It is all about the preparations and commitments for a assigned task. If we view the problem from the top view and prepare enough for worst cases then I dont think the task will be risky. But some times we fail in spite of considering all considerations.
It is all about a story of booking 41 train tickets. One of my senior is getting married in Indhore ( Madhya Pradesh ). I'm kind of close to his family, since his parents are my mentors. The distance is around 1000kms from our home town. We had 5 months to go. But the main task was 'how to go' ? Possibilities are by bus, by air and by train. Since there are no airports nearby hence we rolled out air option. And we have only one train in that track and that to 3AC tickets will get over 10 minutes, hence it was highly impossible. And we thought of booking luxury AC bus.
We started getting informations on good and secure travels. We tried more than 7 travels. The issue was about road tax since we wanted to cross 2 states. The road tax was 40k . so our to and fro journey was crossing 2.5 lakh. And later we thought bus journey will be difficult for senior citizens. So the only good option was train. Then 'mission impossible' started :) We listed out all the possibilities of booking train tickets. 1) Online booking 2) offline booking 3) by agents 4) by influence! 5) category booking
The train travels from Goa to Delhi, so it crosses 6 states, hence once the booking opens 2 months prior, all tickets will get over in ten minutes. Some days within 30 seconds we get waiting list, I don't know how? So, we felt booking online is risky. Then we thought of booking at offline at stations, we had been to boarding station to ask station master regarding the same. He told that people do come here by 3am to stand in queue and again getting confirmed ticket is highly tough possible. Then we tried to contact booking agents in different cities. Though we offered them 30% commission but they never guaranteed. They started suggesting cut journey and some other options. But no one gave confirmation on the same. Then we tried contacting some railway officers and some political leaders, but no luck again :) and Finally we contacted MPs and ARMY men, There will be some reservation in MPs and ARMY category. Again there will be very less tickets. So we dropped this possibility.
After googling online and offline, finally we come up with 4 plans naming plan A, plan B, C and D. For all of these we asked 30 friends as volunteers. And we assigned 2 leads for each plans. Plan A being getting permission for group booking and book train tickets at Hubli station since we have more counters in hubli. Plan B being 7 people for online booking so that each can book 6 passengers ticket, with considering all worst cases and with clear instructions for quick book. Plan C being ask 7 friends to stand at counters since one can book 6 tickets at the max. And plan D being ask 7 brokers to book tickets and offered 50% commission !!! ( which is quite expensive, but should be fine ).For each plans we provided clear instructions, trainings with worst case considerations and previous day of booking we transferred money to each leads. Then count for D-day started. Daily I use to login at 8am to check how fast tickets are getting over. Believe me I've done this for 3 months. Finally the booking day arrived !! Previous night we had conference call to all the volunteers and next day we all woke up at 5am. It was kind of big challenge for us. I asked all online booking volunteers to go to their respective offices, since there will be high speed internet and power backup facility will be there. We started conference call at exact 7.30am. Sachin (who was leading plan A and plan C ) was there at station to get group booking permission and do the same. Finally reck opened at 8am, plan C guys were at counters with list and money, plan B guys were online. We were monitoring the available tickets. Finally Sachin told that there will be delay group booking, then finally we thought asking plan B to book online. But sometimes server was not responding well. Hence within 5 seconds we took decision to go for plan C, and asked them to book offline at station, since all were at 1st in the queue. They started booking at counters. We all were waiting for Sachin's call. Finally we got good news saying the ' mission accomplished' :) But you know it was our luck, since that day tickets were available till 20 minutes !! Finally we thanked God :)
Then after 3 days we want to book return ticket, this time we don't want to take any wrong chances since return tickets are less compared to onward tickets. We all decided to stick to online booking as plan A, since last time at the stations our volunteers faced tough with people and railway officers. And counting money at counters was taking time. Finally another D-day came, as per the previous plan there was another round of instruction and training was done. This time we asked few volunteers from US, since server hitting swill be less from that region. Again all were online at 7.30. It is 8am again :) all started booking in parallel. This time there was no minimal chance for error. Finally everyone came up with smiling results :) We booked all 41 tickets, that is it. That is what we are.
