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.

The new passenger told them that he was a relative of one of Railways’ officers and pleaded to spare him. But the T.T.E.’s remained adamant to take the penalty, so they took him with them. After ten to fifteen minutes I saw that same passenger standing near the door of our compartment. I enquired, “What happened?”. He replied with a smile, “bahut Kahanee-sunane pe chor diya… bina penalty ke..”. I really got surprised by his answer.

After crossing Itarasi Junction another new passenger (a young man, who looked quite financially poor) sat on my seat & after hearing my request, told me that he would be getting down at the next station & again I displayed my quality of humanity… J with a smile.

Fortunately or unfortunately(for him), the Magistrate checking team arrived again & the new passenger with the ‘General Compartment Ticket’ was caught. This time, though, they behaved rudely. The person tried to compensate with lesser money, but the T.T.Es started misbehaving and abused him. I was surprised by this change of behavior of the T.T.E.s but was helpless. What could I do? They were right in some way; to curb people disobeying the rules. After all, “Rules are made to follow.” But, the rude behavior & abusing wasn’t right in my opinion.

Finally, the Passenger gave up and paid the penalty charges. After the T.T.Es left, I remained thinking about the two incidents. One in which the guilty wasn’t penalized and got off freely. And the other in which the guilty was not only penalized but was also treated with disdain. The one thing that kept lingering in my mind was, “We all need to grow up to obey the law sincerely.”

What do u think?????