I had an interesting quote about the ticket checkers (officially called Travelling Ticket Examiner) of local trains in Mumbai – “Out of thousands of people pouring on him every few minutes, he would stop only those people who don’t have tickets.” There was an incident that had firmed up my belief.
I had come to Mumbai first during my post-graduation. I lived in IIT hostel and was obviously dependent on public transport. Once, I was returning from a visit to my friend who lived in an extended suburb of Mumbai. I already had the return ticket but mistakenly, I boarded a train that was outbound. I realized my mistake when the train was slowing down at the next station. I had no other choice but to get down there. As soon as I landed on the platform, there was a ticket checker in front of me, asking for the ticket. I showed him the ticket and told him about the mistake that I did, but he let me go only after paying the fine.
Interestingly I had traveled hundreds of times and crossed the ticket checkers before, but how dare they stopped me!
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