Most train travelers are aware of what a 'platform ticket' is. One costs rupees ten and about 10 minutes of waiting in a queue. But, is it necessary to buy any ticket at all?
Sitting in the general ladies' compartment of a Pune Mumbai train, I was hassled by a very young beggar, maybe eight years old. She was moving from one train window to the other, touching and irritating the passengers, begging with a very filthy extended hand.
In order to get a window seat in a general compartment, one has to be seated in the train, about two hours in advance, and to get any seat, one has to be in the train, at least one hour in advance. Add to that the ten to fifteen minutes one has to wait in the queue, to buy the ticket. So, while sitting in the train, waiting for it to depart, the passengers are approached by hawkers selling water, samosas, trinkets, wada pav, chikki, chai, toys etc, but most of all by beggars in all shapes and sizes and age groups. A young woman with a tiny baby in her arms, an old man reeking of beedi and booze, urchins, male and female, dirty and wearing smelly clothes, their hair all disheveled and matty, all just begging and making a living on the railway station. There are gangs of upto ten to twelve women, each with a tiny baby in their arms, and ten to fifteen kids around them. How do these professional beggars gain access to the railway platforms without any tickets or any railway authority checking their activities? It is so obvious then that the authorities are hand in glove with these perpetrators and must be getting 'hafta'. Many of these beggars use the train toilets and render them unfit for anyone else to use later.
When the train reaches Karjat, the ladies' compartment is taken over by a gang of hawkers, usually a couple, with two to three babies in tow, selling trinkets. The half naked babies, with snot oozing out of their nose, bedraggled hair, wander around the entire compartment, begging with an extended hand, from any passenger who is eating or drinking. So they end up with handfuls of popcorn, wada pau, biscuit packets and chocolates. Then they cry for water, so the women passengers give away their water bottles too. All this while, the young parents are peddling their ware of cheap earrings and clips. As the train reaches Dadar station, the empty seats were taken over by the peddlers' dirty kids. One emptied all the popcorn that someone had given, onto the cushioned seats, while the other ten month old relieved himself and did potty on the seats. The mother came reluctantly and used some discarded newspaper to clean the mess. It was a disgusting experience. Are the railway authorities unaware of these going-ons? The last beggar is usually the 'Salman Khan' topless young man, who uses a dirty rag to 'clean' the floor of the compartments, as he extends his hand to beg, after pretending to 'clean' the floor.
The Indian Railways support these beggars, so keep up the philanthropy, but be fair without class or creed, and do not penalize those who are 'ticketless' travelers. And please stop selling the platform tickets, because they are so redundant, if you just observe the persons that gain access to most railway platforms and trains too.
Sometimes I am so tempted to travel ticketless, just pretending to hawk trinkets or chikki, to prove a point to the railway authorities, how predominantly unwanted persons are on trains illegally and that that is not how they will increase their popularity.
Sitting in the general ladies' compartment of a Pune Mumbai train, I was hassled by a very young beggar, maybe eight years old. She was moving from one train window to the other, touching and irritating the passengers, begging with a very filthy extended hand.
In order to get a window seat in a general compartment, one has to be seated in the train, about two hours in advance, and to get any seat, one has to be in the train, at least one hour in advance. Add to that the ten to fifteen minutes one has to wait in the queue, to buy the ticket. So, while sitting in the train, waiting for it to depart, the passengers are approached by hawkers selling water, samosas, trinkets, wada pav, chikki, chai, toys etc, but most of all by beggars in all shapes and sizes and age groups. A young woman with a tiny baby in her arms, an old man reeking of beedi and booze, urchins, male and female, dirty and wearing smelly clothes, their hair all disheveled and matty, all just begging and making a living on the railway station. There are gangs of upto ten to twelve women, each with a tiny baby in their arms, and ten to fifteen kids around them. How do these professional beggars gain access to the railway platforms without any tickets or any railway authority checking their activities? It is so obvious then that the authorities are hand in glove with these perpetrators and must be getting 'hafta'. Many of these beggars use the train toilets and render them unfit for anyone else to use later.
When the train reaches Karjat, the ladies' compartment is taken over by a gang of hawkers, usually a couple, with two to three babies in tow, selling trinkets. The half naked babies, with snot oozing out of their nose, bedraggled hair, wander around the entire compartment, begging with an extended hand, from any passenger who is eating or drinking. So they end up with handfuls of popcorn, wada pau, biscuit packets and chocolates. Then they cry for water, so the women passengers give away their water bottles too. All this while, the young parents are peddling their ware of cheap earrings and clips. As the train reaches Dadar station, the empty seats were taken over by the peddlers' dirty kids. One emptied all the popcorn that someone had given, onto the cushioned seats, while the other ten month old relieved himself and did potty on the seats. The mother came reluctantly and used some discarded newspaper to clean the mess. It was a disgusting experience. Are the railway authorities unaware of these going-ons? The last beggar is usually the 'Salman Khan' topless young man, who uses a dirty rag to 'clean' the floor of the compartments, as he extends his hand to beg, after pretending to 'clean' the floor.
The Indian Railways support these beggars, so keep up the philanthropy, but be fair without class or creed, and do not penalize those who are 'ticketless' travelers. And please stop selling the platform tickets, because they are so redundant, if you just observe the persons that gain access to most railway platforms and trains too.
Sometimes I am so tempted to travel ticketless, just pretending to hawk trinkets or chikki, to prove a point to the railway authorities, how predominantly unwanted persons are on trains illegally and that that is not how they will increase their popularity.
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