Bombay, 2:00PM

My dad says that the bhang high lasts for 3 days - and it makes you happy. This, perhaps, is why I'm laughing now.

Remember the bad airline karma thing- well apparently it works on trains too. So India now has this new system where you can book your tickets online, and if you're waitlisted - a hard copy of the ticket is couriered to you (as opposed to a confirmed e-ticket). Now I booked my ticket on Friday, and it was supposed to have reached on Saturday. Now, trusting the Indian railways it had not reached even on Sunday night. So I call up the helpline on Sunday night (I got through on the 3rd try) and the guy tracks the ticket and finds that it is at the nariman point office(at least thats what it says on the computer - nariman point is like 10 miutes away from where I live). But, of course, it isn't - it's still at the Goregaon head office - and I find this out while after waiting for 20 minutes in the nariman point office at 8am (in a semi-awake antihistamined state). So while the guy at the courier office is running around the empty envelope littered room like a chicken with it's head cut off screaming on the cell phone , I'm sitting under the fan grinning like Alfred E.Newman (mind you I also had bhaang on Saturday night). Anyway, the guy finally gets a hold of the ticket - calls me at 9 am and tells me he'll be at the station at 10-am (The train leaves at 11-30). Anyway, cut the drama short - I get the ticket and then head to the platform to check the 'charts'.

Now I have travelled by the Indian rail a lot - however, mostly when I was under 13 - so it took me 15 minutes to figure out what the charts were and how one could assess my position (I was waitlisted at 9 when I got the ticket and it had gone up to 3 on the chart). Being waitlisted at 3 means that if 3 people cancel at the last minute I get the seat. So I go to the TC and find out what I have to do to get my seat confirmed. He looks at me - checks the charts - and goes "no chance". Well, that was that. So how do I get my refund?
By spending an hour and a half waiting in line in the sweltering heat (where only 3 out of 10 counters were open).

This is Bombay - the "New Shanghai".

And whether its the bhaang or god knows what - I'm really amused.