Position near the booking counter is sold on a premium and may fetch as much as Rs 25; the rate varies as one moves away from the window. Depending on how much is in a hurry, the rates change. Vacations and festivals add value to the position.

The tout-infested precincts of the complex located just outside the Surat railway station are also home to these innocuous looking kids, who approach desperate persons standing back in the serpentine queue and offer to sell their position.

The potential victims or beneficiaries, depending on your position in the queue are told that not only will they save you time but may end up getting you confirmed reservation. Shelling out anything between Rs 5 and Rs 20 is much cheaper than approaching the touts and ending up with a hole in your pocket, you are told in a hushed voice.

These kids, at times youths and middle-aged persons also take up their positions in the queue early and begin the business in right earnest. This is one business that requires no capital or experience; simply enterprise does. All you need is to be ahead of someone. It's not that only unsuspecting persons are targeted the more daring ones are not afraid of dealing with touts, some of whom euphemistically call themselves members of authorised travel agencies.

Since there is nothing `illegal' about the trade it goes on and on. There is no way these youngsters can be flushed out of the queue. Just as it is difficult to tell a genuine travel agent from those innumerable touts who outnumber regular ticket-seekers there is little one can do about them.

This trade also has its highs and lows. When the counters wear a deserted look, a rarity in Surat though, given that computerised booking can be done only at one place, there are no takers for positions. Summer holidays, Navratri, Durga Puja, Diwali and Christmas are the occasions when they can easily make both ends meet and save something for the `deserted' day too.

It's no wonder that enterprising souls crop up at Surat railway station, where coolies flaunt pagers and some individuals make money simply by giving a `helping push ' to handcarts carrying parcels on the stiff slope leading to the parcel office.