Feb 28, 2008

laloo bhaiya ki jai ho

"Laloo bhaiya ki jai ho."

You might think it was the porters on the railway station that coined this nara.
No my dear friend!! It was me who shouted it when I boarded the train for Mumbai on 26th feb. I guess one of the porter who was following me at the station heard it and then stole it. As I was in train, I could not do anything to claim my ownership over the nara and 27th Feb's newspaper all over the country attributed it to the porters.

Chal koi nahi... Neki kar dariya me daal.

So why was I praising Mr Laloo?
Just because he was a guest speaker at IIMA last year?
Of course not!!

As soon as my train arrived on station, I proceeded to compartment s3 seat no 6 to settle down for a long journey. But guess what!!! I found someone else sitting there in 'my' seat. So I go ahead to check the reservation chart to tell that firang "go mr chinki, I am son of this soil and this seat belongs to me."
But to my utter surprise, seat no 6 did not have my name against it. I checked my e-ticket again and was about to curse the IT system at IRCTC. Suddenly a "$" sign caught my attention on the list. It was marked against seat no 6. Being a well-informed consumer in this country, I understood in no time that there was some 'hidden' clause or term somewhere down the list. It indeed was there. I was upgraded to AC-3rd tier. That too for no extra charge. Now this is what I call luck. You pay just 380rs and get to travel in AC from Bangalore to Mumbai. Ye to laloo ke raaj me hi ho sakta hai bhaiya...

Amazing scheme this is yaar. I really loved it.
I hoped that I get lucky in my return journey too. This is called greed!!!
But alas, no luck this time. The train did not have provision of automatic upgrade this time. Koi nahi. Ek baar top mila naa...
Laloo bhaiya ki jai ho...