Saturday, May 14, 2022

It just happens like that

Many times, I traveled by Tamil Nadu express from Chennai to Vijayawada. The train reaches Vijayawada at 4 AM. I always used to get up before the train reached Vijayawada even without an alarm. I used to think that it might be sixth sense or that the mind has some internal alarm. 

I was under that illusion till I missed the station one day.

Then, I analyzed everything and found the answer. 

Indian railways typically allot coaches for a particular start and end stations (for sleeper class). For someone starting at Chennai and getting down at Vijayawada or Warangal, they get only the coaches reserved for that. Similarly, for someone traveling from Chennai to Delhi, they get different coaches and they rarely travel with someone traveling to Vijayawada. 

Whenever I travel to Vijayawada, there would be many other people traveling to Vijayawada. When some of them get up and start talking or switch on lights or because of some other disturbance, I also get up. I used to think, I got up myself. 

Once I booked a ticket from Chennai to Delhi to go to Vijayawada. It is because I couldn't get a confirmed ticket to Vijayawada, but got a confirmed ticket to Delhi. The ticket price to Delhi is cheaper than the highest ticket price of premium tatkal to Vijayawada. Also, for tatkal tickets, there is a risk of not getting the tickets. So, I booked till Delhi. 

In my compartment, everyone was going to Delhi or Agra, and nobody needed to get up early. Since there was zero disturbance at 4 AM, I couldn't get up eventhough I had 3 alarms setup in the span of half an hour. I got up 15 minutes after the train left Vijayawada. 

Tamil Nadu express is one train which stops at very less number of stops (first four stops are in four different states). I had to get down at Warangal and return. 

It did not happen just like that. It had a reason. 

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