Damn! another attempt & the result was same. The system could not accept my debit card though I have enough money in my account. Having loved & supported the 'never give up attitude' I went for another try only to face the similar result & finally gave up.
Aah! I could not book train ticket from home & will now go to the railway reservation counter to book the ticket because the travel's agents net was down too. To hell with technology.
Flashback
Late 90s, reading a book while standing in long queues, waiting for my turn to come & used to get frustrated when the person in front of me starts asking the counter clerk, "next day ki dekh lijiye, RAC bhi chalega, accha nahin hai, koi doosri train nahin hai uss route mein, zara dekh lo bhai urgent hai, etc. etc. etc." Fuming why the hell he didn't check before he stood in the line? But then every fifth person in the queue belonged to the same category, whom can you blame?
Back to present day
The thought of 90s gave me a shivering as I picked up a book, which I would read while I'll be in the queue, else how would I pass those 90 odd minutes standing among strangers.
As I entered the reservation hall I found something very strange, there were very few people in the hall. Has the reservation hall shifted to some other place? This was the first feeling that I got after entering the hall but was soon convinced that I was at the right place after I saw all the counters operating, with very short queues in each counter.
Is there a strike today? Another question hit me, because democracy allows us to do anything & everything that doesn't make sense. Optimism has taken a back seat, thanks to the agitations taking place at regular intervals in various parts of the country by various political parties to gain popularity for their respective parties in the name of democracy. Hail democracy.
By the time I filled the form a counter was free, not only giving me the chance to be the only person on that particular counter but also ensuring that the person sitting inside doesn't get rest :)
5 minutes later I walked out of the hall that once was as dreadful as Dracula's residence & have now become a less crowded place. Thanks to the various travel agents whom people prefer to use by paying few extra bucks, thus saving not only their time but also of the people who still have to go all the way to the reservation hall to book a ticket.
