Last weekend Train journey

I look forward for something entertaining every week. I have mentioned earlier, that I hate people who are dumb and those who immerse themselves into some book. So, while getting inside the compartment I was looking around and found there was a family with three kids and I thought that my journey will be excellent and settled in my seat. One of the kid was very curious and started attracting me. She was quite smart. I later learnt that she was just two years old. Two ladies were handling the three kids. They were speaking some language like Urdu and after few minutes I came to know that it was Turkish. There were two young girls who were seated opposite to those Turkish speaking ladies. These young girls were also speaking some language other than English. As the ticket examiner was passing by, these girls called him and explained that their seats were double booked and claimed that they possessed reservation for the same seats, as those ladies with the kids. The ticket examiner had a serious look for few minutes and left saying that he will be back. After he left, I asked them whether they checked it properly and vouched that it was not possible. They confidently replied 'yes'. I again asked them to verify whether it was the same coach since I have never come across such an experience in my train journeys in this country. They said circastically that even the Ticket examiner has checked it and has agreed and has gone to find a solution. This reminded me of a joke.

Many years before, a friend of mine witnessed this. He was travelling to Delhi from Madras. There were two people arguing over a seat. Each were claiming that they had reservation for the same seat. My friend who could not tolerate their arguments, intervened and checked their tickets and found that one of them had to travel only the next day since he had booked it for the next day. So, he has not checked his properly and was trying to travel on the wrong day. I thought about this incident and laughed.

After an hour or so, the destination place for the ladies with the kids arrived and they got down. I had to bid 'bye' to the kids who entertained me. In this new station, a Gentleman with his two daughters got into the same seat and the girls said the same reason. I again added that the seats have been double booked by mistake and the Ticket examiner knew about it and has not got back to them. After few minutes, there was a new Ticket examiner. As he approached us, the Gentleman showed his tickets and argued that his daughter need to be seated in the same seat and wondered how such errors could happen? The ticket examiner checked the tickets of those two girls again, and scrutinised for few minutes and agreed that the ticket seat numbers were right, but the girls were travelling by the wrong trains. It seems there were two different trains more or less at the same time, and the girls being new have got into the wrong train without bothering whether it was the same train they need to travel. They had to put a funny face and vacate the seat. That was a great experience for a passenger like me.