Went there third time...fastest and quickest trip
went there in 2007 just befor joining college, 2009 just before leaving at and this time when things are in a kind of limbo
will this be time for a new beginning?
I found an excuse - coming back to office just like last time not to tonsure head...
few things stand
1. kindness of fellow passengers in Bus.
2. importance of asking people than shouldering all responsibility -wasted one hour but did not call brother of raghav
3. take advice from people - asked satya about sheeghra darshan ticket and it helped
4. use of polythene by the TTD to give prasadam..can't it be stopped
5. very rude attendants inside who actually push people
6.as pointed by Raghav's uncle and felt by me and specially papa on all occasions sore lack of sign boards in Hindi and English
7. indian love for eating..even in queue people were devouring on pop corn, biscuits and tea
8.Every pilgrim place I have gone to , I have run into middle class Gujartis, are then Japanese of India tourism minus camera
8.A news piece about place being Buddhist monastery and thus custom of shaving
9. noticed a sculpture of man and woman giving each other oral sex in sanctum
10. all gold platings are very clearly extrapolations
11. VIP tickets and acco continue a sore thing
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Suggestions for indian railway
recently came across this site where they are asking public suggestion.
went to the online forum and some of the suggestions are very good.
thought it would be great to compile them at single place for use of everyone.
• Facility also given to the Waitlisted passengers to opt for Tatkal scheme without cancelling the waitlisted ticket or option to be given at the time of booking for upgrading to Tatkal Scheme through online use without approach the counter or re booking online
• THE TRAIN RUNNING INFORMATION THROUGH INDIANRAIL.GOV.IN SHOULD GIVE MORE ACCURATE TIME AND DATA UPDATION SHOUD BE MORE FREQUENT.IF POSSIBLE IT SHOULD GIVE THE REAL TIME STATUS OF THE RUNNING TRAIN.IT WILL NOT ONLY SAVE TIME AND MONEY OF THE CUSTOMER BUT ALSO PLAN ACCORDINGLY AND ALSO AVOID UNNECESSARY CROWDNESS AT THE STATION.SIMILARY TELEPHONE ENQUIRY SYSTEM 139 SHOUD PROVIDE REAL TIME RUNNING STATUS OF THE TRAIN
• it would be very useful to provide total number of berths/seats in each class of a train under all the quotas seperately to help persons making reservations through internet decide optimally. e.g. if we enquire for train no. 2901, the result is ::: Gujarat Mail : 1A;2A;3A;SL Total Berths : 30;120;400;700 General Quota : 24;90;260;500 Tatkal Quota : 6;26;120;160 Ladies Quota : 0;2;6;10 Lower Berth Quota - 0;2;4;8 Defence Quota - 0;0;4;10 Special Quota - 2;4;6;14
• irctc should adopt the scheme of cinema or bus booking there is a representation of seat in symbolic form so u can easily find which berth is available or filled .he can choose the berth buy clicking the icon of unreserved seat like in cinema or bus booking online. it will help in making decision . irctc can charge 10 rs for extra charge for getting choice seat it will generate the revenue and increase the satisfaction of passenger. please take this issue seriously it has utmost importance.
• I believe either SMS or printed paper ticket should be considered as option while going for e-ticket. Since everyone uses mobile nowadays and it wont be a problem for people to receive simple text SMS with PNR and seat number, which they can use as replacement for printed paper ticket. Traveller can eihter show one of it to TTR along with identiy proof. It will very much pay way for greener planet.
• Train departure / arrival timing updates on mobile no given during Ticket booking will immensely help the public in managing their timings well . This will not only help public in saving precious time but will avoid avoidable crowds at plateform as well as parkings
• There is immediate need for online tracking of status of complaints lodged with TTE / Coach attendant especially pertaining to Robbey / Theft / drugging the passengers etc on moving train. Current system helps in handing over complaint form to TTE / attendant / RPF personnel but no clarity on actions taken on such complaints
• While reservation tickets can be obtained via internet through IRCTC. The service should also be extended for non-reserved second class tickets including MSTs. It will help a lot of daily/weekly passengers who commute between workplace and residence.
• Most of the LCD TV Screens installed ind most of the stations except MADURAI Rly Station only show adds and other entertainments rather it should display the arrival and departure informations of trains as is being done at MADURAI Station. This will help the hearing impaired disabled persons a lot.
• Internet based reservation tickets booked through IRCTC should print the fares inclusive of IRCTC commissions and bank charges. This will help us to get the total money reimburshed from the employer.
• Ihe Internet based Reservation through IRCTC should have the facility for onward reservations and return journey reservations as available in Booking Counters.
• Internet Booking of the Railway tickes should be encouraged by waving off the commissions and bank charges as the customer has to pay the cyber caffee charges and the railway saves on manpower and stationary.
• Sir, Tickets should have bar code and every TTE and railway coach should have bar code reader. If all these get real time. The time passenger will come he just need to swipe the ticket and it will update the data and provide latest information to the central location. Much more convenient for TTE to allocate seats, better monitoring of usage of railway passes.
