TATKAL means INSTANT
The Indian railways offers a service called TATKAL BOOKING. There is nothing INSTANT about this booking. Here is my frustrating experience!
I was introduced to Tatkal by my wonderful cousin Aiju. When he showed me how to book a ticket online, it seemed like the easiest thing every. Then he showed me how if you didn’t book on time (i.e. 120 days ahead) you had the wonderful scheme of Tatkal. Somehow there seemed to be a lot of power in our hands. To be able to see all the train options. To be able to book a ticket at the click of the button. Yea right ... 'click' of ’a’ button.
One particular event was when my cousin (Aiju) wanted to go to Kerala. There is a catch to the whole Tatkal scheme. There is a two hour time slot in which you can book this ticket. I can be done only one day in advance. So it’s not like you can pack your bag and be ready or anything. Anyway, my cousin wanted to desperately go home. So he decided to go to the railway station to book a ticket. To double his chances he asked me if I could go online and try to book simultaneously. I agreed. He woke up at 5:30 am and went to the nearby railway station. I woke up at 7 am and turned on my computer. I logged into my account on irctc.co.in a couple times to make sure it worked. I was all set. Tatkal booking started at 8 am and lasted for 2 hours.
At 7:58 I tried to enter the stations (destination and arrival)...... The website kicked me out. I tried to login.... error found. I was getting annoyed. I tried to login in again and.... incorrect username/password. Thanks.... could you tell me whether the username is incorrect of the password. I tried again and.... there was a long pause that seemed like infinity..... Connecting to irctc.co.in. I think the entire 2 billion population of India were trying to log on to the website. 8:00 am. I was IN!
I entered the stations quickly and pressed 'find trains'. Another long pause.... and then the message. Login in timed out..... Yes you DODO... if you take so long to refresh ... of course I will get logged out. It was 8:02 am. I tried booking again and this time it instantly logged me in. Some fluke? I entered the stations and clicked on find trains. I clicked on the train that came up and clicked on 'book'. There were about 40 seats left. I was hopeful. I was going to call my cousin and tell him to come home. I entered his information, which included an id number which is needed for tatkal bookings. Yes because there isn’t enough stuff to enter already! I clicked on book. It took me to the payment website. I entered my credit card information and clicked ok. It told me it would be taking me to another website for security reasons. OK! Hurry already. I entered my password for security reason and heard my phone buzz to the sound of an SMS sent when money is taken from your credit card! Yes! I thought! I looked back at the website and it said ... 'waiting for irctc.co.in'. WAITING ... I already paid you! What are you WAITING FOR? And then the message 'Sorry session timed out'. I felt like I had just been diagnosed for some incurable disease. I tried to log in again. I went to the bookings page and entered the train destination and clicked ’Find trains’. I clicked on the train I wanted --- WL/133.... What! There were no seats left. I felt defeated.... by a website!
I sent an SMS to my cousin to ask him if he had any luck and telling him I had none. His message back to me was '40 sleepless jobless fools ahead of me waiting to book a ticket'. He hadn't even reached the ticket counter and was way behind in the line!
This was just one experience. You normal learn from experiences ... well I didn't I repeated it like 4/5 times. There was one time when we (me and my cousin Aiju) logged on simultaneously from different computers and to book tickets for him tickets. Unfortunately ... both of us booked! Two tickets one traveler same day... it really doesn't help. But we were very proud that day. We had waged war against the system and won! I now tell people who invite me to functions and do not give sufficient notice ... well if you book the tatkal ticket for me (I will pay you for it ... I just cannot book it) I will come!
Here is a funny picture my cousin tagged me on Facebook. I do feel like that when I get off the irctc.co.in website! CREDIT to
Tatkal picture
The Indian railways offers a service called TATKAL BOOKING. There is nothing INSTANT about this booking. Here is my frustrating experience!
I was introduced to Tatkal by my wonderful cousin Aiju. When he showed me how to book a ticket online, it seemed like the easiest thing every. Then he showed me how if you didn’t book on time (i.e. 120 days ahead) you had the wonderful scheme of Tatkal. Somehow there seemed to be a lot of power in our hands. To be able to see all the train options. To be able to book a ticket at the click of the button. Yea right ... 'click' of ’a’ button.
One particular event was when my cousin (Aiju) wanted to go to Kerala. There is a catch to the whole Tatkal scheme. There is a two hour time slot in which you can book this ticket. I can be done only one day in advance. So it’s not like you can pack your bag and be ready or anything. Anyway, my cousin wanted to desperately go home. So he decided to go to the railway station to book a ticket. To double his chances he asked me if I could go online and try to book simultaneously. I agreed. He woke up at 5:30 am and went to the nearby railway station. I woke up at 7 am and turned on my computer. I logged into my account on irctc.co.in a couple times to make sure it worked. I was all set. Tatkal booking started at 8 am and lasted for 2 hours.
At 7:58 I tried to enter the stations (destination and arrival)...... The website kicked me out. I tried to login.... error found. I was getting annoyed. I tried to login in again and.... incorrect username/password. Thanks.... could you tell me whether the username is incorrect of the password. I tried again and.... there was a long pause that seemed like infinity..... Connecting to irctc.co.in. I think the entire 2 billion population of India were trying to log on to the website. 8:00 am. I was IN!
I entered the stations quickly and pressed 'find trains'. Another long pause.... and then the message. Login in timed out..... Yes you DODO... if you take so long to refresh ... of course I will get logged out. It was 8:02 am. I tried booking again and this time it instantly logged me in. Some fluke? I entered the stations and clicked on find trains. I clicked on the train that came up and clicked on 'book'. There were about 40 seats left. I was hopeful. I was going to call my cousin and tell him to come home. I entered his information, which included an id number which is needed for tatkal bookings. Yes because there isn’t enough stuff to enter already! I clicked on book. It took me to the payment website. I entered my credit card information and clicked ok. It told me it would be taking me to another website for security reasons. OK! Hurry already. I entered my password for security reason and heard my phone buzz to the sound of an SMS sent when money is taken from your credit card! Yes! I thought! I looked back at the website and it said ... 'waiting for irctc.co.in'. WAITING ... I already paid you! What are you WAITING FOR? And then the message 'Sorry session timed out'. I felt like I had just been diagnosed for some incurable disease. I tried to log in again. I went to the bookings page and entered the train destination and clicked ’Find trains’. I clicked on the train I wanted --- WL/133.... What! There were no seats left. I felt defeated.... by a website!
I sent an SMS to my cousin to ask him if he had any luck and telling him I had none. His message back to me was '40 sleepless jobless fools ahead of me waiting to book a ticket'. He hadn't even reached the ticket counter and was way behind in the line!
This was just one experience. You normal learn from experiences ... well I didn't I repeated it like 4/5 times. There was one time when we (me and my cousin Aiju) logged on simultaneously from different computers and to book tickets for him tickets. Unfortunately ... both of us booked! Two tickets one traveler same day... it really doesn't help. But we were very proud that day. We had waged war against the system and won! I now tell people who invite me to functions and do not give sufficient notice ... well if you book the tatkal ticket for me (I will pay you for it ... I just cannot book it) I will come!
Here is a funny picture my cousin tagged me on Facebook. I do feel like that when I get off the irctc.co.in website! CREDIT to
Tatkal picture
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