I have always loved travelling by the railway. Longer the journey, the better.
It was Gudhi Padwa holiday in March or April 2014. I was travelling to Solapur for a meeting, by the Solapur Express from Dadar. I had a confirmed berth in the II AC compartment. I got into the train at Dadar around 9. It was the HA compartment - which has a IIAC and a III AC compartments together. My berth was at the end, just two berths one on the top of the other, facing the wall. It was not a coupe of four berths. There were 5-6 passengers in the II AC.
When the TTE came, I asked him if any woman was going to get in at Thane or Kalyan. He said, the compartment was going to be almost empty, no new passengers expected.
'What about the III AC, which was adjoining?'
'There are a couple of families.'
He went on with his job.
I grew uneasy. Somehow, I was sure that I wouldn't be able to sleep peacefully in this compartment, with only a few men around. (As luck would have it, I had chosen this train over the hugely popular and faster Siddheshwar express, because Solapur express leaves Mumbai at a decent time and reaches Solapur around 8 AM. If I have to catch Siddheshwar, after work, which leaves Mumbai CST after 10.30, I need to spend a couple of hours at CST doing nothing. Inconvenient. And it reaches before 7. Sleep is important for me, as my whole day is going to be busy.)
So I asked the TTE if I could shift to III AC, which he readily agreed to.
Meanwhile I was talking about this to a friend, who is sort of protective and paternal and all that. He advised me to get down from the train and go home! Which of course was out of question.
I shifted to the next compartment, notwithstanding the attendant's smirking because I was going from II AC to III AC!
I slept quite well, listening to a loving conversation between a mother and her son.
I was however felt what I did was not the thing ideally I would have liked to happen. What my action showed was disrespect, distrust in the male passengers. But, I was not ready to spend a sleepless and restless night either.
I always feel like saying sorry to those men!
It was Gudhi Padwa holiday in March or April 2014. I was travelling to Solapur for a meeting, by the Solapur Express from Dadar. I had a confirmed berth in the II AC compartment. I got into the train at Dadar around 9. It was the HA compartment - which has a IIAC and a III AC compartments together. My berth was at the end, just two berths one on the top of the other, facing the wall. It was not a coupe of four berths. There were 5-6 passengers in the II AC.
When the TTE came, I asked him if any woman was going to get in at Thane or Kalyan. He said, the compartment was going to be almost empty, no new passengers expected.
'What about the III AC, which was adjoining?'
'There are a couple of families.'
He went on with his job.
I grew uneasy. Somehow, I was sure that I wouldn't be able to sleep peacefully in this compartment, with only a few men around. (As luck would have it, I had chosen this train over the hugely popular and faster Siddheshwar express, because Solapur express leaves Mumbai at a decent time and reaches Solapur around 8 AM. If I have to catch Siddheshwar, after work, which leaves Mumbai CST after 10.30, I need to spend a couple of hours at CST doing nothing. Inconvenient. And it reaches before 7. Sleep is important for me, as my whole day is going to be busy.)
So I asked the TTE if I could shift to III AC, which he readily agreed to.
Meanwhile I was talking about this to a friend, who is sort of protective and paternal and all that. He advised me to get down from the train and go home! Which of course was out of question.
I shifted to the next compartment, notwithstanding the attendant's smirking because I was going from II AC to III AC!
I slept quite well, listening to a loving conversation between a mother and her son.
I was however felt what I did was not the thing ideally I would have liked to happen. What my action showed was disrespect, distrust in the male passengers. But, I was not ready to spend a sleepless and restless night either.
I always feel like saying sorry to those men!
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