To Bombay and Back

Digest 1 – Nightmarish Start One fine morning on Saturday, March 29th 2008, I rose from the drunken state to board the Shatabdi Special from Lucknow to Delhi. The scheduled departure was 05:30 AM and I reached the station by 05:00 AM. From Delhi, I was to board the Jet Airways flight to Bombay at 04:30 PM. Definitely a circuitous way to go to Mumbai, when there was a direct flight from Lucknow to Bombay for much less. As I descended on the platform down the expansive stairs, a Shatabdi arrived on the adjacent platform apparently from Delhi. Keeping myself aloof, I asked a vendor “Is Shatabdi scheduled to arrive here?” “Yes, but it has just now arrived from Delhi, must be running late by 5-6 hours.” “What is the normal time of arrival” asked I in a sinking voice. “11:00 in the night.” I waited with bated breath for an announcement with a mighty hope that it must run before 08:00 at least as not more than 3 hours are required for getting it cleaned. If it did start at 08:00 I had more than a fair chance of catching my flight. At 05:35, the announcement did come, just after Gomti express departed from an adjacent platform, “Shatabdi Express to Delhi will be running late by 6 hours and shall depart for Delhi at 10:30 AM. We apologize for the inconvenience caused.” What?? 6 hours for cleaning. What kind of professionalism is this? I left the Railway station with a sunken heart and caught an Auto for IIML. At 06:00 AM, I cancelled my e-ticket, and fired an email to Railway authorities to reimburse me my full ticket as the delayed departure made my trip completely useless (I am yet to get a reply from them). Then I booked a Jetlite ticket for Sunday evening flight to Mumbai.