Train was 20 minutes late. Station was crowded. Hubli-Bangalore Janashatabdi finally arrived at Davanagere station. Good that we had reservation.
Me and my sister were returning from hometown after Diwali celebration. We boarded train and it took about 10 minutes to reach to our seats. A middle aged women had occupied my seat. Her brother requested me to let her sit and I obliged. To realize only after an Hour 'OMG! What the hell made me do that???! Have to stand for 5 more Hours !!'.
Anyway - I moved close to the train door corridor - and stood there. There were couple of guys (all 20-28 age band) standing in that corridor.
Train tooks its pace n was in full swing!
Few minutes down the line, TC came. About 5.4", little dark, thick moustache, white hairs, and bigger diameter stomach. He verified our tickets. There was one guy standing right next to the door. When TC asked, he took out his wallet from back pocket - and amidst bunch of papers, he was pulling out the ticket - and phew! it flew! He stretched his other hand quickly to hold it - invain. Ticket was gone!
I have hardly seen any Indian railway employees who are harsh spoken or bad behaved. This TC was no exception.
"Was it ticket??" TC asked calmly.
"Yes" reply came in very mild voice. He looked shaky.
"From where did you board?"
"Hubli. Going to Bangalore."
TC took a deep breath, looking that guy with a smile he said
"I bet - it wasn't a ticket. It was just a piece of paper!"
"No Sir. It was ticket" - a quick reply came.
"Ok. Tell me - At what time did you buy the ticket in Hubli?"
"At 1PM"
"Today?"
"Yes"
"What was the cost of the ticket?"
"141"
"Was it confirmed??"
"Yes"
The mild smile on TCs face got bigger and bigger after every question.
"Next time when you do this trick, do some preparatoin. For this train, we get our final charts at 11AM in the morning. Tickets will not be issued after charts are prepared. Cost of the ticket Rs.147, from the beginning of this month. Not 141. And the people who rserved their tickets yesterday are still in waiting list, your ticket got confirmed! Nice try. 147 + 250, 400 Rupees Please"
We all were dumb stuck! Including our crook. Our culprit started another drama. He showed his wallet and told he has only 220 rupees. Not a penny more.
TC smiled again and said
"Again I am confident that you have more than 400 rupees in your pocket. Shall I check?"
"No Sir. I have only this much. Promise. Other then this, I have mobile and a napkin. Thats it"
"Shall I check?"
"No Sir. I have only this much."
"Let me check - What ever excess you have, I ll take it." TC came a step forward.
Thats it. Our crook pulled out 2 more Gandhi green notes from his inner secret shirt pocket and handed over 400 Rupees to TC.
TC wrote the reciept and holding the reciept book in his hand, asked that guy
"Sign here".
TC turned towards rest of us and told (with a big smile on his face)-
"Can any of you tell me why I didnt give him my book for signature, and instead i held it myself?"
None replied.
"Try. Any guess?" - TC asked again.
Again none replied.
TC told "last time when I had caught such a guy, he threw my reciept book outside!!" and he burst out in heavy loud laugh! With his tummy vibrating in chorus!
So did we!
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USiRa