• It is requested that all the quotas must be abolished and the bookings must be done on first cum first serve basis. With introduction of other means of transports now i feel this ancient system of quotas is killing the vast revenue opportunities which should otherwise go to railways but is pocketed by corrupt railways officials in allotment of seats en route to passengers who are in dire need of reservations for a hefty sums or to the persons who are nowhere in reservation charts or these seats goes waste denying the rightful opportunities to the bonafide passengers. Else the system of auto up gradation must be applied 3-4 hours before departure and once upgraded the rest of the seats must be opened for auctions by displaying it along with the schedule chart instead of tatkal .this will not only help in additional revenue generation but shall help in economizing and planning of rolling stock
• Planning of the complete route and return booking must be available with IR.Today, we have to book 3-5 different bookings for the same journey which really troubles the consumer.The IR must introduce system so that the consumer can plan his travel from one place to another and return in one go instead of multiple journeys if direct train does not exist
• For people with RAC/Waiting list, please provide 2 facilities. 1. An SMS/E-Mail facility to inform them automatically if their status is confirmed/RAC. 2. The station at which they can expect confirmation if they continue their journey with WL. This would reduce corruption at TTE level. I normally find people lobbying the TTE for sake of seats and few people excercising their money power as well
• each coach should have two talking device installed properly. it should be used by the passengers for getting service related grievances that railway provide on journey. communication should be linked to the srvice center from where railway personal can be instructed accordingly. often getting help from onboard resource person is not easy and one has no option if they do not act
• make arrangement for passanger to take print out of ticket via PNR number from any where like airlines ticket it make esier
• I am a regular user of ticket booking. If we are not able to get a ticket on a specific day for a train, the system should suggest alternative trains available between the two places. This will be very useful to the customers and reduces a lot of time which is spent on querying for each train. This alos reduces load on irctc server
• Tatkal should be opened up in slabs on each of the last 5 days and NOT all at once
• There are two suggestion regarding railway reservation for physically and mentally handicapped persons. 1. Based on the railway concession certificate issued by the authorized medical doctor, a unique number for the disabled person with validity date and concession amount/percentage should be issued by railways. A nominal charge can be collected for the same. 2. This unique number will help the disabled person or the person making reservation for disabled person from embarrassing question and various queries of the booking staff each time when booking the railway ticket. 3. Further, this unique number can be utilized for extending online reservation facility through IRCTC by suitably modifying IRCTC program. 4. This will bring the disabled person more close to the society and bring a confidence in them being treated at par with the common person. 5. This will also help in saving the time of the railways as well as the disabled person. With regards
• Our Company provides the Prepaid Electronic Recharge system to many Telecom Operators in India. On an average there is one such Prepaid topup retailer per 2Sq Km in India. A system/process similar to the Electronic Prepaid topup can be used by Retailers across India to book tickets via the mobile phone for customers. The Customer will then get his PNR via SMS and he can board the train with his PNR & Identification
• We can have the digital display system to know the station and next station arrival time details so that it will alert the passengers travelling in night time
• I am dev i always travel in sleeper class,i always face problem in mobile charging point. Without mobile lots of work keeps on pending.So i request u to give at least 4 mobile charging point in each cabin. I will be very thankful to u
• The loco drivers are being called as PILOT. They should communicate with the passengers through audio methods with the passengers. He should announce the arrival of a particular station 5/10 minutes earlier so that passengers be alert to alight. During night time, when passengers are to get down at stations, they are forced to wake up for hours together.
• When an ordinary ticket purchased at reservation counter do not require us to carry an identity card, an e-ticket holder has to carry one. Impersonation takes place even while buying a ticket from the reservation counter. We are helping railways in reducing the rush at the counter and doing the data entry duties. Further, we are paying extra also. Why we should insist for an identity proof? I think we should dispense with this cumbursome stipulation. Think over it.
• Sir, I am a frequent traveller in 2nd AC , shatabdi, Rajdhani trains in connection with my job. Most of the time my journey terminates at New Delhi or Nizamuddin. Sometime on my way to outside Rly station, I listen that some local train is going to my place Shahdara. But purchasing a ticket from New Delhi to Shahdara at New Delhi or NZM is a nightmare experience. On current booking long queues are there, One who is alone with suitcase in hand hardly can buy a local ticket in 5 minutes. I have never a sucesses in this matter and ultimately I have to take auto which is not a pleasant experience especially in Delhi. Why not Railway give an option at the time of booking of ticket whether local train facility is required and Rs.10 may be charged from him extra. Or allow him to travel in local train upto a distance of 20 KM. (for that ticket is only 4/- now a days) Even otherwise purchasing ticket from current booking at big stations like NDLS, DLI, NZM, GZB, DSA is a big problem
• Sir , can there be small trains which have less than 5 compartments (if we could redeuse the engine size).the rail remains free for a long time and these trains would be very use full for the short runs. I think raliway will again increase its income and popularity if such trains are introduced. i also think that railway could send each such train after every 1/2hour (u r the people to think that) and still these compartments will be crowdy. This also will reduce the fuel intake of our country if the engines are electrical
• THE VALID IDENTITY REQUIREMENTS FOR e-TICKET TRAVELLERS SHOULD INCLUDE SCHOOL/INSTITUTION idS ALSO AS WE SENT OUR CHILDREN BELOW 18 YEARS BY TRAIN UNESCORTED BY ELDERS AND THE TICKET EXAMINER DEMANDS FOR VOTERS ID/PAN CARD/PASSPORT/EMPLOYMENT ID CARD WHICH A MINOR MAY/WILL NOT HAVE
• Railways must have POS machine for Credit/Debit Card swapping so as to reduce cash transactions along with enhance efficiency and safety
• When a fine imposed on a passenger for illegal travel (due to unintentional mistake made by the passenger) or for any other reasons; can the passenger get a Tracking ID for the fine imposed and paid money? Most of the time Passengers are not aware of all rules and regulations. Due to this some dirty employees of Indian Railway takes advantage of it and also don t forget to harass the passengers. The receipt provided by those people can be very much a bogus one. Provision of such Tracking Id after paid the fine will help to track that the money paid by the passenger towards fine is really going to Indian Railway (Government of India) not to those dirty Indian Railway Individual
• Online booking and cancellation of unreserved ticket will help the passengers and Railway a lot to avoid rush on booking counters.Make it conveniet and user friendl
• The napkins supplied in upper class coaches is sometimes horrible to use. Instead why not the railways provide a new napkins with a beautiful logo of railways for the passengers to carry it and charge it in the fare itself. It vll b extremely higenic when we r in constant fear of communicable deseases.
• (1)There should be a special type of seat or birth for a baby in every coach.this time it is terrible to travel in the train with a child baby aged below 6 year for the long journy. (2) in the toilet there is no mug for the wash in sleeper class.should provide a mug. (3)automatic e ticket cancelation should be stoped immediately.we have made the ticket after paying and at the time of departure of the train ,the ticket is canceled without acknowling me.is this the proper way.let if anybody have an emergency then
• All reserved passangers in Sleeper Class may also be provided with the Bed Roll on nominal Charges.A deposit of fixed amount can be taken as secutiy and a Token may be issued to regular passangers who can obtain bed rolls after submitting the token and same can be collected on returning the bed roll.
• When it becomes clear that a train will depart significantly late from its Starting point, the Railway should send SMS to all the passengers who book their ticket electronically. For electronic reservations, Railways can easily keep the Mobile phone no. of the passengers, where the SMS can be send (this is already done in the case of Airlines).
• if we want to file a claim for E tickets on the internet. thre is no way a person can expect a refund with in 90 days..the average time of getting refund is more than 150 days that is beyond the time limit. i have proof which states that my TDR ispending since Jan and Hune and it been over 5 months and nothing has been done. Create or improve the Tdr refund time atleast if you can not improve anything. 2) RAC needs to be withdrawl because person pays full ticket and gets half of the seat and chances of getting a seat is 99.9 per less.
