Wait Listed again
India as a sporting and a travelling nation has returned back to its favourite RACing activities. What pray, is a RACing activity?, one may ask.
With peak travelling period approaching during the upcoming Diwali holidays, the railways are the preferred means of transport for the common man. In the railway booking parlance, RAC stands for Reservation against cancellation. This ticket is issued to a passenger who, needs to go on an overnight journey, but isn’t assured a sleeping berth by the Indian Railways. All Mamata di’s department does is to issue one a RAC ticket.
The RAC allows a passenger to board a train. He is even allotted a seat. If someone fails to show up, he is the privileged person to get that much sought sleeper berth. There’s another category that is the ‘Wait List’ (WL) which, basically doesn’t even let a person board a train. In the good old internet-free days, one had to call up the ever jammed reservation help line and in extreme cases actually go down to the railway station with hope in the eye and a hold-all on the shoulder. Even an atheist believed in the existence of GOD for that split second, when he was told that he had actually made it.
As a die hard JIT (just in time) faithful, one faced the RAC and the WL syndromes a few times in life. Many times, actually. It’s not for the faint hearted or the light butted either. Sitting for more than 12 hours in the night, is an activity desired only by certified masochists. The Wait List Syndrome where one keeps on checking one’s WL number online is a game waiting to be adapted for ‘Khatron ke Khiladi – Part xx’. This requires the courage of a supreme warrior, the cunning of a fox and the innocence of a baby, and if nothing works then the aloofness of the Buddha to pass unscathed. One has to use Saam (influence), Daam (money), Dand (brute force/punishment) and Bhed (division) to board that coveted train.
One has lost count of the number of times when India relies on the result of a match of which, it is not a part, to qualify for the next round. It has happened in hockey, cricket, even in individual sport, which works on a round robin format. We find ourselves in the same situation today, where so many permutations and combinations have appeared in the media that guarantee us a place in the semi final. All those What Ifs springing up like mushrooms in the monsoons are bugging to say the least.
Historically, India has been as lucky as one’s tries at the many lucky dips and draws that one has encountered to get a free meal. But why should one aspire for a lucky draw to get a free trip to Singapore. The easier way is to have even money saved to go on one’s own. Why wait for divine luck to intervene.
It’s the same RAC/ WL feeling coming all over again. One thinks that India is currently Wait Listed in the cricketing scheme of the world. The Australia- Pak encounter that starts earlier, may shift it to the RAC list. Does it get a berth on the track to the trophy? Unlikely.
Let’s have a confirmed reservation for once, Team India. One is tired of this entire wait listing business. One hopes that the Indians are not flying back by Air India, which has cancelled all its flights. Because in that case, the team may find itself on the Waiting List of other carriers.