What do you do if you find bedbugs on the berth allotted to you while travelling on a train? Sit up all night? Take a walk up and down the corridors all through the night over endless cups of chai at passing stations? Complain about it to the attendant with no hope of relief?
A few days ago, when a Sholapur MLA, Praniti Shinde and daughter of former Home Minister, Sushil Kumar Shinde boarded a train from Sholapur to Mumbai, she found it difficult to sleep because of bedbugs and complained about it. The episode left the Railways feeling ‘red-faced’ reportedly. No official complaint was lodged, but the unofficial word from the MLA was enough for the Railways to send a team to inspect the berth once it reached Mumbai. While no bedbugs were found, we hear that the Railways plans to fumigate the coach with pesticides to ensure no VIPs complain in the future. How admirable!
But if it had been me who had lodged the complaint, even officially, would my complaint have merited a fumigation, according to the Railways? It would probably lie buried in the room among thousands of complaint letters with more grievous issues like lost luggage, non-refunded tickets and clerical errors. People probably don’t even complain about rats and cockroaches anymore. It’s all a part of the travel experience offered by the Indian Railways.
As a child, I remember thinking it was such a fun game. A couple of times, during large family trips, en-masse with cousins, aunts and uncles, I remember playing this game with my cousins. Every time an aunt would shriek, “Rat!”, we would swing our dangling legs up onto the seat, giggling and falling over each other. It was a race to see who would swing their legs up first. Of course, this was the Railways in the nineties, far less regulated than it is today.
The fun lasted only until I caught sight of a rat one day during one of my journeys. It brushed past my right foot, a momentary rough scraping by this big fat rat, large enough to be a bandicoot. But the scraping feeling lasted through the night in my head. I felt unclean.
There were other stories. A family legend of an uncle who was petrified of cockroaches and scooched his legs up into a crouching position on the berth, while his wife enjoyed herself like crazy, slapping the cockroaches with her chappals. Less funny stories of goodies, half eaten by rats, clothes damaged and bags torn.
There are other experiences too, that come with the Indian Railways. Like the scary story that once circulated about the chai served on trains, made from water filled from the train toilets. It came with an accompanying picture too. Anybody who has used the train toilets even once, would know why this story has horror written all over it. But nobody complains. We are probably immune to the Railways toilet water by now, anyway. Besides, what are the chances that a mammoth organisation like the Railways would act upon our complaints?
Air travel in India is still a glamorous affair, even domestic travel. We don’t hesitate to kit out in some of our best day outfits whether it be a knit top with leggings and kid boots or a short flowery dress during warmer weather.
On the other hand, we probably look our behenji best while travelling by train. We have, in fact, dressed better for sleepovers with our girlfriends. I know I do. Most of the times that I travel by train, especially if I could only manage a sleeper class ticket, out comes that old polyester salwar that I wore during my college days when jeans was banned. The colour by now has faded to a vague earthy brown and if I ever asked you to recall what I was wearing then, you wouldn’t be able to.
The reason is partly the kind of crowd one meets during railway journeys. But the earthy brown is more for the filthy conditions that one travels in.
Mind you, the Railways has improved much in the last four or five years, I think. They even have tissue rolls in the bathrooms for the a/c compartments (OMG!). But there is much to be improved when it comes to its cleaning operations.
The Railways itself mentions it in a nonchalant way. “Complaints of bed bugs are rarer than those of cockroaches and rodents, which enter coaches in search of food,” an official told TOI.
However, when TOI texted Praniti Shinde, she brushed the issue aside. “”Hello! There are bigger issues that need to be dealt with… I don’t think such a ridiculous small issue should gain attention (even if I had raised it). We need to address larger problems… Don’t you think?”
But we don’t think so. This may be a small issue for an MLA who probably rarely travels by train. But for aam janta like us, only a VIP raising complaints could get our government machinery to start cranking its wheels and get into action.
We are now hoping that PM Modi would hold his next ‘chai pe charcha’ session in a train, with Railways ka chai. We are sure that the quality of chai will improve drastically then!
Image Courtesy: BCCL
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