• Lot of manpower, stationary and time are wasted in Railway for preparation, accountal and maintenance of Pass and PTOs for staff and officers. Instead of depending upon age old system of paper made Pass/PTO, a multipurpose electronic Card carrying personal particulars, Pass/PTO account etc. may be issued to each officer/ employee. The PRS software may be upgraded to read data from this Card so that ticket Reservation is made possible against it and automatically, pass/PTO account is updated then and there itself. This will also enable Railway to keep a check on the menace of over use of passes by Railway employees in connivance with Reservation and Ticket checking staff.
• Presently PNRs of travelled tickets are flushed out of the sytem within a short period. Claim settlement by Govt/PSUs depends on submission of original tickets. I-tickets in original are submitted. However e-tickets (whether original or copy) are same and in order to reduce fradulent/false claims, the following changes should be carried out: 1) PNRs of travelled e-tickets should be kept in the system for longer period (say 90 days) 2) Or there should be some technological system to check the travelled tickets
• Kindly introduce the benifit of telescopic fare for e-tickets (booked through online) when the onward journey is by two (connecting)trains. (e.g. direct ticket from Kacheguda to Mangalore cannot be booked online with the benefit of telescopic rates. Instead two separate tickets kacheguda to bangalore and Bangalore to Mangalore are to be booked.)This will increase the online bookings and reduce the rush at the counters, as presently this (telescopic rate benefit)is applicable for the tickets booked through railway reservation counters only
• In India maximum number of population come to Indian railways when it comes to travelling is there any possibility of creating a database of people by giving them an Icard which can be further used as an account card & addition of various bank details can be added further & this can be used for various government purposes like the intiative of Unique Id by Ministry of IT & GOI .This will enhance the further customer data base in order provide various offers to people with high frequency of travelling similiar type of schemes were established in Airlines market to give encouragement to higher frequency of travelling
went to the online forum and some of the suggestions are very good.
thought it would be great to compile them at single place for use of everyone.
• Facility also given to the Waitlisted passengers to opt for Tatkal scheme without cancelling the waitlisted ticket or option to be given at the time of booking for upgrading to Tatkal Scheme through online use without approach the counter or re booking online
• THE TRAIN RUNNING INFORMATION THROUGH INDIANRAIL.GOV.IN SHOULD GIVE MORE ACCURATE TIME AND DATA UPDATION SHOUD BE MORE FREQUENT.IF POSSIBLE IT SHOULD GIVE THE REAL TIME STATUS OF THE RUNNING TRAIN.IT WILL NOT ONLY SAVE TIME AND MONEY OF THE CUSTOMER BUT ALSO PLAN ACCORDINGLY AND ALSO AVOID UNNECESSARY CROWDNESS AT THE STATION.SIMILARY TELEPHONE ENQUIRY SYSTEM 139 SHOUD PROVIDE REAL TIME RUNNING STATUS OF THE TRAIN
• it would be very useful to provide total number of berths/seats in each class of a train under all the quotas seperately to help persons making reservations through internet decide optimally. e.g. if we enquire for train no. 2901, the result is ::: Gujarat Mail : 1A;2A;3A;SL Total Berths : 30;120;400;700 General Quota : 24;90;260;500 Tatkal Quota : 6;26;120;160 Ladies Quota : 0;2;6;10 Lower Berth Quota - 0;2;4;8 Defence Quota - 0;0;4;10 Special Quota - 2;4;6;14
• irctc should adopt the scheme of cinema or bus booking there is a representation of seat in symbolic form so u can easily find which berth is available or filled .he can choose the berth buy clicking the icon of unreserved seat like in cinema or bus booking online. it will help in making decision . irctc can charge 10 rs for extra charge for getting choice seat it will generate the revenue and increase the satisfaction of passenger. please take this issue seriously it has utmost importance.
• I believe either SMS or printed paper ticket should be considered as option while going for e-ticket. Since everyone uses mobile nowadays and it wont be a problem for people to receive simple text SMS with PNR and seat number, which they can use as replacement for printed paper ticket. Traveller can eihter show one of it to TTR along with identiy proof. It will very much pay way for greener planet.
• Train departure / arrival timing updates on mobile no given during Ticket booking will immensely help the public in managing their timings well . This will not only help public in saving precious time but will avoid avoidable crowds at plateform as well as parkings
• There is immediate need for online tracking of status of complaints lodged with TTE / Coach attendant especially pertaining to Robbey / Theft / drugging the passengers etc on moving train. Current system helps in handing over complaint form to TTE / attendant / RPF personnel but no clarity on actions taken on such complaints
• While reservation tickets can be obtained via internet through IRCTC. The service should also be extended for non-reserved second class tickets including MSTs. It will help a lot of daily/weekly passengers who commute between workplace and residence.
• Most of the LCD TV Screens installed ind most of the stations except MADURAI Rly Station only show adds and other entertainments rather it should display the arrival and departure informations of trains as is being done at MADURAI Station. This will help the hearing impaired disabled persons a lot.
• Internet based reservation tickets booked through IRCTC should print the fares inclusive of IRCTC commissions and bank charges. This will help us to get the total money reimburshed from the employer.
• Ihe Internet based Reservation through IRCTC should have the facility for onward reservations and return journey reservations as available in Booking Counters.
• Internet Booking of the Railway tickes should be encouraged by waving off the commissions and bank charges as the customer has to pay the cyber caffee charges and the railway saves on manpower and stationary.
• Sir, Tickets should have bar code and every TTE and railway coach should have bar code reader. If all these get real time. The time passenger will come he just need to swipe the ticket and it will update the data and provide latest information to the central location. Much more convenient for TTE to allocate seats, better monitoring of usage of railway passes.
