Train commute - Day 3

I got my month pass for the train this morning. The interesting point to note was the way the id card was issued. The guy at the counter asked me for a passport size photo. I gave him one. He took an empty card and placed - not pasted or affixed, just placed - the photo at the designated area on the card. He then took out a seal and placed a mark spanning the photo and the card. He then issued me the month's ticket and pushed all the 3 (id card, photo and the ticket) to me and asked me to verify them. The onus is now on me to affix the photo on the card such that the seal on the photo is properly aligned with the seal on the card.

I guess I am already used to the train now, coz I don't find anything interesting to note.

The return trip was a whole different story. It was pouring cats and dogs and a whole lot of other domesticated animals. The rain was accompanied by strong winds too. So much so, that the roads within my office campus were inundated and we actually had to cross small stretches with ankle deep water.

Once we reached the station, we were greeted with absolute darkness. There was no electricity whatsoever and the guy at the ticket counter was actually issuing tickets with the background light of his mobile!

Considering that it was raining like crazy, there was a delay in the arrival of the train and finally one came along. I had to catch up with another friend of mine, but unfortunately, he didn't have a I Class pass. So, I went along with him in the general compartment and luckily enough, both of us got seats within 2-3 stops.

After getting down at Guindy, we were lucky enough to get an auto. Actually, while we were flagging down an auto which stopped near us, we saw that a coupe of people got out of it. We were bargaining with this driver who said that he wouldn't mind taking us along, but he already had a "savari". Even as we were backing up, the "savari" told us that she has no objection in sharing the auto, since she has to get down at Kasturiba Nagar. Considering the rain and the bulbs we already got from couple of autos, we took the offer.

I had to travel the leg from Indra Nagar to my place alone. So I chatted up with the auto driver and asked him if he'd seen Oram Po. Apparently, he hadn't. I anyway asked him if the whole auto racing was indeed true. He said that it did take place, albeit on a purely illegal basis. He gave a crisp summary of what it involved and it pretty much looked just like what came up in Oram Po.

Anyways, a thing that I noticed with the steps in the Guindy subway is that, the steps are designed for the Chinese women of yore, who used to have their feet tied up to keep them small. The steps are really narrow and I don't feel too comfortable climbing it.

Costs:
Auto morning : Rs. 60.00 (shared)
Train ticket morning: Rs. 620.00
Train ticket evening: Rs. 0.00
Auto evening : Rs. 50.00 (shared)