It was the occasion of ‘Rakhi’, when I planned my return to Mumbai by train. After receiving wishes from family members, I reached the station to catch my train ‘Kushinagar Exp.’ My seat (No. 70) was situated nearby the door of the compartment. It was already late(7pm), so sometime after taking my dinner, I fell asleep. Zzzzzzzzzzz…

I woke up little late next morning, at 11o’clock (enjoying upper berth without passengers’ disturbance..

I was getting down happily from the berth but saw that a new passenger had occupied my seat. He seemed a decent well-dressed middle-class man going to his office. I requested him to vacate my seat. He told me that he was a local passenger & would disembark at the next station. I agreed (What could I have told? After all I should be showing some humanity… J), But, ironically for me, it took nearly three hours to reach the next station, ‘Itarasi Junction’. Anyway, I adjusted some how…L. In the meanwhile, the incident that happened next really stunned me. I saw a group of black suited people(T.T.E.) come & check tickets of the passengers. We all had valid ticket except for the new passenger, who had a ‘General Compartment Ticket’. The T.T.E. asked the man to pay Rs. 312 as penalty. One of my fellow commuters explained to me that these T.T.E.’s were on round of ‘Magistrate Checking’ & the new passenger had to pay whatever they asked for, else they would put him in jail.

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