Ticketless traveller!!!!

Well here is the saga of the ticketless traveller..... Ofcourse the traveller is me.
So the morning of 8th October, I tiptoed from Deepta's house(she wanted to drop me but couldnt get up so early as expected!) and caught a rick at 6 am which actually deposited me in Cantonment station for the meter fare!!!! (The month of Ramzan stirring the conscience of the Muslim driver!).
Pushing and shoving, I managed to reach my compartment. As expected somebody was already sitting on my seat. So I at my politest best, said "excuse me, this is my seat." And the lady said, "I have the ticket for this seat but!!??" So we both took out our tickets and compared... everything was same except the date of my ticket...it was for the 9th oct!!!!! I know Prem, I somehow managed to follow your footsteps!!!
Flummoxed, I stood there and wondered as to what to do. I decided that I had to go to Chennai no matter what.(yes in case you were wondering, I was going to Chennai)
So I found a seat for myself and plonked myself comfortably. A guy was sitting next to me. He asked me whether it was my seat. I told him no. He asked me my name. I cryptly replied and stared into nothingness to discourage him. Next he asked me if I was in HP. I looked at him quizzically, and then realized that my laptop bag had HP label on it. I told him my profession "social worker"and it was his turn to look at me quizzically!!
We started talking... I, as usual, explaining him about social work. Then I told him, " I dont have any ticket..." and the story came tumbling out. Altaf (his name was Altaf) said dont worry, you could ask the TC. Well, so I sat there, and when the next station came, we both had to go and stand near the door because the seat was occupied!
While we were standing thus, we met a chirpy guy called Muzaffer. Both Altaf and Muzaffer were Software engineers. Muzaffer had many good ideas on to how to evade the system, he proferred me one too. He was of the opinion that the TC would not give me a ticket, but he would just fine me for travelling ticketless. So what I could do was act like them, that is they did not have reservation, but had second class tickets. The TC usually never asked them for their tickets, so I just had to keep my mouth shut and hope that I was not caught by the TC!! So when the TC came, they both asked him, "Sir, any seats?" The TC ran off without even looking at us and did not even bother to ask for the tickets!!!!!
Then the next problem was how to get out of Chennai central station?!!! Here again Muzaffer came to my aid! He said that if we took the side gate of the station instead of the main gate, I would be able to go out safely because usually the TCs did not stand there! He got off at Katpadi, and Altaf helped me to get out stealthily in Chennai!!! He also helped me to get a rickshaw! These two men were really very sweet to help me out. But I really do have tell this.... when Muzaffer got to know about my profession, he just looked at me from top to bottom, exclaiming "a social worker traveling without a ticket"!!!!??? hehehehehehe
Well, well the saga does not end here. I travelled ticketless to Nagapattinam by bus the next day!!!!! Well maybe I will write about it the next time....till then ciao!!