Goofed up while trying to be tourist-friendly

It was one of those instances when all you wanted to do was be helpful and then by some quirk, you end up doing just the opposite. Even though unintentional, this makes you feel so lousy about yourself.

I had boarded the Trivandrum Mail from Chennai last Friday and on Saturday at around 8:30 AM, the train halted at Kottayam station. There are 4 more stations and 45 minutes to my destination. I had already freshened up and was looking forward to Kottayam station because the train halts there for 5 mins, which is enough for me to pick up a cup of steaming hot tea &
a plate of plantain-fries, which make my breakfast. And yes, the mandatory newspaper.

This is how a plate of plantain/banana fry would look like.


Snap courtesy : http://dailygirlblog.blogspot.com/

Real yummy. I have had both North Indian and European friends coming over to Kerala and introduced them to this typical Mallu delicacy and they have loved it. Something akin to the banana fritters in the States. The recipe is also available at http://dailygirlblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/pazham-pori-plantain-fritters.html

Anyway, coming back to the topic, I get my breakfast and newspaper and as I am boarding the train, two women walk up to me. They are most probably European, because their English was only so-so. They were wearing the dress most favoured by Indian women (no, not the sari, but the salwar-kameez).They just thrust a ticket in front of me, which I see is for Trivandrum and
so they should be taking the train in which I am travelling, which I tell them.

Since I see that it is a normal ticket, they cannot board the reserved compartment and I tell them so. They reply that they know it is a general ticket and want to know where the ladies coach is, which is an unreserved coach. I tell them it is the last-but-one-coach and direct them
to what I think is the rear of the train, but which is actually the front of the train.

I guess I got a bit disoriented, early morning, two beautiful ladies and all. :-) After they are

gone, I sit back to enjoy my breakfast and the train starts moving, which is when I realise that
I misinformed them. I wonder what they would have done after reaching the front and not seeing the ladies coach as expected, because there would not be time to walk back to the rear.

I just hope they jumped into any of the reserved coaches, walked through the vestibule-linked coaches and reached the rear where the ladies coach is. And I really hope they understand
that it was a genuine mistake and not a prank played on them. Would not be good for India's image as a tourist-friendly destination, if it seemed to them that this was an intentional prank.