Title - Track trauma turns nightmare

Travellers by train will not forget Black Tuesday or its aftermath in a long time. Ask the Kharagpur-based Sen family on its way to Ranchi to meet relatives at Kanta Toli. Or the Tripathis of Uttar Pradesh who were stuck in Dhanbad on Wednesday afternoon when they should have reached Calcutta. Or the Prasads, also of Dhanbad, who came home from Delhi, surviving both northern and eastern grid failures. Normally, Howrah-Hatia leaves Kharagpur at 12.05am and reaches Ranchi at 7am. But the domino effect of Tuesday's eastern grid failure made the trip into a Wednesday nightmare for the Sens. The problems began at Kharagpur. Insurance agent Priyal Sen knew fully well that the train would be late, so told his wife Mousumi, son Debayudh and octogenarian father Subir Chandra Sen to stay put at home. Finally, they learnt that the train would leave Kharagpur at 5.30am. Then began their travails. "Air-conditioning was really bad, which gave a choked up feeling in our B-1 compartment. The pantry was empty. There was no drinking water. The train stopped at nondescript places where we could not buy anything," rued Mousumi. The train reached Ranchi station at 1.45pm, by which time the octogenarian Subir Chandra started feeling unwell. "Actual problems aside, what was really frustrating was a feeling of being disconnected with the world," Mousumi added. At 2.40pm on Wednesday, the Tripathis of Rampur, Uttar Pradesh, bound for Calcutta, were waiting on platform No. 2 of Dhanbad station. Jagdamba Prasad Tripathi (55), principal of Srinath Sanskrit Uchhatar Madhyamik Vidyalaya of Rampur, in the S-2 compartment of Jammutawai Howrah Express with wife Savitri Devi (52), son Manoj Kumar (17) and daughter Gauri (14), sounded disgusted. "This journey is very tiring and tiresome. We should have reached Calcutta around 2.30pm." The family was on its way to Savitri Devi's natal home in Calcutta on a 10-day vacation, but the grid collapse and subsequent delay of the train ensured the holiday started on a sour note. "We have finished our home-made sattu ki roti and litti, the toilets are in a terrible mess and though I have spoken to the TTE, nothing can be done," said Tripathi. Dhanbad-based martial arts teacher Mahendra Prasad (38) and his wife Mamta (30) reached their hometown from Delhi by Poorva Express two-and-half hours late, survivors of both the northern and eastern grid failures. "I stayed for a month at Haryana to undergo martial arts training. Yesterday, we boarded the train in Delhi around 6pm instead of its scheduled departure time of 4.20pm. Our train was running four hours late but later picked up speed," Prasad said, adding New Delhi was a nightmare. "Metro rail services, ATMs, traffic, everything went haywire as the northern grid collapsed," said the physical education teacher of Shishu Vihar School, Jharia. How did the Tuesday grid collapse affect your life?