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May 30, 2012

For us and IRCTC!

I was introduced to the whole IRCTC fundae by my frock buddy N, when I used to bug her and other senior bhaiyas for my indore trips. But the youngest of all, that's Bubblegum dint get hands on experience with it, at that time!They only managed the whole trauma.The story kicked off when I was transferred to the dream city-Mumbai. As during my Pune-Nashik tenure, I had to travel by bus to my home town.

If you check the available trains between two cities-Mumbai and my home town, there are N number of trains you can get(N=17,mostly) and once, you might consider yourself lucky, albeit-before you actually try booking online on your own.

My tryst with the online-tatkal booking began some two years back. Of course I cant plan my holidays before three or four months and when you start planning before a month of your 'much needed holidays', you find waiting list which refuse to move at all. So, I had and I have to try my luck with tatkal every time.

I have developed some tricks and a list of requirements for the successful Tatkal booking. I had decided to blog about them after validating.I think I can blog now as I got my Tatkal ticket just in the second trial,at 8.36am.Note the time. From 8 to 8.30 in the morning the IRCTC site behaves like a stubborn kid who just refuse to eat and keep the food in his mouth.Note-chewing and gulping, that means opening the site and start booking is out of the question.

So here I go with some of my tips, I cant promise they will work for each one of us!


  • Practice Pranayam every day, it makes you fit and most important virtue it develops-"Patience"!
  • Try placing ice-pack wrapped in the napkin on your head when you book online to avoid high blood pressure or anger induced by errors occurring while booking the ticket. 
  • Keep all your stuff with you-Identity proof and credit card-debit card. You might shop online something if you feel stressed-for you all girls out there,who treats shopping as a stress buster thingie! 
  • If you have some buddies who can act as a fire extinguisher for your 'On fire' mind, keep your phone near you. Best-Assign speed dial to each of them to reduce the waste of time.
  • If possible keep friends-your relative online on the site at different locations having different login ids of their own to book your ticket.Forward this link of tips to them too,This will make you a good manager, handling multiple subordinates-almost.
  • Keep a napkin-towel-bucket ready, in case you are planning to  travel for some sentimental reason and you fail to book the ticket. You may cry to reduce your load.
  • If you believe in God,you can also play some chants or mantras to feel the holy power. Though I haven't tried this, some of my relatives feel good trying this out.
  • You can also keep a pillow, a dart game or a kick boxing kit with you , in case you end up vandalizing every thing around you in frustration.
  • Keep your room-mates or colleges away from you in case you don't gel with them much.You might target them.
  • You might fail each time on different steps of ticket booking,even after getting into your login. Just check a chill pill and believe in 'Karmanye Vadhika Raste, Mafaleshu Kadachan'!
  • Last but the most powerful and proven mantra for Bubblegum-When you fail to book the ticket after fighting with the site and get on your nerves, float a status of your irritation for IRCTC on Face book, let people comment, try again for one or two times after the act. In my case I always get the ticket after floating the status. I guess IRCTC has some sort of emotional connection with Face book!  :D
This time I followed each of the tips and Bingo, I got the ticket in the second trial as I mentioned earlier. I guess the first tip worked really well!! :)

All IT engineers-developers  of IRCTC site, if you are reading this, I appreciate the improvement- No multiple log in permission on the site. Can you please speed up the whole site, a little bit??? 

Just to reduce the carbon foot prints of the world???

The amount of carbon dioxide increases in the morning, all over India, and the reason can be The smoke induced by high blood pressure and anger of so many Indians who fail to book the ticket because of the incompetent railway ticket booking  site of the IT brain of the world.



10 comments:

  1. Ur blog made me laugh for the frst tym since morning !!!

    Helped me to throw away my "BOSS GESTURE " out f my mind :D

    Keep Blogging !!! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Welcome to my blog-comment section Basu :P

      Thanks, I guess I have done a good thing on this 'Boss-angry' day :P

      Delete
  2. You really have a sense of humor here. And very nice to get that from a woman like you!

    By the way, I have written down a complete step by step tutorial to book a confirmed Tatkal Ticket from IRCTC within a 3 minutes after 8:00 AM.

    Check out my post here - http://irctctatkaltricks.blogspot.in

    Guys, just in case my trick doesn't work for you, I suggest you try Bubblegum's all the tricks.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Bubblegum,

    Had a hearty laugh all the way. You made this ardeuus task of booking tickets so witty. Best of luck in future.

    Take care

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ha ha ha ha!!

    Good one. Yes, the IRCTC website is such a pain. And *everyone* I know has experienced it.

    They really should get working on this Tatkal bit also. Well done in pointing out the frustrations of the aam aadmi, Bubblegum. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. lol. I bet this is one of the funniest n best blog post I have read till now. Keep blogging.

      Delete
  5. Thanks sharing this trick to get ticket from irctc portal but first you try for ticket with irctc log in when you get failure then apply tricks.

    ReplyDelete