at 8 am... 90 days before the day of travel just to book my tickets...and at 8.15 it started showing Wl...:-)))

okies...:take ur time:-00))

Prasad said...

wah wah! man tht was so coool!!!! i kno whome to contact the next time :DDDDD

Anonymous said...

all ya railfans i tell you!!!

the Boy does that atleast 4 times a week!

:D

Keshi said...

build one u smart Indian ppl!

Keshi.

Chakoli said...

new and cool template:-))

Vrijilesh Rai said...

Chaks.. Its very hard work for those people, and dangerous too.. coz they do not have the luxury of walkie-talkies to inform them of oncoming trains.. in fact two such gangmen recently lost their lives when they were working on a curved track area and could not see a train in time to get off its way.. :(

Vrijilesh Rai said...

Pras.. Yo dude !

Vrijilesh Rai said...

Chandni.. I bet he does.. and be rest assured he gets a lot of satisfaction for it.. so let him be..

Vrijilesh Rai said...

Keshi.. Yep.. will do so.. just get it approved by either Governments using all ur charm ;)

Vrijilesh Rai said...

Chaks.. I'm improvising on it :)

aneri_masi said...

wow! you're too good man! resourceful and thoughtful!

please pardon my ignorance, but yeh railfan kya hota hai?