Life is strange . And full of unexpected turns. The train which is usually on time and was on that day as well, till that point, got late, as Priyanshu reached 1 full minute after it’s usual on time departure. We got the train, which felt nice. We had nice south indian neighbours next to us who were very friendly, without talking much. We appreciated the space. The bedsheets and bed rolls where however, so dirty and loaded with hair that it instantly gave me the creeps and I started imagining all the ways I was trapped and would have to deal with the limited resources I had. I called the local staff, they said they’ll bring another one, the second, third and so on. All were really dirty. Then we dialled the complaint number mentioned in the berth. They said the guys will give you new bed rolls. They didn’t understand that their whole stock was unfit for human use. He then brought some more which we obviously refused.
Then we complained to 139 and they brought some more 2 AC, saying these were definitely cleaner. They were a bit better, but still had hair all over. And some dirt and oil here and there. It mitigated our anger a bit, not because it was cleaner than before, but because of the effort the staff was doing without beating the hell out of us as I had seen in some very recent and real videos on social media. Someone had complained to the helpline number or posted on x tagging some important people, for charging 20 rs for a 15 rs railway water bottle. And then in another where a farmer complained of somthing about a local issue on a state greivance redressal website and he was beaten brutally in the private parts by the police .
Ya this is a scary place to live in. You either bow down like a pawn and bear everything, or you could try demanding respect and your head will be taken for that audacity. Mostly. They managed to convince us at last that the 2 ac bed rolls were indeed better washed and kept , and the hair we saw here were those of the blanket fibres. We said we understand the trouble we are causing you and this seems okay so we’ll take it. I used my own bedsheet and blanket which I had brought, and one out of the two we got was indeed really good which then Priyanshu used. The rest of the journey was much easier than expected, the toilets getting full and unusable only the next day and 2 out of 4 were still somewhat functional. The wash basin was submerged. I started brushing maintaining a distance but the visuals made me want to throw up. I somehow gathered myself and used bottled water for the gargles. The toilet was also filled and thankfully I didn’t feel an urgent need to use it. We started with optimism, fell the grueling reality for 2 days, but we came out fine at then end and continued our onward journey from Coimbatore.
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