Human beings are hardwired to always look for patterns and reasons in everything, which is why we keep on wondering about why things happen, especially when they do not go as per plan. However, no matter what Paulo Coelho thinks, my general belief is that the Universe is too busy to give a flying f**k…
There was a time when if you wanted a confirmed ticket on a train in India you needed to pay a bribe. I have heard many anecdotes on this, where you purchase a (Waitlisted) ticket and then contact “someone” in the railways to “help” to jump the queue. Reservation charts of trains were maintained by the…
The Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) runs a website that is allows people to book tickets on Indian Railways trains online using their debit or credit cards. Now, why a corporation that should be doing catering is running a ticket-booking website is another question altogether, but this question is rarely asked because there…
There are some things that cannot be missed. For some people it is the first day first show of a movie, for some, it is the launch event of a new gadget, or a game of their favorite sports teams, a daily TV program and for some, it is the exact log-in time at office. For me…
The honorable Minister for Railways Sri. Dinesh Trivedi presented his maiden Railway Budget today on March 14th 2012. This budget was expected to be a landmark one, mainly because of the Railways’ enormous fiscal deficit of and industry watchers and everyone else were watching keenly on what the Minister would do to address this. For…
Make no mistake, the aspirations of ours to become a Superpower or even a developed nation by 2020 is quite a lofty one, considering the present scenario of us as a people, more than that of as a nation. That is because there are many things that constitute a how a developed nation should be,…
The Universe works in uncanny ways and it has its own ways of setting things right to preserve the delicate equilibrium that governs us all. I got a taste of this the other day in Final Destination proportions of a Shakespearean tragedy, when a much-lauded ‘out-of-the-blue’ rare achievement of mine was ruthlessly cancelled out, the…
A Shatabdi Express from Thiruvananthapuram to Bangalore? That will not happen in this Universe, where for various reasons known to everyone, the hallowed populace of Malluland has the distinction of being always ignored and at the receiving end of the stick of everything. But in terms of providing neglect to them, no institution comes close…
The best joke of the year so far just came out of the blue one fine morning, splashed across the front page of the day’s newspaper. Seeing the headline, I couldn’t hold it in (the laughter) and just ROLFMAO-ed my guts out! Well, the headline and the joke was thus: “Kerala plans to implement high-speed…
Since it is confirmed to be working, I tried a hand at booking a ticket through IRCTC’s new mobile website. And you know what? I actually booked a ticket! Oh yeah!! It went through without a hitch. This, considering the fact that even a trip to the tea shop will be wrought with obstacles for…
I was on the way from Bangalore to Thrissur on the 12677 Bangalore – Ernakulam Intercity Express when this incident happened. I like this train and the journey because the train is fast, sticks to the time table, has only 10 stops, the scenery is excellent and tickets are easy to get. So I had…
