A Narrow Escape

This is about one of my memorable experiences that happened in a train journey during my German intern period. After a day long roaming around the streets of Rome, my friend JK and I had to hurry up for catching our CNL (City Night Line) train, which was bound to leave to Munich from Roma central station around 7.15p.m. Bright sun shine filled the dusk around that time where we lost our patience in order to get that train. CNL connects major cities of adjacent EU countries from Germany. It runs at nominal speed compared to high-speed trains. It has its own uniqueness like; the only train which runs in night, cheap ticket prices, and most importantly for EUrail pass holders like me and many of us.

In EU countries, ticketing system is not the same like in India. Tickets are just like a pass meant only for boarding the train and the seats are not guaranteed. Separate reservations are there for getting a confirmed seat i.e. 2 times purchase. CNL requires compulsory reservation. That’s what went wrong in our case. After boarding the train at final moment (which we normally do every time) we searched for our seat in the 6-seated cabin. To our surprise already a Japanese man occupied one of our seats. When we tried to explain him he showed his reservation, which put us in terrible shock. By that time train had already started to depart. It only left us to blame the entire system like how the hell this could happen to us. Unbelievable error had been made which led to the confusion. I showed our reservation to him and same reaction by him like us except both of us were confident with that ticket. Moments passed, we sat in the other empty seat discussing our next plan out of tiredness. I thought of picking up my cell phone to verify next day’s date to be entered in pass. Suddenly a panic stroked my mind and I got a strange clue where the mistake might have aroused.

In general, the pass validity starts from midnight. But CNL trains are exceptional where one is allowed to board previous day train (after 7p.m.). It can be counted for next day trip without compromising another day. It leads to some confusion as well, which was what happened in our case. Everything in common name, train number, coach, time, seat but not date. According to our plan ticket should have been taken for that day journey, instead by mistake we bought it for next day. I just revealed this to my friend and not to him. Convincing thought was that we have travelling pass, but just the reservation ticket was a big fault. Had a wild guess, ticket examiner shouldn’t look in depth where everything in common except date and the other person must not complain the fault. We decided not to raise this complain to TTE which we initially thought to do so. All went according to our plan but unexpectedly one, which we consider as lucky escape, was that no one came and occupied our seats till the end of the journey while rest of the 3 seats had occupants. Thank God, or else we would have spent our travel on corridor. That could be a disaster for next day trip with sleepless night and tiredness which never happened. And hence we slept peacefully and reached the destination safely. This can happen anywhere and to anyone so be cautious. Smile runs through my cheek whenever I imagine this narrow escape.

ALL THAT GLITTERS ARE PADDY

Did you ever think which might be worth more than gold? There may be several answers necessarily dominated by rare or precious materials and elements. But in the food kingdom, Paddy i.e. Rice can be considered as one such valuable item. Very often it has been undervalued may be due to availability or high production rate and it goes on like this. True to the fact, input cost for cultivating paddy is much higher which normally goes unrealized.

How come? The incredible truth lies behind the supply of water. For producing just a kg of rice it is estimated a need of more than 3000 l of pure water and half the capacity of typical oil trucks. In shops mineral water bottle costs roughly around Rs.13. Water is not the only product which adds to the production cost. In addition, manual work, electric power for pumping, fertilizer cost and so on. On counting all these it’s worth touches half the cost of gold.

From these it is evident that each and every grain of Rice matters. So think of this every time before you chew on. Never spill over and waste even the single grain rice. Even fresh look at paddy at the dawn resembles to the glittering effect of gold. Believe the reality by visiting any of the field lands around and realize the amount of work being poured in. I leave it you to decide which of the above justifies the title.