The Train Tickets and the Indian Mindset

The news that a 44-year-old woman, caught for travelling ticket-less,  chose to go to jail for seven days instead of paying a fine of Rs.260, saying the authorities should first arrest and recover the loan dues from liquor baron Vijay Mallya  opened up the Pandora's box of stored events in my memory.

Ticket evading  is an innate Indian mindset. It satisfies the psyche of a person with a  win win situation when he has to endure a lot of hardship travelling in cattle class in Indian trains. 

It happened in the eighties when my husband  was staying in Paris with his friends for a few days.  On the first  day as they travelled in the metro my husband bought a single ticket to ‘Gare du Nord’, While a friend travelling with him did not buy a ticket.

"Can you buy a season ticket in Paris Metro?"

" Yes..... yes.... very much." he giggled.

As they  alighted from the train his friend asked him to go ahead and put the ticket in the turnstile gate. The machine right earnestly swallowed it letting the gate open for him. But his friend’s ticket was different. A thread was tied to the ticket and a slight insertion to the turnstile opened letting him out and as he came out he pulled out the ticket using the thread. Coming out he giggled again and explained to him his smart method of travelling free with just one ticket bought long ...long ago!!

"How much of wealth the French had swindled from our mother India? This little effort from our side is  just a measly compensation!!

But in this digital age the systems have become smarter making no allowance for this hanky-panky business!

The next one is even more hilarious!

When Lalu Prasad Yadav was the railway minister a whole gang of people from Bihar travelled ticketless to Kanyakumari, the Southernmost  tip of India informing  the  ticket checking officials that why they should buy tickets when their 'saheb' is the lord and master of the Indian Railway?!!

The audacity and the justification....!!

My mother used to tell this funny (not so funny then) incident in her life. It should have happened in the early 1920s when she was five or six years old and when travelling by train was new and paying for travelling was alien to the bullock cart travelling mind. The bullock cart from the village dropped my mother and a few of her sibling along with their uncle and aunt  at the railway station at Kumbakonam. Her uncle  was taking his sister's children  to his place and it was their first travel by  train. At the station my uncle asked my mother to remove her skirt and blouse......! My mother looked at him in amazement asking for an explanation....... "You need not buy a ticket if you are not wearing anything my dear girl." he said matter of fact.

"In that case" my mother said "buy me a ticket."

Her uncle couldn't comprehend this answer. He thought that this little girl should be joking. If removing the dress implied a free travel you can as well do it in this hot climate. However much her uncle and aunt tried to convince her with a good example from their own child of the same age, this adamant little one would not budge.

 Why waste money on a ticket? If only  this little girl could cooperate  the savings could be put to better use.

His persuasion  and enticement with matinee show at Prabath theatre at Trichy couldn't help out the situation. As a last resort her uncle aunt planned a ruse through their eye contact. All of a sudden the girl felt sudden grip of her body by her uncle while her aunt was trying to undo the knots of her skirt This unexpected double assault  was too much on the puny girl and holding her skirt tight she took off like 100 meter  runner all the while  yelling at the top of her voice. The inquisitive  crowd at the station had gathered to find out what was happening......!

This unwanted attention was too much on the uncle and at the end he had no other way but to buy a half ticket for her!!

In the Mumbai where Ms. Premlatha Bansali raised her protest against a high flying(hiding!) entrepreneur in the most novel way, thousands of passengers were patronising  a newly started of venture by  tiny entrepreneurs  with their tiny contribution!! The story goes like this:

It was indeed a far more popular insurance scheme of the early 1980s.Launched by a small band of entrepreneurs from Borivali. The scheme was specifically targeted at the Western Railway commuters . A model of simplicity, it owed its success to a rather unique interpretation of the principles of checks and balances, where checks meant the rare ticket checking operation conducted by harried and over worked TTEs and balances referred to the growing sums in the entrepreneurs' bank balances.

The scheme worked like this: you went to one of the company’s numerous agents (helpfully located near every suburban station) and registered yourself as a bona fide policy holder by filling in a  form and forking out 10 rupees towards annual premium. No proof of residence, age certificates or medical examination- all they wanted was a simple declaration of name and address and Rs.10 towards annual premium. You were immediately issued a small card with your name and policy number on it duly authenticated by the company agent. And with this all your commuting expenses are over.

Because thereafter you can travel for a year in second class without having to purchase a ticket. In the unlikely and unfortunate event of your falling prey to a TTE during this period all you had to do was to pay the fine (which was if memory serves right  double the maximum fare) for the ticket. Now all you have to do is to take the receipt issued by the TTE along with your little insurance policy card to the agent and lo and behold the entire fine amount was reimbursed to you on the spot, usually with a lecture on how to avoid TTEs in future. The agent also noted the event on your card before returning it to you, for the policy allowed a maximum of three such claims during the year. This was a perfectly reasonable caveat considering the chronic paucity of  TTE staff and the  above average artfulness of the average Mumbai commuter in dodging the TTEs.

To say that the scheme was widely popular would be an understatement. Within few months of its launching several lakhs of hardened commuters had purchased policies.

I recall the remarks of a colleague who had thoughtfully taken out policies to cover his entire extended family from grand uncle to  numerous toddlers against TTE risk. “Travelling has never been so pleasant” he said cheerfully “People are more relaxed; they smile more and quarrel less. All thanks to the insurance scheme- indeed today there must be more policy owners than season ticket holders in the trains.”

Alas like all devious projects devised for happiness and benefit the common citizenry, this wonderful enterprise was cut short in it’s prime by a callous government official. There were conflicting reports as to how the end came. According to my colleague the fault lay with an Anderi bound commuter. Challenged by a TTE, this worthy declared in ringing tones that he possessed neither ticket nor cash with which to pay the fine; whereupon the TTE threatened him with brief sojourn in the railway police lock up Instead of quietly acquiescing in the interest of common good (a nap in the lock up would have done him some good), my colleague said bitterly, the infuriated gentleman produced his insurance card and taunted the TTE with it.

Confessions led  to the operating agents and the police eventually moved on to the headquarters (a small rented room). They found records indicating that over Rs.50 lakhs had been invested with the company by it’s happy clientele. A pall of gloom descended upon the great city with the company’s dissolution ; for it marked the end of a true fine insurance scheme, in every sense of the word!!