18 – 03 – 2024

We ( me, my sister and my grandmother ) had taken the Rewanchal Express which starts from Rani Kamlapati and goes all the way to Rewa, which means we had taken the train from its origin to end.

It was a 10-hour journey from 10 pm to 8 am.

We didn’t have a reservation as it wasn’t on our plan to go back to Rewa on this very day. 

Still, when we boarded the train, the train was full. We located the general class and I didn’t even take a ticket to the general class.

Now, this move was motivated by the fact that I suck when it comes to buying train tickets which are mostly local.

It’s shameful but I don’t buy local train tickets.

I also had never encountered a TTE in general class in my entire life. Nor had I heard of someone who had a similar experience.

I had seen TTE in reservation classes like Sleeper & AC and on railway stations but in general never in my life.

All night I was waking up, sleeping and seeing my bag as it had the most important thing in my life, which was my laptop. I care about it as it’s my baby.

I was on the upper birth in the general class and was resting when I saw two TTEs telling me to show tickets. I became a bit confused and frightened. I knew that it was very uncommon for a TTE to come to general class. 

Frightened me, tried opening the UTS app and booking a ticket via that but they were quick and they reached me.

My sister and my grandmother were sitting below me. I got down and started walking towards the one-corner gate of the bogie.

One of the TTEs pats off my back and said at least wear your slippers, I got there and they asked for a ticket. I said that I didn’t have a ticket, and they said that I would have to pay the fine which is ₹450. The other one said to give ₹200 and go. 

Now, I was okay with bribing them ₹200 as it would have cost us more than ₹500 for all three of us if we had booked the ticket.

I told my sister to give them ₹200 and she told me to pay the TTE via UPI. I don’t know why girls have this much low IQ. If I pay them via UPI can’t I sue them when I get down the train? They said that if you want to pay via UPI you will have to pay a ₹450 rupees fine.

At last, my sister gave them a ₹500 note they cut ₹200 and returned the left ₹300 rupees.

We then came to Rewa while sitting on the window seat. This was the first time I bribed someone.

To be honest, I hate giving bribes. 

For the same thing every time a shopkeeper at the railway station tries to charge me even a single penny more I ask them for a bill if they don’t give me the bill I simply sue them.

I even complained to the police when someone asked ₹20 bribe from me after they gave me a rabies vaccine ( a puppy in my village scratched my hand, and I took one dose of vaccine in GMCH Bettiah a year ago ) that was meant to be free.

Now in this case what I did was wrong, my wrong doings were motivated by my past experiences I come from a middle-class family and I try to save money wherever possible. Yet what I did doesn’t justify my actions, what I did was wrong.

Now, the TTE has a long reputation for taking bribes and yes I also contributed to that. If I had gotten more time then I would have made a video of them. I even didn’t see their names.

Frankly speaking, they came to the general compartment to get a bribe, as they only offered me to pay ₹200 instead of ₹450.

Well right or wrong, good or bad. This was an experience and I love having new experiences.

Thanks for reading.

This is Navneet signing off from today’s blog.

Peace 🕊️

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