• It is requested that all the quotas must be abolished and the bookings must be done on first cum first serve basis. With introduction of other means of transports now i feel this ancient system of quotas is killing the vast revenue opportunities which should otherwise go to railways but is pocketed by corrupt railways officials in allotment of seats en route to passengers who are in dire need of reservations for a hefty sums or to the persons who are nowhere in reservation charts or these seats goes waste denying the rightful opportunities to the bonafide passengers. Else the system of auto up gradation must be applied 3-4 hours before departure and once upgraded the rest of the seats must be opened for auctions by displaying it along with the schedule chart instead of tatkal .this will not only help in additional revenue generation but shall help in economizing and planning of rolling stock
• Planning of the complete route and return booking must be available with IR.Today, we have to book 3-5 different bookings for the same journey which really troubles the consumer.The IR must introduce system so that the consumer can plan his travel from one place to another and return in one go instead of multiple journeys if direct train does not exist
• For people with RAC/Waiting list, please provide 2 facilities. 1. An SMS/E-Mail facility to inform them automatically if their status is confirmed/RAC. 2. The station at which they can expect confirmation if they continue their journey with WL. This would reduce corruption at TTE level. I normally find people lobbying the TTE for sake of seats and few people excercising their money power as well
• each coach should have two talking device installed properly. it should be used by the passengers for getting service related grievances that railway provide on journey. communication should be linked to the srvice center from where railway personal can be instructed accordingly. often getting help from onboard resource person is not easy and one has no option if they do not act
• make arrangement for passanger to take print out of ticket via PNR number from any where like airlines ticket it make esier
• I am a regular user of ticket booking. If we are not able to get a ticket on a specific day for a train, the system should suggest alternative trains available between the two places. This will be very useful to the customers and reduces a lot of time which is spent on querying for each train. This alos reduces load on irctc server
• Tatkal should be opened up in slabs on each of the last 5 days and NOT all at once
• There are two suggestion regarding railway reservation for physically and mentally handicapped persons. 1. Based on the railway concession certificate issued by the authorized medical doctor, a unique number for the disabled person with validity date and concession amount/percentage should be issued by railways. A nominal charge can be collected for the same. 2. This unique number will help the disabled person or the person making reservation for disabled person from embarrassing question and various queries of the booking staff each time when booking the railway ticket. 3. Further, this unique number can be utilized for extending online reservation facility through IRCTC by suitably modifying IRCTC program. 4. This will bring the disabled person more close to the society and bring a confidence in them being treated at par with the common person. 5. This will also help in saving the time of the railways as well as the disabled person. With regards
• Our Company provides the Prepaid Electronic Recharge system to many Telecom Operators in India. On an average there is one such Prepaid topup retailer per 2Sq Km in India. A system/process similar to the Electronic Prepaid topup can be used by Retailers across India to book tickets via the mobile phone for customers. The Customer will then get his PNR via SMS and he can board the train with his PNR & Identification
• We can have the digital display system to know the station and next station arrival time details so that it will alert the passengers travelling in night time
• I am dev i always travel in sleeper class,i always face problem in mobile charging point. Without mobile lots of work keeps on pending.So i request u to give at least 4 mobile charging point in each cabin. I will be very thankful to u
• The loco drivers are being called as PILOT. They should communicate with the passengers through audio methods with the passengers. He should announce the arrival of a particular station 5/10 minutes earlier so that passengers be alert to alight. During night time, when passengers are to get down at stations, they are forced to wake up for hours together.
• When an ordinary ticket purchased at reservation counter do not require us to carry an identity card, an e-ticket holder has to carry one. Impersonation takes place even while buying a ticket from the reservation counter. We are helping railways in reducing the rush at the counter and doing the data entry duties. Further, we are paying extra also. Why we should insist for an identity proof? I think we should dispense with this cumbursome stipulation. Think over it.
• Sir, I am a frequent traveller in 2nd AC , shatabdi, Rajdhani trains in connection with my job. Most of the time my journey terminates at New Delhi or Nizamuddin. Sometime on my way to outside Rly station, I listen that some local train is going to my place Shahdara. But purchasing a ticket from New Delhi to Shahdara at New Delhi or NZM is a nightmare experience. On current booking long queues are there, One who is alone with suitcase in hand hardly can buy a local ticket in 5 minutes. I have never a sucesses in this matter and ultimately I have to take auto which is not a pleasant experience especially in Delhi. Why not Railway give an option at the time of booking of ticket whether local train facility is required and Rs.10 may be charged from him extra. Or allow him to travel in local train upto a distance of 20 KM. (for that ticket is only 4/- now a days) Even otherwise purchasing ticket from current booking at big stations like NDLS, DLI, NZM, GZB, DSA is a big problem
• Sir , can there be small trains which have less than 5 compartments (if we could redeuse the engine size).the rail remains free for a long time and these trains would be very use full for the short runs. I think raliway will again increase its income and popularity if such trains are introduced. i also think that railway could send each such train after every 1/2hour (u r the people to think that) and still these compartments will be crowdy. This also will reduce the fuel intake of our country if the engines are electrical
• THE VALID IDENTITY REQUIREMENTS FOR e-TICKET TRAVELLERS SHOULD INCLUDE SCHOOL/INSTITUTION idS ALSO AS WE SENT OUR CHILDREN BELOW 18 YEARS BY TRAIN UNESCORTED BY ELDERS AND THE TICKET EXAMINER DEMANDS FOR VOTERS ID/PAN CARD/PASSPORT/EMPLOYMENT ID CARD WHICH A MINOR MAY/WILL NOT HAVE
• Railways must have POS machine for Credit/Debit Card swapping so as to reduce cash transactions along with enhance efficiency and safety
• When a fine imposed on a passenger for illegal travel (due to unintentional mistake made by the passenger) or for any other reasons; can the passenger get a Tracking ID for the fine imposed and paid money? Most of the time Passengers are not aware of all rules and regulations. Due to this some dirty employees of Indian Railway takes advantage of it and also don t forget to harass the passengers. The receipt provided by those people can be very much a bogus one. Provision of such Tracking Id after paid the fine will help to track that the money paid by the passenger towards fine is really going to Indian Railway (Government of India) not to those dirty Indian Railway Individual
• Online booking and cancellation of unreserved ticket will help the passengers and Railway a lot to avoid rush on booking counters.Make it conveniet and user friendl
• The napkins supplied in upper class coaches is sometimes horrible to use. Instead why not the railways provide a new napkins with a beautiful logo of railways for the passengers to carry it and charge it in the fare itself. It vll b extremely higenic when we r in constant fear of communicable deseases.
• (1)There should be a special type of seat or birth for a baby in every coach.this time it is terrible to travel in the train with a child baby aged below 6 year for the long journy. (2) in the toilet there is no mug for the wash in sleeper class.should provide a mug. (3)automatic e ticket cancelation should be stoped immediately.we have made the ticket after paying and at the time of departure of the train ,the ticket is canceled without acknowling me.is this the proper way.let if anybody have an emergency then
• All reserved passangers in Sleeper Class may also be provided with the Bed Roll on nominal Charges.A deposit of fixed amount can be taken as secutiy and a Token may be issued to regular passangers who can obtain bed rolls after submitting the token and same can be collected on returning the bed roll.
• When it becomes clear that a train will depart significantly late from its Starting point, the Railway should send SMS to all the passengers who book their ticket electronically. For electronic reservations, Railways can easily keep the Mobile phone no. of the passengers, where the SMS can be send (this is already done in the case of Airlines).
