48 hours later

On my way back from Mahabalipuram, I took the same train back from Chennai to Bangalore. Train number 2008 Satabdi Express had similar services and even public announcement keeping you updated on upcoming stations, whether we are running on time etc. The experience was all but better except until I decided to find out more about the efficiency in which they were running.

When Laloo Prasad Yadav took charge of the Indian Railways couple of years ago, every one probably expected him to do another Bihar ( an impoverished state that he ruled for several years and then later with his wife as a proxy chief minister!). He was known to be abusive, corrupt and played caste politics. Within two years, the Railways minister is popular amongst management Gurus and the industry in India. Washington Times and several other newspapers are writing about him and students from MIT and Havard along with IIMs are queuing up to attend his lectures!

Worlds largest employer with 1.5 million people on its roll, the Indian railway was a hugely loss making enterprise until Laloo Prasad Yadav took over. 2006 saw a profit surge up to 2.5 billion US dollars! While there is a lot of discussion on who should get the credit for this success, it is clear how basic re structuring and changes in priorities made most of the differences. Preferences given to freight trains seems to have made the most important difference which helped the railways to provide better service to the passengers without even hiking the prices. It was also unheard of any public sector undertaking sharing their profit to the customers, by reducing ticket prices in many sectors.

Now, with all this in my mind, I walked out of my air conditioned coupe to see how they are working so seamlessly. During my old train journeys, all I remember is the tough looking, corrupt Ticket examiners who would do all possible tricks to make an extra Rupee out of anyone they come across. And here I am seeing smiling, helpful officers who looked proud to do what they were doing.

The food trays kept coming back to the corridor after the dinner. One boy was segregating the waste ( I know, you might not believe it), aluminium foils going to one bag, bio-degradable waste going into another bag, stainless steel spoons kept apart for washing...it was impressive only until I saw the one of the boys opening the door.

He opened the door and pushed the entire waste ( all that segregated one's!) outside and continued his work. Another One Tight Slap moment! I asked the boy calmly about what he was doing, and he pointed to the superior to whom I asked for a complaint register. They played around, refused to handover the complaint register and all of sudden another young man came asking what the commotion was all about!

He was in charge of the catering service in the train. An employee of the catering company , he seemed to understand the gravity of the situation and that I would not budge back unless I get a proper answer to my questions and that action be taken. He begged, cajoled, pleaded and finally cried! I calmly ignored all those and requested him to give me the complaint registrar and a proper acknowledgement to my complaint. It seems it was his third month in the job and they have been dumbing all the waste on the rail way track all this time. It also occurred that this particular company that had the license have been doing the same for the last one year!

Knowing that there is no point in talking to him, I went to the front coupe to find one of the railway officers. He didn't seem to be any surprised, instead suggested that I leave it. 'Chod dho bhaiyya' as they say in Hindi! Still calm, I asked if he knows the repercussion he will have if he was also part to the scam and if was preventing me from filing my complaint. He finally asked me for my seat number and said that he will send across the complaint register.

Instead came the same old young man, who was once again shamelessly pleading. Couple of times, I thought that he might actually stoop down to touch my feet. Shit! He kept on saying things like,
"I will ensure that none of the waste goes out like this any more. You can check the trains every day, even if you come after 2 months, I promise you will see that waste is properly disposed" etc etc
"Please don't file a complaint, I will lose my job"
"Please don't write to the press, my company will lose the license"
"Please don't do this, please don't do that"...and I felt miserable about the entire thing.

Then came another officer who said it was a mistake and that it should never have had happened. He said giving a complaint would only cost the job of this lower rung employee of the catering service.

An ethical dilemma. What would you have done?

Complain and ensure that the railways and catering company and the officials who knew that this was happening will be brought to justice?
Or leave it there seeing the pleading of the lower rung employee?
I don't know who exactly is the culprit here. Railways who don't check how their private caterers function.? Or the caterer who doesn't' give a damn to the norms? Or the railway officials who don't do a thing even while seeing the damage done? Or the the employee who is just interested in cleaning his compartment by throwing the waste outside the train?

Consider these numbers while you think:
Satabdi train : 6 coupe with 70 pax capacity each
2 trains running between Bangalore and Chennai
365 days in a year

Waste belonging to more than 3,00,000 passengers are chucked out on the railway tracks that go through villages and farm lands in a year. This number is just about two trains running between a distance of 300 kms! Imagine the number of states in India, imagine the number of trains in India and the number of passengers plying daily!

And most of these guys are probably doing the same stuff. That's mind boggling to me!

Bangalore GP 2007