Indra’s Drishtikona (Viewpoint)

From Salt Lake to Noida

Posted : February 25, 2006 at 8:00 pm [IST]

It was a nice trip back and a comfortable train journey. I like trains more for the experience that I get from the conversations with the co-passengers.

Taxi drivers of Kolkata, for that matter, this class all over the country, has earned a bad name for providing a nightmarish experience for the users. The latest ad of tourism department on TV these days, very rightly shows that. I was bitter with the experience with taxi driver who brought me to Howrah. He thought I was a new person to the city. I pretended to be so to have the experience. He charged me Rs 200 instead of Rs 120. At the end while leaving, I requested, preached him not to do that to any other person, and got a satisfaction as an old man gets.

Services in Rajdhani are improving. Toilets are cleaner with no bad smell. You find liquid soap and sanitary papers too even up to the end of 18hours journey. There are plugs for charging mobile phones, but with the popularity of mobile phones but there must be some points or the phone manufacturers must improve on battery life between charging. The performance of railways has proved that. Professionals in railway Board are doing a good job for sometime now.

I learnt something new from my ‘marwari’ co passengers. I was talking of huge construction works going on in Kolkata. They interjected that all these were due to the Nepalese and North-Eastern affluent who are buying alternative shelters because of the insurgency over there. Kolkata is their place of choice for generations. It was a revelation for me. Perhaps they may be right.

And when I found many of my co passengers using their mobile phones, I felt like using my own. I found, we were near Jhumari Tallayia, the place that had become famous by Radio Ceylon. I could talk to my wife from near Gaya. And for a moment, I started thinking if telecom would have come up to today’s level some twenty years ago, my mother would have lived for some ten more years with not much trouble and I would have lived a peaceful life. It is heartening that today we can contact any one anywhere at any time. Mobile phones have certainly improved the quality of life when rightly used.
My wife didn’t like my facial change over that had changed, as I didn’t shave for a month or more, as I wanted to see how my face looks with that. I had to go, get shaved and become a gentleman. Now I am settled again at Noida.

You can yourself judge who is right.

P.S. Read everything about Railway Budget and its performance.
Highlights of Rail Budget 2006-07

- Indra

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