Email from Indian Railways Online Ticket booking service

The following is an email my brother received a few days back. I am thoroughly impressed with this level of service.
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From: care@irctc.co.in
To: ********@hotmail.com
Subject: Email From IRCTC
Date: Thu, 1 May 2008 04:27:13 +0530

Dear Customer,

Thank you for using IRCTC's online rail ticket booking services.
From 1st April?08 Railway has revised the passenger fares. As you have booked tickets prior to 1st-April?08 an amount of Rs.31.00 towards the difference of fare for the ticket booked vide PNR No 2346***863 has been issued to electronic payment gateway on 04/30/2008 08:09:28 PM. Same shall appear in your account within two to three working days. You are requested to please check with your credit card issuing banks regarding the same. We regret the delay if any, in crediting back the refunds.
We solicit your continued patronage to our services,
Warm Regards,
care@irctc
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Absolutely fabulous. Next they should
1. Increase the overall safety of train travel by improving the technology they use to run them (signaling, hardware, communications etc)
2. Improve the level of security and general ambiance on the railway station (cleanliness, hygiene and better policing).
3. Have better communication ON the train - things like - 'The next station is blah blah' in a local language and English.
4. All trains should have automatic doors that are opened by a conductor or the driver when the train arrives at a station or leaves a station.

Little things that go a loooooong way in making train travel a lot more safer and palatable for all strata of the society.
Got more suggestions? Drop a comment. Maybe I will send Lalu a congratulatory note. :)

Sunset from Cadillac Mountain, Maine

6:18:42 PM


6:21:11 PM


6:24:16 PM

Photos taken on Sept 30, 2007.

Niagara Falls..

At last - we have seen the falls.
For decades, it has been the foremost thing to see and admire - at least for people from India! Yes - I want to single them out here. It almost felt like we were in India to see a natural wonder in an Indian city. The buses were 90% occupied by Indians, the Niagara Falls National Park was almost all Indian. I guess the Niagara Falls is like the Taj Mahal in India. You just gotta see it!! Anyway - it took me 8 years to check it out - and I am glad I did it.

We took a great boat ride all the way to the foot of the falls.. and the falls looked absolutely gorgeous in the night!


Here are some more photos..

As my sister points out - there is some mention of Canada in all (or most) of my photos and she wondered if the grass was greener on the other side.. well .. if you are talking about Niagara, the grass is most definitely greener on the other (Canadian) side! We did not venture on that side of the world as there would have been immigration consequences - but do intend to check out the view from Canada one day.

Parents spend time with us

My Parents were in town for a little more than 2 weeks. While it was a short trip, we had a great time together. Old times, old tales, talk of family and friends, wine and Jim Beam were on tap. We visited Boston a couple of times and a last minute white mountain trip as well. Both my parents were keen on seeing Harvard and MIT (Its a desi thing - as a friend points out).

While they were here - there was plenty of drama on the immigration front. The Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR) rose from the dead - and died again. The department of state (DOS) and the US Custom and Immigration Services (USCIS) joked with thousands if not millions of legal residents in this country. A comprhensive series on the events in cronological order can be read at my brother's blog (1, 2 and 3). After the drama, the words 'current' and 'retrogressed' have taken on a whole new meaning for me. Acronyms like PD, AOS, ROW, EB, GC, RFE, VB, AP, EAD etc have become like living objects controlling the lives and livlihoods of millions of people. Still oblivious of those shortforms? Good for you. May you never have the need to know anything about them.

Here are some photos from my parent's visit.

Enjoy.

Amma_Papa_2007

s

Delhi Metro

For a looong time, I wanted to write a bit about this phenomena - bringing about a change in the whole environment of Delhi.

With the Commonwealth Games in 2010 a very real deadline, the Delhi Metro has been moving at a steady pace to bring about a real change in the mentality of Delhiites and the whole of India.

Recently I have been reading about the metro for its energy savings, economic savings and last but not the least, saving human lives.



(click on the maps for larger images)

Till date, it has saved 33,000 tonnes of fuel, 280 lives - er - human lives, about Rs. 400 cr when combined. In addition, it has prevented about 2,276 tonnes of poisonous gases from being released in the environment (as a result of less vehicles on the road, a total of 17,00,000 vehicle kms). The summary can also be read here or here.

Other facts (as of June 2007):
Total number of trains - 64
Total Kms of track - 65
daily number of commuters - 5,50,000
Number of stations - 59

For more information - go here.

AKV Skiing

My sister and her kids came up to NH and we drove up to Maine to ski. It was my second time skiing - but I must say - it wasnt toooo bad. The kids, Dhruv (his second time skiing too), and Tanya, (her first time) were amaizing. They took to snow as a fish takes to water. Shruti and Mini - hmm - the least said about them the better.