He threatened to put me behind bars ...

As I lost an ``important government document".

Well, I have been meaning to write about this incident for over a month now ever since it happened…so finally I let out steam here.
After a rather tiring three-days in the villages of Vizag and Kakinada, I took a train from Kakinada to Secunderabad. I was tired, after a long day spent in the sun, and crashed soon after I got into the train. I woke up only to find that the train was nearing Secunderabad station and would reach in the next five minutes. I hurriedly gathered my stuff, by which point the train reached the station, and got off.
As I headed the exit, a lady TC stopped me and asked for my ticket. My nightmare started now. I rummaged through my obscenely messy bag and did not find it. I looked for it in my jeans pocket and it wasn’t there either. I remembered holding the ticket in my hand at Kakinada station and showing it to the TC in the train before dozing off. Where could I have kept it. So, in all humility I told the TC that she could check the reservation sheet (the one pasted outside train bogies) and see my name there and that I could show her my identity card to her for name verification etc.
The lady said it was not her job to check the chart and that I will be fined. I lost it. I told her that if I am fined, it means that I have traveled without a ticket. “Meaning, you are announcing me guilty without giving me a fair chance to prove that I am not,” I said. The lady in black coat still maintained that I had to be fined.
Well, I asked her to put me onto her superior in that case. The superior was standing close by and she directed me to him. There, controlling my temper, I told him that I could not find my ticket but he could check the chart to verify that I did pay for my travel and that I did have a ticket. To this he said that I had to be fined since I had lost an ``important government document”. I was speechless for a bit and then I managed to say that I will not pay him a penny and that he could do what he felt like. At this point, he lost his temper and said, “do constable bulao”!! Huh!!
I stood there, waiting for the constables, who did not come and after a while, the man said that I could go back to the train compartment and check if my ticket was there. I said ok and asked him to send his subordinate so that I could show my name on the chart. Thankfully, the train terminates in Secunderabad and was still there when I went back with the lady TC who had stopped me. I entered my compartment and the cleaner was folding the blankets but hadn’t reached my berth yet. Under my blanket, I found the ticket.
With the ``important government document” in my hand, I marched to the big boss TC and showed him the ticket and asked him how he could threaten a regular passenger with constables etc knowing fully well that he could not do so until the crime was proven. To this, he hollered that he was well within his rights to put me behind bars for having lost that “important document”. I was by then mentally prepared to lodge a complaint with the railways about the man’s conduct and asked him for his name. He declined and said “You are my daughter’s age and you are threatening me” and started moving towards a box to put my ticket in. I said, don’t put my ticket in the box, I need it back. He said, “You cannot get your ticket back .. its against the rule”.
I told him that I was not off the mark in asking for the ticket and I knew it could be returned. Now, our man holding the government document was hopping mad. And took me to the station master. I was more than happy to do so to get rid of the curious crowd that had surrounded this whole ugly scene that I was creating with much help from the TC.
The station in-charge turned out to be a remarkably reasonable woman. The TC narrated the entire story to her, albeit sprinkled with huge helpings of masala (I got the train compartment door opened for her so that she could look for her ticket!!!) I told the station in-charge that she should take his story with a pinch of salt and all that I am asking for was my ticket. I forgot I needed his name too. She asked him to return my ticket and by then I was both exhausted and was smarting tears (problem is I get all teary-eyed by the end of a big argument) so picked my bag and left, mumbling a faint thanks to the station in charge. Thought about writing about it or sending it to reader’s grievances, but then got busy with some work stuff and had, frankly, lost interest too.