We looked at back once in our review call, we felt we spent lot of time for this. But I think it was necessary to make 'mission impossible' as possible :) Kudos to Sachin, his friends, Sudhir, Anil, Shankar and Sughosh. It is treat time now :)
It is all about a story of booking 41 train tickets. One of my senior is getting married in Indhore ( Madhya Pradesh ). I'm kind of close to his family, since his parents are my mentors. The distance is around 1000kms from our home town. We had 5 months to go. But the main task was 'how to go' ? Possibilities are by bus, by air and by train. Since there are no airports nearby hence we rolled out air option. And we have only one train in that track and that to 3AC tickets will get over 10 minutes, hence it was highly impossible. And we thought of booking luxury AC bus.
We started getting informations on good and secure travels. We tried more than 7 travels. The issue was about road tax since we wanted to cross 2 states. The road tax was 40k . so our to and fro journey was crossing 2.5 lakh. And later we thought bus journey will be difficult for senior citizens. So the only good option was train. Then 'mission impossible' started :) We listed out all the possibilities of booking train tickets. 1) Online booking 2) offline booking 3) by agents 4) by influence! 5) category booking
The train travels from Goa to Delhi, so it crosses 6 states, hence once the booking opens 2 months prior, all tickets will get over in ten minutes. Some days within 30 seconds we get waiting list, I don't know how? So, we felt booking online is risky. Then we thought of booking at offline at stations, we had been to boarding station to ask station master regarding the same. He told that people do come here by 3am to stand in queue and again getting confirmed ticket is highly tough possible. Then we tried to contact booking agents in different cities. Though we offered them 30% commission but they never guaranteed. They started suggesting cut journey and some other options. But no one gave confirmation on the same. Then we tried contacting some railway officers and some political leaders, but no luck again :) and Finally we contacted MPs and ARMY men, There will be some reservation in MPs and ARMY category. Again there will be very less tickets. So we dropped this possibility.
After googling online and offline, finally we come up with 4 plans naming plan A, plan B, C and D. For all of these we asked 30 friends as volunteers. And we assigned 2 leads for each plans. Plan A being getting permission for group booking and book train tickets at Hubli station since we have more counters in hubli. Plan B being 7 people for online booking so that each can book 6 passengers ticket, with considering all worst cases and with clear instructions for quick book. Plan C being ask 7 friends to stand at counters since one can book 6 tickets at the max. And plan D being ask 7 brokers to book tickets and offered 50% commission !!! ( which is quite expensive, but should be fine ).For each plans we provided clear instructions, trainings with worst case considerations and previous day of booking we transferred money to each leads. Then count for D-day started. Daily I use to login at 8am to check how fast tickets are getting over. Believe me I've done this for 3 months. Finally the booking day arrived !! Previous night we had conference call to all the volunteers and next day we all woke up at 5am. It was kind of big challenge for us. I asked all online booking volunteers to go to their respective offices, since there will be high speed internet and power backup facility will be there. We started conference call at exact 7.30am. Sachin (who was leading plan A and plan C ) was there at station to get group booking permission and do the same. Finally reck opened at 8am, plan C guys were at counters with list and money, plan B guys were online. We were monitoring the available tickets. Finally Sachin told that there will be delay group booking, then finally we thought asking plan B to book online. But sometimes server was not responding well. Hence within 5 seconds we took decision to go for plan C, and asked them to book offline at station, since all were at 1st in the queue. They started booking at counters. We all were waiting for Sachin's call. Finally we got good news saying the ' mission accomplished' :) But you know it was our luck, since that day tickets were available till 20 minutes !! Finally we thanked God :)
Then after 3 days we want to book return ticket, this time we don't want to take any wrong chances since return tickets are less compared to onward tickets. We all decided to stick to online booking as plan A, since last time at the stations our volunteers faced tough with people and railway officers. And counting money at counters was taking time. Finally another D-day came, as per the previous plan there was another round of instruction and training was done. This time we asked few volunteers from US, since server hitting swill be less from that region. Again all were online at 7.30. It is 8am again :) all started booking in parallel. This time there was no minimal chance for error. Finally everyone came up with smiling results :) We booked all 41 tickets, that is it. That is what we are.
We looked at back once in our review call, we felt we spent lot of time for this. But I think it was necessary to make 'mission impossible' as possible :) Kudos to Sachin, his friends, Sudhir, Anil, Shankar and Sughosh. It is treat time now :)
Mission accomplished
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