Sunday, August 16, 2009

An Open Letter to Mr. Suvaprasanna

Dear Mr. Suvaprasanna,

Many congratulations to you and your associates on being appointed the chairman of the Passenger Convenience Committee of Indian Railways. Sir, I am not aware how often the nominated members travel in train, but I do quite often. In fact, I am among those hapless passengers who had no option but to travel almost daily in passenger trains to make my both ends meet. I also do not know whether the purview of your work would stretch beyond the mail and express trains. However, as a frequent passenger, I have a few requests to make to your committee.

Firstly, I'd request you to try boarding any of the trains of Sealdah section in any weekday, preferably during office time. Even if you are able to board, I am pretty sure, the daily passengers won't let you seat, even if there are empty seats available, as they are reserved for their feel-good buddies who will get on from the subsequent stations. Neither would you be allowed to stand comfortably, as this would disturb their daily chores of playing cards. Let some time pass and you would find some of them taking out cigarettes and bidis from their pockets and utilising them apathetically as if they are travelling in their private jets! The news of ban on smoking in public places has not yet reached them!

I know that your team have been instructed to look after some of the other major aspects of a passenger's life (such as toilets, sitting arrangement in stations, passenger safety etc.), so there is no point in harping on these issues. Try mixing with people and you'd understand there's lot to be done.

I earnestly hope you and your team would be able to bring 'change' in passenger amenities this time as well.

Regards,
An over-optimistic passenger

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