And, as for the rail journey, accidents, electric short-circuits and other reasons has ensured that the journey by this modem too is arduous and distressing. Particularly, because many people who travel from Pune have to catch connecting trains or flights to other parts of the country or overseas too.

Like it happened to accident-prevention crusader, Chandmal Parmar on October 5. He was to go on a pilgrimage, about 500 km from Ahmedabad. For this, he had to catch an Ahmedabad-bound train from Mumbai at 10.30 p m. Thereafter, he had arranged for a taxi to pick him up a a specific time from Ahmedabad station for the onward journey.

Initially, he planned to go by Shatabdi that leaves Pune at 5.15 p m. He changed his mind, since he was cutting it too fine and took the Deccan Express instead, which leaves at 3.15 p m. The train chugged like a snail as it reached Dehu Road at 5.30 p m. Then, it reached Lonavla at 7 p m. None of the passengers, he says, were aware of the reason for this delay. Later, they learnt, at 8 p.m., at Karjat, that the overhead wires between Karjat and Kalyan had snapped and the railway authorities were aware at 4 p.m. itself that there will be an indefinite traffic blockade.

By the time Parmar reached Mumbai Central, it was already 11.30 p.m and his Ahmedabad-bound train had already left. He had no option but to take an early morning flight to Ahmedabad (Thank God he could afford this, he said), so that he did not miss his taxi. What has annoyed him is that ``when the railway authorities knew of the delay at 4 p.m. itself and when they have a good communication network, why couldn't they inform the commuters at 5.30 p.m. at Dehu Road itself or even at 7 p.m. at Lonavla? We could have found alternative modes of transport. I will take up the matter with the railway authorities.'' Honestly, why can't public-service oriented organisations, believe in good service and have good manners?