Once the pride of Kolkata, Kolkata Metro Railway is running into huge loss is a news that often comes in local newspapers and TV channels. At the end of each financial year the metro rail authority comes out with this startling fact, which is hard to believe watching each train plying from Tollygunge to DumDum station packed house every time.
But this is for sure that the metro rail staffs have earned a very bad reputation among the Kolkatans due to their reluctant, callous, raucous and unapologetic attitude. Unfortunately they have forgotten (deliberately) that they are not earning bad name for themselves but for the metro organization as a whole. The metro railway staffs treat the passengers as herds of animal who board the train on a daily basis. They don’t even show the slightest courtesy while listening to the passengers query when brought in front of them. Instead they are always demonstrating a damn care attitude towards the passengers.
When any passenger takes a question to a metro staff, they start playing with the passenger by sending him from one person to another. Till the person is tired and gets irritated and vacates the place without receiving his answer this sort of game continues. Even if the staffs don’t have a proper answer to the question they won’t let that person know, instead they will continue to harass the passenger who may be hurrying to office, school, hospital or home. Interestingly, when the passenger leaves cursing these staffs, the staffs undeterred about the incident laughs at the passenger’s plight.
The automatic entry/exit machines installed at every metro station have become faulty due to extensive use. As a result, these machines often malfunction during peek hours creating a chaotic situation among the passengers. These machines either show faulty ticket counts or simply damage the ticket with its sharp edges. Sometimes the tickets also get stuck in these machines. During office hours when every minutes count for an office going person this type of negligence is intolerable and amusing when the metro rail itself talks so much about punctuality.
When any passenger caught in this situation asks for the staffs help then his ordeal increases for worse. The passenger is first send to the station master’s office (SMO) where the station master asks the passenger innumerable question only to prove that it was the passengers fault. Then the station master takes out a pencil/pen and starts pressing it over the retrieved/crushed ticket to make it straight. Astonishingly this is a unique technique the metro staff of all the stations has acquired to treat a damaged ticket. Then the station master takes out a heavy, peculiar looking portable machine and inserts the ticket in its flap to see if the ticket is okay. Even this machine is so outdated that he is unable to take a proper reading at one go. So he carries on this process for at least an infinite time till he is satisfied with the result.
Now if any passenger during this long process doesn’t bear all this patiently and asks the respective station master to make it fast. Then he will be abused by the station master and soon all other staff will gather around to abuse the passenger leaving behind their official work. They will unitedly fight the case till the passenger succumbs to the pressure and leaves the place or board a train only to find that he is alone, defeated, terribly late and verbally abused.
The moral of the story according to the malevolent metro rail staff is “don’t mess with the metro staff they are perfect and united for their own cause”.
Hope someday a member of the Kolkata metro railway will read this post and put a justified comment on it to prove it wrong.
But this is for sure that the metro rail staffs have earned a very bad reputation among the Kolkatans due to their reluctant, callous, raucous and unapologetic attitude. Unfortunately they have forgotten (deliberately) that they are not earning bad name for themselves but for the metro organization as a whole. The metro railway staffs treat the passengers as herds of animal who board the train on a daily basis. They don’t even show the slightest courtesy while listening to the passengers query when brought in front of them. Instead they are always demonstrating a damn care attitude towards the passengers.
When any passenger takes a question to a metro staff, they start playing with the passenger by sending him from one person to another. Till the person is tired and gets irritated and vacates the place without receiving his answer this sort of game continues. Even if the staffs don’t have a proper answer to the question they won’t let that person know, instead they will continue to harass the passenger who may be hurrying to office, school, hospital or home. Interestingly, when the passenger leaves cursing these staffs, the staffs undeterred about the incident laughs at the passenger’s plight.
The automatic entry/exit machines installed at every metro station have become faulty due to extensive use. As a result, these machines often malfunction during peek hours creating a chaotic situation among the passengers. These machines either show faulty ticket counts or simply damage the ticket with its sharp edges. Sometimes the tickets also get stuck in these machines. During office hours when every minutes count for an office going person this type of negligence is intolerable and amusing when the metro rail itself talks so much about punctuality.
When any passenger caught in this situation asks for the staffs help then his ordeal increases for worse. The passenger is first send to the station master’s office (SMO) where the station master asks the passenger innumerable question only to prove that it was the passengers fault. Then the station master takes out a pencil/pen and starts pressing it over the retrieved/crushed ticket to make it straight. Astonishingly this is a unique technique the metro staff of all the stations has acquired to treat a damaged ticket. Then the station master takes out a heavy, peculiar looking portable machine and inserts the ticket in its flap to see if the ticket is okay. Even this machine is so outdated that he is unable to take a proper reading at one go. So he carries on this process for at least an infinite time till he is satisfied with the result.
Now if any passenger during this long process doesn’t bear all this patiently and asks the respective station master to make it fast. Then he will be abused by the station master and soon all other staff will gather around to abuse the passenger leaving behind their official work. They will unitedly fight the case till the passenger succumbs to the pressure and leaves the place or board a train only to find that he is alone, defeated, terribly late and verbally abused.
The moral of the story according to the malevolent metro rail staff is “don’t mess with the metro staff they are perfect and united for their own cause”.
Hope someday a member of the Kolkata metro railway will read this post and put a justified comment on it to prove it wrong.
1 comment:
Hi, nice post. Hope yor articles create some consciousness.
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