5. THE LOWER BERTH ADDICTS:
.
Now this is one interesting species, generally harmless yet don’t take it too easy, might as well emotionally provoke you. This species does not include people who genuinely need a Lower Berth, like pregnant women, very elderly people or people with some physical ailment etc, most passengers would be willing to let their berth go if such people need it. Even if some passengers don’t, that’s best left to their conscience, no point in getting judgemental about their moral values. Speaking of moral values, that topic by...
more... itself is another famous weapon used against people who aren’t ready to part with their berth.The staple diet of this species is lone passengers, they have a great ability to track them,mind you.
.
Coming back to our dearest lower berth marauders, they usually give you all sorts of excuses, even excuses which you never imagined about, to convince you to give your berth to them. Some of the popular ones being, I have motion sickness-need to use washroom often, I have some health ailment-cant climb onto the top berth, I have breathing issues and need better ventilation blah blah blah. Right,but there ought to be some sense, firstly climbing an upper berth is nowhere close to scaling a mountain like people make it sound, secondly you were happily hopping around only a while ago, whatever happened to your health back then(?), more importantly I don’t want to part with my lower berth window seat just because someone offers me a spurious reason to steal it.I never really understood why few people desperately need a lower berth, rail entusiasts? Agreed. Otherwise they just take it with a wicked smile of victory, close the window and doze off anyway.
.
Now comes the tricky part, manipulation, particularly if you are travelling alone and the other group has more people. You are compelled to give a strong and valid reason to justify not sacrificing your berth or you earn the chagrin of the family and the otherwise irrelevant pokey co-passenger lot who suddenly decide to sympathize with them. Worse, when you are travelling in a part of the country of which you don’t know the native language. Now a normal passenger would either reluctantly agree and give his berth away or desperately try to find reasons to avoid the same, because in our country we are compelled to give reasons and answers to everything and anything, people remember the fact that our’s is the world’s largest democracy more specifically during such times.
.
I find myself in this situation quite often and have a few retorts which always come in handy and today, gentlemen, is the day you are going to enhance your knowledge on the same a little bit more. You can choose to say “NO” straightaway but I shall let you be the recipient of the consequences and talk no more about it. A few other replies I give are, the train reaches my destination early in the morning so I have to keep checking where I am or a few friends are coming to meet me at so and so station late in the night and I gotta be awake, I have breathing issues myself hence specifically opted for a lower berth or the like.I know this is too much of fake stuff to tell people but hey, they did the same too and for the record remember that you are in India.
.
Of course, the situation is quite different if you are travelling in a group when the obvious reply would be I have my friends travelling with me and we intend to be awake or the like. For the folks who say its easy to talk now but the situation is different when you need a lower berth, well in such cases you either book in advance or make the door your temporary abode which me and shashank do almost every time. What applies to you applies to others too right!!
.
Happy Travelling..To be Continued!
