Hi Mr. Techie, welcome to IRI and your clearly written first blog piece on the SF-yet-crawler ICE. Yes, some of these chair cars are not that good, but generally speaking this train from SWR is maintained relatively neat. The variety of food, no doubt, is good, but the taste I would say is okay. This train basically caters to the masses, especially intermediate, short-distance travelers, and Shatabdi is an elite one, not for the masses, and the inconveniences that you have mentioned above are not new to Railways and we, Indians, are so used to adjusting. Please do write to the authorities concerned as your contribution towards betterment of the system. Of course, I do agree that IR is losing out to the Volvo cartel, but let's wait and hope things get better ASAP.