“ I would like to share a incident, that occurred during my journey from Howrah to Satna.
I was traveling in a train. Train was already 10+ hours late. A pantry car employee came to our compartment and asked for dinner order, when we enquired about menu, he simply told there is veg thali that will cost Rs.100/- and it will contain paneer, vegetable, rice, daal and parantha where as non-veg thali will have chicken, roti, rice, daal and vegetable and it will cost Rs.150/-. One of the passenger asked him “I need only 2 rotis and vegetable” and pantry car waiter replied there is no such provision either you take full veg thali or you don’t take that passenger had no option other than opting for veg thali that would cost him Rs. 100/-. Everyone ordered either veg thali or non veg thali even I ordered veg thali.
Suddenly a guy named Prabal sitting next to me asked waiter for menu card, Waiter replied arrogantly “lena ho to lo yeh menu dikhane wali bimar nahi paalte hum” he even said if you want we can give you a normal thali that will cost you Rs.50/-. Guy insisted but waiter opposed it arrogantly and rudely.
Prabal directly called railway helpline number-1800111321 and lodged a complaint regarding this, on seeing the confidence of that guy even I called this number and lodged a complaint. After 30 minutes that waiter came to our seat and gave us menu at that time he was very soft. What surprised us there were no option for thali that will cost you Rs.100/-, yes paneer and chicken curry were mentioned in the menu but those were not the mandatory part of thali.
Anyone can order anything from the menu as per their choice and requirement, i.e. if you need only 2 chapattis and a paneer then you can order only required stuffs, and for it you don’t have to order whole thali. Even if you will order paneer, rice, daal, veg,roti all then also the cost cannot reach up to Rs.100/-. On seeing this we called the manager of the pantry and he asked his employee to take order properly from all the passengers as per their need.
This is the story of every pantry car in India; they will force you to buy everything even if you don’t need it, so friends I will request you all to please ask for menu before ordering anything. If they refuse please call 1800111321 and lodge a complain there. Government has protocol to act as per our complain.
Government has provided us with facility to act against such unethical practices, its our duty to know about the right way and to stand against it.
P.S This post is not about just Rs.100/- , it’s about unethical practices that are going around us, and what we can do against such practices.”
This story first appeared in Logical Indian.
