How the obvious is overlooked when our mind is stressed.

As I drive into the parking lot of Mavelikara station last Sunday evening, I can faintly hear
a train arrival being announced. My wife lowers the car windows so that it's more audible
and yes, it's the arrival of my train to Chennai that's being announced.

Since we are there 10 minutes before the scheduled arrival of the train, I know that it must
be the first announcement which means that the train must have just reached the previous station. There will be a second & final announcement just minutes before the train chugs into
my station.

Anyway, I say my goodbyes, kiss my son and watch them drive away. Since my ticket was Waitlisted (WL) when I booked it, I walk to the station notice-board to check the current
status & my coach number. While my name is there on the chart, there is no indication of
my current booking status or the coach number.

I am slightly tensed now. I hate travelling in uncertainty which is what it is if your ticket
is RAC (Reservation Against Cancellation) or worse WL. When I last checked on Friday,
it had progressed to RAC34, which means I have sitting accomodation guaranteed. And
if someone cancels their ticket, I would even get a berth to have a nice night's sleep.

My mind races on how I can get to know my latest status and coach number. My people
would not have reached home yet and thus not possible for me to ask them to check on
the internet. Two of my close friends/colleagues are on vacation in North India and thus
they can't help. I think of another friend who is in Chennai, but don't want to disturb him
on a Sunday evening.

Anyway, I decided to accost the TTE and get into the coach that stops near where I am
standing. Luckily the TTE is there in that coach and he tells me that my status is still RAC
and my seat is 39 in coach S6. That problem solved, I move to my seat in the next coach.

The train leaves after a 1-minute halt at my station, but takes a long unscheduled halt at
the next station - no announcements nothing, so no idea why it was held up there for close
to 1 hour. Anyway, I use the time to call my wife and tell her about how I got tensed about
not knowing my ticket status and could not think of anyone who could look it up for me on
the net.

She stops short of calling me "dumbo", but says, "When you have GPRS enabled on your
mobile and can surf the net from it, why do you need someone else to look it up for you?"
I am like, "How could I forget this ?"

I had GPRS enabled on my mobile some weeks ago & have been actively surfing the net
and checking my mails from my mobile. But when it came to a crunch situation, my mind
just did not come up with the most obvious solution. No wonder it is said that when faced
with a problem, the first thing to do is to take a deep breath & be calm, instead of panicking.

P.S. : I thought I would have to sit through the night, but thanks to God, around midnight,
the TTE came over and alloted me a berth. So could get a nice night's sleep.