People in my country have the compulsive need to complicate certain things. I am making this general comment based on the names(appellations if you will) given to two of our finest institutions. While our friendly neighbors called their cricket governing body "Pakistan Cricket Board" and the Australians simply called theirs "Cricket Australia" we Indians would have nothing less flamboyant than the "Board Of Control Of Cricket in India aka THE BCCI".(It is disrespectful to leave out the "THE"). More evidence to support the above seemingly uninformed declaration ,is provided for by none other than the "Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation"(IRCTC) , who are responsible , among other things , for providing a hassle free environment to reserve your seat one of Indian Railways' 10000 trains (Wikipedia can attest that) .
IRCTC has a website which has been unintentionally equipped (or so i suppose)with artificial intelligence capabilities. Much like the Operating System in the movie "Her" , the website has a mind of its own and can choose to disappear when you are eloquently begging it to allow you to book a ticket. Like any online booking website , it takes you through the booking process in stages. First you log in , then you chose your train , and then your seats , and then you pay. It has been reported that during peak booking time , it can take a hopeful traveler up-to 30 minutes at each stage(that's 2 hours totally). At the end of which there's a 99% chance the website is going to tell you that your "data" was not found.(That's IRCTC's euphemism for "Take a hike bozo!No trains for you".)
You may find that the website is also extremely biased. My success rate so far has been plus or minus 2%. (Which translates to 2 times out of a hundred. I include the negative sign here , taking into account the one time i had actually managed to go all the way to the payment page and found out that i had booked for the wrong date. And so i had to repeat the whole process again unsuccessfully.) Whereas a friend of mine is positively a booking genie.With internet speed that is slow even by the standards of our country and a tiny little excuse of a computer(although this does not make much of a difference) she can coax IRCTC to book a ticket for her faster than the average human being. She tells me its all about timing.The popular, oft quoted and cliched proverb "The early bird catches the worm" has absolutely no relevance in the cyber space occupied by the IRCTC. When the booking opens at 10 AM , you don't ,apparently , log in 15 minutes earlier and sit and refresh the page in the hope of being the first worm catcher. If you want to have at least half a chance of being able to view the welcome page , you log in at EXACTLY 10 AM Indian Standard time , not a minute earlier , not a second later.
I feel like its only fair to tell you how it all started. The word 'Tatkal' in Sanskrit , one of the holier languages of humankind , means "Right now" (Oh yes abhi!) . This word was aptly employed to name a revolutionary scheme introduced by the Indian Railway Ministry in the late 90's , headed by one Mister Nitish Kumar , who is better known today for the more glamorous post he now occupies , that of chief Minister of Bihar. For those who are not in possession of superior powers of deduction I will gladly spell it out . The "Tatkal" Scheme is for the benefit of last minute travelers who have no tickets , but would mightily appreciate a seat or two Tatkal-ish (right away) and are prepared to pay higher prices for them too. It was to be a win-win situation for both the travelers and the Indian Railways. But i guess Mr Kumar forgot to elaborate on the hidden sub clauses and such. For instance the announcement of the Tatkal scheme should have included that obligatory and innocuous looking star that often accompanies grand proclamations (Like 'Buy a mixie and get a car free!*) directing you to the bottom of the page where it says "Conditions apply" .
The conditions being :
*IRCTC (or anyone else you can think of to sue) will not be responsible for loss of sanity of any user of the website.
** IRCTC advises users of its website to Keep Calm and Don't Ever Click Refresh.
But all is not gloom and doom I hear. The top bosses are planning to reinforce the website's armory with ten new servers. One does tend to hope that there are speedier times ahead for the IRCTC. And there's a lot of that dangerous substance(hope) in the air lately , thanks to the ushering in of a newly elected government with a massive mandate. Shri Narendra Modi the Prime Minister designate (as of today, the 17th of May) has promised bullet trains among other high end infrastructure. But if it is decided that the good citizens of this hopeful nation have to log on to IRCTC to ride on a bullet train , then i plan to move to China.
IRCTC has a website which has been unintentionally equipped (or so i suppose)with artificial intelligence capabilities. Much like the Operating System in the movie "Her" , the website has a mind of its own and can choose to disappear when you are eloquently begging it to allow you to book a ticket. Like any online booking website , it takes you through the booking process in stages. First you log in , then you chose your train , and then your seats , and then you pay. It has been reported that during peak booking time , it can take a hopeful traveler up-to 30 minutes at each stage(that's 2 hours totally). At the end of which there's a 99% chance the website is going to tell you that your "data" was not found.(That's IRCTC's euphemism for "Take a hike bozo!No trains for you".)
You may find that the website is also extremely biased. My success rate so far has been plus or minus 2%. (Which translates to 2 times out of a hundred. I include the negative sign here , taking into account the one time i had actually managed to go all the way to the payment page and found out that i had booked for the wrong date. And so i had to repeat the whole process again unsuccessfully.) Whereas a friend of mine is positively a booking genie.With internet speed that is slow even by the standards of our country and a tiny little excuse of a computer(although this does not make much of a difference) she can coax IRCTC to book a ticket for her faster than the average human being. She tells me its all about timing.The popular, oft quoted and cliched proverb "The early bird catches the worm" has absolutely no relevance in the cyber space occupied by the IRCTC. When the booking opens at 10 AM , you don't ,apparently , log in 15 minutes earlier and sit and refresh the page in the hope of being the first worm catcher. If you want to have at least half a chance of being able to view the welcome page , you log in at EXACTLY 10 AM Indian Standard time , not a minute earlier , not a second later.
I feel like its only fair to tell you how it all started. The word 'Tatkal' in Sanskrit , one of the holier languages of humankind , means "Right now" (Oh yes abhi!) . This word was aptly employed to name a revolutionary scheme introduced by the Indian Railway Ministry in the late 90's , headed by one Mister Nitish Kumar , who is better known today for the more glamorous post he now occupies , that of chief Minister of Bihar. For those who are not in possession of superior powers of deduction I will gladly spell it out . The "Tatkal" Scheme is for the benefit of last minute travelers who have no tickets , but would mightily appreciate a seat or two Tatkal-ish (right away) and are prepared to pay higher prices for them too. It was to be a win-win situation for both the travelers and the Indian Railways. But i guess Mr Kumar forgot to elaborate on the hidden sub clauses and such. For instance the announcement of the Tatkal scheme should have included that obligatory and innocuous looking star that often accompanies grand proclamations (Like 'Buy a mixie and get a car free!*) directing you to the bottom of the page where it says "Conditions apply" .
The conditions being :
*IRCTC (or anyone else you can think of to sue) will not be responsible for loss of sanity of any user of the website.
** IRCTC advises users of its website to Keep Calm and Don't Ever Click Refresh.
But all is not gloom and doom I hear. The top bosses are planning to reinforce the website's armory with ten new servers. One does tend to hope that there are speedier times ahead for the IRCTC. And there's a lot of that dangerous substance(hope) in the air lately , thanks to the ushering in of a newly elected government with a massive mandate. Shri Narendra Modi the Prime Minister designate (as of today, the 17th of May) has promised bullet trains among other high end infrastructure. But if it is decided that the good citizens of this hopeful nation have to log on to IRCTC to ride on a bullet train , then i plan to move to China.
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