• if we want to file a claim for E tickets on the internet. thre is no way a person can expect a refund with in 90 days..the average time of getting refund is more than 150 days that is beyond the time limit. i have proof which states that my TDR ispending since Jan and Hune and it been over 5 months and nothing has been done. Create or improve the Tdr refund time atleast if you can not improve anything. 2) RAC needs to be withdrawl because person pays full ticket and gets half of the seat and chances of getting a seat is 99.9 per less.
• Lot of manpower, stationary and time are wasted in Railway for preparation, accountal and maintenance of Pass and PTOs for staff and officers. Instead of depending upon age old system of paper made Pass/PTO, a multipurpose electronic Card carrying personal particulars, Pass/PTO account etc. may be issued to each officer/ employee. The PRS software may be upgraded to read data from this Card so that ticket Reservation is made possible against it and automatically, pass/PTO account is updated then and there itself. This will also enable Railway to keep a check on the menace of over use of passes by Railway employees in connivance with Reservation and Ticket checking staff.
• Presently PNRs of travelled tickets are flushed out of the sytem within a short period. Claim settlement by Govt/PSUs depends on submission of original tickets. I-tickets in original are submitted. However e-tickets (whether original or copy) are same and in order to reduce fradulent/false claims, the following changes should be carried out: 1) PNRs of travelled e-tickets should be kept in the system for longer period (say 90 days) 2) Or there should be some technological system to check the travelled tickets
• Kindly introduce the benifit of telescopic fare for e-tickets (booked through online) when the onward journey is by two (connecting)trains. (e.g. direct ticket from Kacheguda to Mangalore cannot be booked online with the benefit of telescopic rates. Instead two separate tickets kacheguda to bangalore and Bangalore to Mangalore are to be booked.)This will increase the online bookings and reduce the rush at the counters, as presently this (telescopic rate benefit)is applicable for the tickets booked through railway reservation counters only
• In India maximum number of population come to Indian railways when it comes to travelling is there any possibility of creating a database of people by giving them an Icard which can be further used as an account card & addition of various bank details can be added further & this can be used for various government purposes like the intiative of Unique Id by Ministry of IT & GOI .This will enhance the further customer data base in order provide various offers to people with high frequency of travelling similiar type of schemes were established in Airlines market to give encouragement to higher frequency of travelling
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Chandigarh trip
It happens very rarely in life that you here any good things about a place and place lives up to your expectations or even exceeds it. Chandigarh would be one such place. Anything which comes close to Chandigarh in being a planned city and a pleasure to live and commute is Mysore but once again it has been hurt by usual land sharks and it still has small town feeling with no disco, mall or multiplex but Chandigarh offers best of both worlds. An immaculately well planned city, where even an outsider can easily make sense of directions and roads, sector wise shopping arena making life easier for shopkeepers and shop goers alike, absence of urban poverty or at least not in its visible form, roads lined with trees , lots of green space, wide roads …. What else can one ask for in urban india?
Public transport is scant though but welcomes change over gurgaon or noida or Delhi was people were less pretentious and there was healthy number of two wheelers on road. even auto wallas charged reasonable fares and I must say girls of Chandigarh have a completely justified reputation. It seemed as if you are among so called apsaras of heaven. Right from my receptionist, to lady on counter, to someone driving on road you could find both decent and naughty looks.
One interesting sight was a couple sitting on bench and doing hanky panky just near police beat box. I am note sure if they were aware of what they were doing and what was the place and as expected a policeman came and slapped guy hard. Rock garden is a refugee to love torn couples as well .There one could see married couples seeking some privacy, college or school going students bunking classes and looking for corners to some hanky panky. One such couple was carrying book of engineering drawing which I followed in my IIT first years as well and it suddenly struck me that what was I doing in that age apart from exchanging mails with prerna.
Now at wrong side of 20 what I can do apart from observing things and ruminating.
But even after planning there are some obvious eye sores e.g. planning and deciding areas for commercial activities is good but all buildings look alike .I do not know if this is by default or design.
Traffic islands don’t have carefully maintained lawns like in west but yes there are rickshaw lanes but still safety of pedestrians take a back seat.
Ubiquitous gajar ghaas can be seen populating these traffic islands as well as sprouting in rock garden , major part of which is closed but still it is a place worth visiting and so is the sukhna lake.
Overall a nice trip will love to have a chance to work in this city for longer times as this was first time in my life that heavy rain did not create any problems ( it always creates if I am in indore, KGP, Mumbai, Bangalore or gurgaon)
Public transport is scant though but welcomes change over gurgaon or noida or Delhi was people were less pretentious and there was healthy number of two wheelers on road. even auto wallas charged reasonable fares and I must say girls of Chandigarh have a completely justified reputation. It seemed as if you are among so called apsaras of heaven. Right from my receptionist, to lady on counter, to someone driving on road you could find both decent and naughty looks.
One interesting sight was a couple sitting on bench and doing hanky panky just near police beat box. I am note sure if they were aware of what they were doing and what was the place and as expected a policeman came and slapped guy hard. Rock garden is a refugee to love torn couples as well .There one could see married couples seeking some privacy, college or school going students bunking classes and looking for corners to some hanky panky. One such couple was carrying book of engineering drawing which I followed in my IIT first years as well and it suddenly struck me that what was I doing in that age apart from exchanging mails with prerna.
Now at wrong side of 20 what I can do apart from observing things and ruminating.
But even after planning there are some obvious eye sores e.g. planning and deciding areas for commercial activities is good but all buildings look alike .I do not know if this is by default or design.
Traffic islands don’t have carefully maintained lawns like in west but yes there are rickshaw lanes but still safety of pedestrians take a back seat.
Ubiquitous gajar ghaas can be seen populating these traffic islands as well as sprouting in rock garden , major part of which is closed but still it is a place worth visiting and so is the sukhna lake.
Overall a nice trip will love to have a chance to work in this city for longer times as this was first time in my life that heavy rain did not create any problems ( it always creates if I am in indore, KGP, Mumbai, Bangalore or gurgaon)
Saturday, December 27, 2008
singapora !!
“However fool be a person who has travelled is better than the fool who has been kept at home”
Departure
Though I have widely travelled in various corners of India, both to big and small places and this was my first visit abroad.
India is in transition and clearly we have to bear some pains for this, so we reached airport 3 hours before scheduled departure. Recent terrorist attacks meant that security checks were multiple and cumbersome. A faulty PPP agreement which resulted scaling down of project later meant that airport has less number of aerobridges and flying on a low cost flight we could not get any.
