Ignorance Stupefied

With holidays commencing from 7th of this month which extends till 12th I thought of going home . With one of my friends , expressing his desire to accompany me to Vizag the stage was set for the journey . I got up early at 7a.m to rush to the reservation complex inspite of sleeping very late at 4 a.m. The previous night , the very much expected Brazil Vs France match ended in a jeopardy ( for Brazil fans ) with France coming up with some stunning performance . Soon after the match we had a discussion , offcouse on that same topic , till 4 a.m .


The cell phone alarm was ringing but i was not at all ready to wake up . I was laying on my bed thinking of awaking but my body was not responding me . Hey , don't get carried away by a similar scene which you might have seen in Gharshana--Telugu ( kaka kaka -- Tamil ) , where our dear own Venky ( Surya in tamil ) is lying on the banks of a river helplessly insearch of his sweetheart . Soon my loving mom n dad flashed by , and it gave me enough strength to rise out of my bed and stop the ringing alarm . I went to my friend to wake him up . I got ready in 10 minutes or so and again went to him and started our journey .



We reached early at the counter ( before 8 a.m and the reservation starts at 8 a.m ) and hence had to wait . As there was no one at the counter we were the first and last . Then starts my trouble and the clerk says in an authoritative voice " you are the first customer and I don't have the change to give you " . Adding to my misery, no fellow came for reservation till 20 minutes from then , though there was one he didn't had the change nor the train accomodation . As it was very early in the morning , no shop was opened . I stopped each and every one passing by the road for change , but my efforts ended in vain . I had to walk all the way back towards a hotel ( nearby from hostel ) . The obvious answer from the hotel fellow would be a "NO" , expected it from past experiences , and hence took a token for breakfast which could tender the exact change and walked back to the reservation counter , adding an extra walk of 20 minutes . Got the ticket by giving him ( the clerk ) the change and again walked back 20 minutes back to the college .I don't curse anybody for this , neither the clerk nor the railway authorities for it . I take it on my part the offense of not tendering the exact change .It was "Ignorance Stupefied" on my part .



The issue I would like to discuss is that aren't the railway people aware of the fact that the first few customers to the counter might not have the change to deliver . They can give the booking clerk an initial amount with lower denominations so that the customers need not suffer . With ATM cards around , where in getting a denomination of 50 is not possible and with increased number of people using them the railway authorities need to take a look into such circumstances . And as "Marketing myopia" suggests , this is the problem not with railway ticket booking but many others as well .


Readers please suggest a solution .