THE TALE OF THE BANERJEE FAMILY (An old post of mine now reposted)
It was the 24th of April,2015, and my wife and I were travelling by the 12245 HWH-YPR Duronto Express in 2AC Coach A1 Berths 29/30 (SL/SU) . As is by now quite customary we reached the station by 10 am even if the train was scheduled to depart only at 11am. The empty rake of the train was positioned at PF 21 only at 10.30. A quick look at the charts to ascertain who were to be our co-passengers revealed that berths 25, 26 and 27 were allotted to the Banerjee family of Mr. Banerjee (57) , Mrs. Banerjee (50) and Ms. Banerjee (25). Figures in brackets indicate the...
more... ages of the passengers. The occupant of berth 28 was a middle-aged lady travelling with her husband who was in berth 34.
After we had settled down, I was surprised to see that none of the passengers of berths 25 to 28 had turned up even as late as 10.45 am. With just 10 mns to go for the signal to turn green Lady No. 28 turned up. But no sign of the Banerjees as yet then. Having ensured that my wife was comfortably ensconced I got down to take another look at the chart. It was then that I saw a young girl who later on turned out to be Ms. Banerjee running behind a porter and his trolley. The luggage piled on to that vehicle was so voluminous that made me feel that my wife and I were travelling rather light. Way behind her I could spot a slightly arthritic Mrs. Banerjee trying gamely to match the frenetic pace of her daughter but not really managing to make a success of it.
Ultimately while Ms. and Mrs. Banerjee managed to board the train with their massive quantity of luggage barely 2 mns before time, they suddenly let out shrill cries as the train began easing out of the platform sharp at 11 am. Mrs. Banerjee in particular seemed terribly upset and remarked to no one in particular "How can the train leave 15 mns before its scheduled departure time " . I gently told her that STD for 12245 was 11 and not 11.15 am. Her response was that it must have been changed recently for previously this train used to depart only at 11.15 am. I once again corrected her saying that ever since its introduction the departure of the YPR Duronto from HWH has remained unchanged at 11 am and she was perhaps confused with its departure time from YPR which again had remained constant at 11.15 am from 2010. Despite her mistaken notion of the train's timing , her tension was understandable as this had apparently caused Mr. Banerjee to miss the train. Further conversation revealed that Ms. Banerjee who was employed as a dance teacher in a reputed public school in Bangalore was shifting to a new residence and her parents were to accompany her to Blore to ensure a smooth changeover.
However, after boarding a taxi from their residence at Salt Lake, Mr. Banerjee, a senior executive in an MNC, had got off at Dalhousie Square , or BBD Bagh as it is now rechristened , to finish off some pending office work . He had asked his wife and daughter to proceed to Howrah and had promised to follow suit in the office car so as to reach HWH before the departure time of 11.15 am (?) as they all thought it to be.
What finally transpired was that Mr. Banerjee not only missed the train but also compounded matters for his dependents as their ticket, a PRS one at that, was in his pocket.
Within half an hour of departure, the TTE arrived on the scene to check our tickets and the 2 ladies of the Banerjee family narrated their tale of woe to him. The TTE was sympathetic to their plight and suggested a course of action. Accordingly, as advised by him, they asked Mr. Banerjee to deposit the ticket with the Station Manager at Howrah with a request to inform the station authorities at Bhubaneswar about the details of ticket. Mr. Banerjee apparently complied with the advice of the TTE as relayed to him by his daughter. At 4.45 pm a railway staff came to the platform at BBS with the fax message received from Howrah and handed it over to the TTE, who in turn endorsed the same and delivered it to the passengers.
PS. Fortunately Mr. Banerjee managed to secure a tkt for the next day's train (25th April) thanks to the HO quota and undertook his journey after an unintended delay of 24 hours.
To me the entire process was a NEW LEARNING EXPERIENCE which I thought fit to share with all of you here at IRI.