India Airlines played to its reputation with grumpy cabin crew and horrible food.
When plane was about to touch shore of Singapore one could see vast gold course from air. I wondered if Singapore is a golf loving nation, it was only later I came to know that being a small island they have to plan and manage everything efficiently in a small space.
Arrival
Procedures at Singapore airport were fast and one could clearly see the cost that terrorism imposes on us. While taking a SIM, or Metro pass or going to any other place no unnecessarily security checks and whenever there were they were swift without inconveniencing passenger. People who think that terrorism does not affect them should rethink, because its indirect cost on economy in increased security and consequent decrease in productivity are enormous.
One does not face touts and aggressive taxi drivers as is common at all Indian airports. Immigration procedures are fast and one can get detailed map as per one’s requirement – tourism, official, any other at airport itself. This is something we can do in India without costing much and without needing a systematic rehaul. At Delhi I once did find once such map but its scale was so big to make it useless for pedestrian travel in city.
Roads were fairly empty because of Sunday and one could see an occasional jogger or cyclist on the side of road on the tracks meant for same, a sight difficult to find in India as unplanned construction makes it impossible to make any such civic amenities and to protect it from encroachers for long is even more difficult.
Orderliness in traffic also stems from uniformity of vehicles. Even heavy vehicles seem to follow a pattern not like India where vehicles with all shapes and sizes ply on road merrily and make traffic management difficult lane as well as speed wise.
Stay
Next stop was YMCA hotel. It was a surprise much better and cleaner than Mumbai YMCA which I had stayed just a couple of months ago. It can be country difference I guess.
Travel, stay next comes food. No army can march empty stomach so we reached to place next to us i.e. Singapore Plaza (one of the largest mall in Singapore). One was spoilt for choice but alas nothing for vegetarians beyond fired rice (it is a different matter that we discovered a SUBWAY joint at same place later. SUBWAY came to our rescue at many places and my friends in Malaysia & Dubai also vouched for it. Kudos to SUBWAY).
Little India
But by evening we had discovered Little India and that was a discovery. The place lives to its name though we soon discovered that little dark skinned men roaming streets are not south Indians but Bangladeshis. This place is ‘Little India’ in true sense. Traffic works in Indian style, no Singapore orderliness. Shops blare out music and are garishly painted. Mustafa occupied pride of the place and a central attraction like this can always be used to develop stand alone tourist attractions.
MRTS
A word about MRTS system will not be out of place here. Basically I want to praise Delhi Metro here for being something in India which is pretty close to its developed country counterparts in various respects. Announcements in train going to little India were also in Tamil. A welcome relief that this city does not hate its multilinguism after facing horrible discrimination against non local languages in Karnataka and Maharashtra.
Fooling around
Getting food near office was surprisingly not that difficult. One could go to this ‘Kaya Toast’ outlet for breakfast. There was Mosburger store which served nice vegan burgers also and then there was this large ‘Kopi tram’ ( Malay for ‘food court’) which had cuisines of almost all south east Asian countries with their respective aromas present. The vegetarian join which we frequented was something should be copied in India. This fellow had rice/noodles of various kinds as base and then offered vegetarian dishes as per your liking as topping with drinks. Due to standardization operation was efficient and inventory manageable. Later I found such joints in various food courts across Singapore so it does make a viable business proposition.
Street market at Tao Paoh MRT ( near our office) was another site. It had preserved old buildings but this did not mean a clutter on roads or inconvenience to passengers. Heritage market need not be crowded. Public library near MRT was another worthy thing to emulate. We visited only on our last day but as our guide told us there are such libraries in every sector, they are updated frequently, automated book renewal, issue and return system works to perfection.
“FINE” country
Respect for law and orderliness in public life was apparent as how everyone from old to young, rich to poor followed traffic rules religiously. But there is another secret behind it as our guide explained that why Singapore is known as “fine” county. There are heavy fines for some thousand crimes what constitute an unacceptable public behavior like spitting, eating in MRT, not flushing public toilets, smoking in no smoking areas and jumping the light. A detailed national identity card number system means you will get fine details no matter where the crime was committed at your home or office and there are no exceptions to rule. No one is any minister, bureaucrat or cop’s brother or friend.
Shopping and excursions
On our first weekend I had an opportunity to go to Singapore Expo centre for CFA exam and one needs to see the scale to believe it. It is an exhibition cum convention sector and huge air conditioned halls without a supporting pillar has been created. This CFA exam also reinforced the idea that this century is India. More than 90% participants were India, more so because it is banned in India. Imagine the kind of money Singapore economy is making because of judicial delays and red tape in higher education in India.
Mention of mall at City MRT will not be out of place here which consists of shops as one comes out of MRT towards main road. Compare this with shops we have at local stations in Mumbai and one can say that no space is small if judiciously used. China Street and Bougies street had some good bargains and foreigners were obviously amazed at handicraft items. Being an Indian we were not that crazy and were always looking for a good bargain which we found also but at last a visit to Mustafa was to be made much against our earlier insistence that we will not go for Indian style shopping here. Mustafa was also offering best currency exchange rates so clearly a textbook example of economies of scale.
INA Memorial & Sea Front
I had read somewhere about INA memorial in Singapore but none of the tourism brochures mentioned it and when I reached there near esplanade I discovered the reason why. Though just in front of Singapore parliament and near high court and occupying same premises as their own national martyr monument ‘Cenotaph’ it was dimly lit and no one seemed to bother about it. For that matter their own national memorial was also not in a better condition. Some obviously drunk men were chatting at its footsteps. No wonder why everywhere one sees huge ads of join Singapore army as with march of progress bonds of nationalism do weaken more so in city state which is a cultural melting pot and without a history that goes very long.
But sea front has been developed in a nice venue for dance and drama. There was a group performing Christmas songs on sea front and in adjoining esplanade concert and drams were going on. Backdrop of sea ensured relief from suffocating humid tropical environment and a great view also. Why cannot we do similar thing in Mumbai or Calcutta is really puzzling. Any new reclaimed land in Mumbai has to be filled by skyscrapers without paying attention to cultural needs of city.
