Line-up Blues

Lining up for anything is an unknown concept here! People just crowd around counters and push their way forward, or try to pass their money to the agent (usually from over your shoulder). As some of you may know, I have a particular affinity for orderliness and fairness. You can well imagine my reaction to the inability of people to follow simple rules.

We went to the train station today to book tickets for one portion of our trip to Goa. First you have to find the right counter. There are two and they are at opposite ends of the station. Of course we went to the wrong end but they kind of vaguely wave in the right direction and expect you to find your way. Once you find the right set of counters, you first have to get a form from one counter, fill it out with all the details of your trip, not just name, date and destination, but train number and type and a bunch of other stuff that you don’t know, then you go to another window and make your reservation.

As I approached the first window and started to talk to the agent, someone said “excuse me”, got in front of me and started to buy his ticket, and the ticket agent actually served him first! Well, I had to take a deep breath and pressed on, but this time I kept my elbows firmly on the counter and brought my face directly in front of the window so nobody could edge their way in. As I was talking to the agent, other people were actually trying to push their hands and money in between me and the guy next to me and get the agent’s attention. So I squeezed firmly against the guy next to me, leaving no gap for anyone else while at the same time keeping a strong hold of the counter and window! Some people were trying to get forms, so I promptly removed the stack of forms from in front of the agent and placed them away from the counter and said to everyone “If you want forms, get them here, don’t push through me.” That helped a little, but not too much.

Having filled out the form, I went over to the reservation counter, where people were sort of lined up against the length of the counter instead of in front of it. No matter, I found a spot in the line to wait and made sure I was almost touching the guy in front of me. Good thing too because several people walked by and tried to squeeze into the line. When they got near me, I gave them a dirty look and pointed to the end of the line. Not that they really cared, they just found another “line” to squeeze into.

The ticket agent told me there was a waiting list for the train we wanted, and when I asked what happens if we show up and there are no seats, she said calmly that you have to cancel your ticket and wait for the next train, which will not be for another 2 days! She was starting to book the waiting-list tickets when I asked her if there was maybe another train that had space. Then she said there was and it had seats available and would I like that one instead! Well let me think about it – YES!

I finally managed to buy our tickets and we got out of there. It is quite frustrating, but you just have to laugh about it because “this is India”. There has to come a time when the Indian people themselves will say enough and start to make some changes. Until that time, we are all just some crazy foreigners with weird ideas like line-ups and customer service, which is a topic for another day!

NM