A walk across Orchard road, main Commercial Street of Singapore showed why this nations is called prosperous. It seems eating out and shopping are the two main occupations of residents and one can see both places filled at all times of day throughout week. Weakened Indian rupee meant that there was not arbitrage in electronic items even in specialized mall recommended on tourist websites but at least one could take pride that SP road in Bangalore also offers similar variety though without gleam and sheen
Sentosa la la la
Last day was reserved for Sentosa Island and it lived to its reputation of priced high and nothing really to see. Children might enjoy it but for grownups Dolphin show, underwater & Songs of the sea laser show was only attraction. Beaches were very poor and 4D movie was a marginal improvement over what one gets to see in India. I think wonderla in Bangalore gives a better value for money. After every attraction exit was via a shopping space – so they do not want to leave a single opportunity to entice tourists. There was picture and live images show of Singapore’s history (officially sanitized – no bad points or turbulence was shown). All four races i.e. Malay, Chinese, Indian and European were represented. Underwater world was upto expectations but Laser show deserves to be mentioned. Laser show with backdrop of sea menat no background issue and calm see solved problem of wind to large extent. It could be combined with gas fires and fountains as sea water is readily available – real crafty people. Scarcity of space means that one can see container ships being loaded and cranes hauling them while commuting in buses at the island.
Physically all Singapore residents seem to be fit and reason in apart could be their protein rich fibrous diet free of oil and fats. In fact at one of the MRT subways there was large space and as against India or west where all kind of unsocial elements will come and occupy it there were young boys and girls practicing every imaginable kind of dance routine, acrobatics and skating.
Arrival
Once again an early morning flight with some initial apprehensions about luggage exceeding limit (almost everyone had done extensive shopping , more so because all of us had liquidity due to receipt of stipend in the end), and failed link at Indian airlines counter for more than an hour we finally arrived safe and sound in motherland once again in company of even more grumpier cabin crew ( these time two middle aged gentleman)
Departure
Though I have widely travelled in various corners of India, both to big and small places and this was my first visit abroad.
India is in transition and clearly we have to bear some pains for this, so we reached airport 3 hours before scheduled departure. Recent terrorist attacks meant that security checks were multiple and cumbersome. A faulty PPP agreement which resulted scaling down of project later meant that airport has less number of aerobridges and flying on a low cost flight we could not get any.
India Airlines played to its reputation with grumpy cabin crew and horrible food.
When plane was about to touch shore of Singapore one could see vast gold course from air. I wondered if Singapore is a golf loving nation, it was only later I came to know that being a small island they have to plan and manage everything efficiently in a small space.
Arrival
Procedures at Singapore airport were fast and one could clearly see the cost that terrorism imposes on us. While taking a SIM, or Metro pass or going to any other place no unnecessarily security checks and whenever there were they were swift without inconveniencing passenger. People who think that terrorism does not affect them should rethink, because its indirect cost on economy in increased security and consequent decrease in productivity are enormous.
One does not face touts and aggressive taxi drivers as is common at all Indian airports. Immigration procedures are fast and one can get detailed map as per one’s requirement – tourism, official, any other at airport itself. This is something we can do in India without costing much and without needing a systematic rehaul. At Delhi I once did find once such map but its scale was so big to make it useless for pedestrian travel in city.
Roads were fairly empty because of Sunday and one could see an occasional jogger or cyclist on the side of road on the tracks meant for same, a sight difficult to find in India as unplanned construction makes it impossible to make any such civic amenities and to protect it from encroachers for long is even more difficult.
Orderliness in traffic also stems from uniformity of vehicles. Even heavy vehicles seem to follow a pattern not like India where vehicles with all shapes and sizes ply on road merrily and make traffic management difficult lane as well as speed wise.
Stay
Next stop was YMCA hotel. It was a surprise much better and cleaner than Mumbai YMCA which I had stayed just a couple of months ago. It can be country difference I guess.
Travel, stay next comes food. No army can march empty stomach so we reached to place next to us i.e. Singapore Plaza (one of the largest mall in Singapore). One was spoilt for choice but alas nothing for vegetarians beyond fired rice (it is a different matter that we discovered a SUBWAY joint at same place later. SUBWAY came to our rescue at many places and my friends in Malaysia & Dubai also vouched for it. Kudos to SUBWAY).
Little India
But by evening we had discovered Little India and that was a discovery. The place lives to its name though we soon discovered that little dark skinned men roaming streets are not south Indians but Bangladeshis. This place is ‘Little India’ in true sense. Traffic works in Indian style, no Singapore orderliness. Shops blare out music and are garishly painted. Mustafa occupied pride of the place and a central attraction like this can always be used to develop stand alone tourist attractions.
MRTS
A word about MRTS system will not be out of place here. Basically I want to praise Delhi Metro here for being something in India which is pretty close to its developed country counterparts in various respects. Announcements in train going to little India were also in Tamil. A welcome relief that this city does not hate its multilinguism after facing horrible discrimination against non local languages in Karnataka and Maharashtra.
Fooling around
Getting food near office was surprisingly not that difficult. One could go to this ‘Kaya Toast’ outlet for breakfast. There was Mosburger store which served nice vegan burgers also and then there was this large ‘Kopi tram’ ( Malay for ‘food court’) which had cuisines of almost all south east Asian countries with their respective aromas present. The vegetarian join which we frequented was something should be copied in India. This fellow had rice/noodles of various kinds as base and then offered vegetarian dishes as per your liking as topping with drinks. Due to standardization operation was efficient and inventory manageable. Later I found such joints in various food courts across Singapore so it does make a viable business proposition.
Street market at Tao Paoh MRT ( near our office) was another site. It had preserved old buildings but this did not mean a clutter on roads or inconvenience to passengers. Heritage market need not be crowded. Public library near MRT was another worthy thing to emulate. We visited only on our last day but as our guide told us there are such libraries in every sector, they are updated frequently, automated book renewal, issue and return system works to perfection.
“FINE” country
Respect for law and orderliness in public life was apparent as how everyone from old to young, rich to poor followed traffic rules religiously. But there is another secret behind it as our guide explained that why Singapore is known as “fine” county. There are heavy fines for some thousand crimes what constitute an unacceptable public behavior like spitting, eating in MRT, not flushing public toilets, smoking in no smoking areas and jumping the light. A detailed national identity card number system means you will get fine details no matter where the crime was committed at your home or office and there are no exceptions to rule. No one is any minister, bureaucrat or cop’s brother or friend.
Shopping and excursions
On our first weekend I had an opportunity to go to Singapore Expo centre for CFA exam and one needs to see the scale to believe it. It is an exhibition cum convention sector and huge air conditioned halls without a supporting pillar has been created. This CFA exam also reinforced the idea that this century is India. More than 90% participants were India, more so because it is banned in India. Imagine the kind of money Singapore economy is making because of judicial delays and red tape in higher education in India.
Mention of mall at City MRT will not be out of place here which consists of shops as one comes out of MRT towards main road. Compare this with shops we have at local stations in Mumbai and one can say that no space is small if judiciously used. China Street and Bougies street had some good bargains and foreigners were obviously amazed at handicraft items. Being an Indian we were not that crazy and were always looking for a good bargain which we found also but at last a visit to Mustafa was to be made much against our earlier insistence that we will not go for Indian style shopping here. Mustafa was also offering best currency exchange rates so clearly a textbook example of economies of scale.
INA Memorial & Sea Front
I had read somewhere about INA memorial in Singapore but none of the tourism brochures mentioned it and when I reached there near esplanade I discovered the reason why. Though just in front of Singapore parliament and near high court and occupying same premises as their own national martyr monument ‘Cenotaph’ it was dimly lit and no one seemed to bother about it. For that matter their own national memorial was also not in a better condition. Some obviously drunk men were chatting at its footsteps. No wonder why everywhere one sees huge ads of join Singapore army as with march of progress bonds of nationalism do weaken more so in city state which is a cultural melting pot and without a history that goes very long.
But sea front has been developed in a nice venue for dance and drama. There was a group performing Christmas songs on sea front and in adjoining esplanade concert and drams were going on. Backdrop of sea ensured relief from suffocating humid tropical environment and a great view also. Why cannot we do similar thing in Mumbai or Calcutta is really puzzling. Any new reclaimed land in Mumbai has to be filled by skyscrapers without paying attention to cultural needs of city.
A walk across Orchard road, main Commercial Street of Singapore showed why this nations is called prosperous. It seems eating out and shopping are the two main occupations of residents and one can see both places filled at all times of day throughout week. Weakened Indian rupee meant that there was not arbitrage in electronic items even in specialized mall recommended on tourist websites but at least one could take pride that SP road in Bangalore also offers similar variety though without gleam and sheen
Sentosa la la la
Last day was reserved for Sentosa Island and it lived to its reputation of priced high and nothing really to see. Children might enjoy it but for grownups Dolphin show, underwater & Songs of the sea laser show was only attraction. Beaches were very poor and 4D movie was a marginal improvement over what one gets to see in India. I think wonderla in Bangalore gives a better value for money. After every attraction exit was via a shopping space – so they do not want to leave a single opportunity to entice tourists. There was picture and live images show of Singapore’s history (officially sanitized – no bad points or turbulence was shown). All four races i.e. Malay, Chinese, Indian and European were represented. Underwater world was upto expectations but Laser show deserves to be mentioned. Laser show with backdrop of sea menat no background issue and calm see solved problem of wind to large extent. It could be combined with gas fires and fountains as sea water is readily available – real crafty people. Scarcity of space means that one can see container ships being loaded and cranes hauling them while commuting in buses at the island.
Physically all Singapore residents seem to be fit and reason in apart could be their protein rich fibrous diet free of oil and fats. In fact at one of the MRT subways there was large space and as against India or west where all kind of unsocial elements will come and occupy it there were young boys and girls practicing every imaginable kind of dance routine, acrobatics and skating.
Arrival
Once again an early morning flight with some initial apprehensions about luggage exceeding limit (almost everyone had done extensive shopping , more so because all of us had liquidity due to receipt of stipend in the end), and failed link at Indian airlines counter for more than an hour we finally arrived safe and sound in motherland once again in company of even more grumpier cabin crew ( these time two middle aged gentleman)
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Mumbai Musings 2
Now it is almost a month in Mumbai. Some observation
1.Due to ban on dance bars and time restriction on disco night life is not what one would expect in a metro.
2.A metro makes people break religious taboo. Girls in burqa can be seen sitting with their boyfriends at marine drive
3.There are so called Maratha stores (I happened to visit two of them). But they are inadequately stocked, rude staff and priced same if not higher. Possibly monopoly feeling makes them behave so or marathis are not businessmen actually
4.girls of age even 13-14 years dress like late teen girls and their faces show that in metros girls attain puberty early. it was never so in my small hometown.
5.Lots of Muslims with long beards or skull cap in normal business place -- any sign of future or am i observing too much
6. Parsi community support mechanism especially in kolaba and old town. Really old people living in dilapidated old buildings
7. All companies have HR and normal support staff mostly Anglo Indians or their descendants.Most probably they are result of intermarriage between lower castes and Britishers. Now I can understand indignation of BK Nehru against this community in his book.
8. A dangerous trend of sectarianism. I mentioned about maratha stores before. There is YMCA hostel whee they prefer Christian guys .There is Maharashtra govt run law college which prefers only maharashtrians. What will happen to this country
9. High brand stores in Malls are frquented by shoppers as opposed to say Indore.
10. People follow lanes in traffic and also while taking buses or trains.other Indian cities can learn
11. No high rise in Nariman point. What is the reason? I don't know but they dream to make it second shanghai. phew ...
12. Mumbai metro project is nowhere. Only roads are blocked in northers suburbs but nothing real happening
13. Climate - good even in summer better than north india at least
14. Food - in all areas you can find find food according to your pocket and platter.
1.Due to ban on dance bars and time restriction on disco night life is not what one would expect in a metro.
2.A metro makes people break religious taboo. Girls in burqa can be seen sitting with their boyfriends at marine drive
3.There are so called Maratha stores (I happened to visit two of them). But they are inadequately stocked, rude staff and priced same if not higher. Possibly monopoly feeling makes them behave so or marathis are not businessmen actually
4.girls of age even 13-14 years dress like late teen girls and their faces show that in metros girls attain puberty early. it was never so in my small hometown.
5.Lots of Muslims with long beards or skull cap in normal business place -- any sign of future or am i observing too much
6. Parsi community support mechanism especially in kolaba and old town. Really old people living in dilapidated old buildings
7. All companies have HR and normal support staff mostly Anglo Indians or their descendants.Most probably they are result of intermarriage between lower castes and Britishers. Now I can understand indignation of BK Nehru against this community in his book.
8. A dangerous trend of sectarianism. I mentioned about maratha stores before. There is YMCA hostel whee they prefer Christian guys .There is Maharashtra govt run law college which prefers only maharashtrians. What will happen to this country
9. High brand stores in Malls are frquented by shoppers as opposed to say Indore.
10. People follow lanes in traffic and also while taking buses or trains.other Indian cities can learn
11. No high rise in Nariman point. What is the reason? I don't know but they dream to make it second shanghai. phew ...
12. Mumbai metro project is nowhere. Only roads are blocked in northers suburbs but nothing real happening
13. Climate - good even in summer better than north india at least
14. Food - in all areas you can find find food according to your pocket and platter.
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