I had a difficult day at work, and came home early, for a change. Its a lovely evening outside my window, and I should have just chilled out. But no, I had to decide to get tickets booked for a trip I need to make this weekend. I thought I should check out the train reservations first. I searched for the indian railways site, and finally found both an indian-railways@gov.in as well as irctc.co.in. I tried a dozen times to find out the different trains and timings to my planned destination. Each time I got the error message and couldnt open the page. Finally I turned to irctc. I thought, why not register, this could be useful whenever I need to book tickets online. I filled in the registration form, about 20 lines. Clicked submit.And wham, ‘this page cannot be displayed.

I checked all the settings I could, as well as my net connection. All hunky dory.

I filled in the form again. Clicked submit. Same result. I tried again, and again. Finally decided that this site is not registration friendly.

Went back to the homepage and tried the ‘Train between Metros’. Well, that page couldnt be displayed. Nor could the “Train between important stations’ be displayed.

I kept trying ways and means, tried google search, dogpile search, but now even irctc was not in a mood to be displayed.

Ive spent more than 2 hours, most unproductively. I could have read a book, listened to music, watched BBC Entertainment, gone to bed early….

Maybe I should try one more time. I do want to make that trip…..

May 1st was a holiday from official labours, and I was up early (8.30 on a holiday, is early) taking care of a few non official ones such as taking stock of my neglected kitchen.

Suddenly I heard the melodious song of the koel. I realised that this is first time this year that Ive heard the bird. Normally one would hear its plaintive voice in February. Maybe at Bangalore the bird is a far earlier riser than me. Or maybe the heat and dust have kept it at bay. I rushed to the balcony to see if could spot the bird. There was no tree anywhere near, the sky was a glaring blue. I dont know where voice came from, but I felt that everything would surely be glorious on a day that I heard my first koel of the year. Maybe summer has gone from Bangalore, and spring is finally here.

I was thrilled to learn that Vijay’s Bangalore Blues blog has been quoted in several and newspapers and the corresponding webeditions of Deccan Herald as well as on Indiatimes.

Thrilled because the blog expressed what many of us have been feeling, and someone out there took the trouble to present these views to all. Thrilled because Vijay initiated me into the joys of blogging. Thrilled because its nice to know blogs make a difference, people do care to share thoughts and feelings.

I also feel guilty. How often have I felt deeply about something which affects the public good (is there a public bad, by the way?) and felt that I must act, I must convey this danger or this problem to others. But before I can put mouse to blog, some thing or the other crops up and I postpone the thought of writing, and then the right time never comes.

Kudos Vijay for taking the time and trouble to write what you feel.

Maybe I will reform, and actually use my blog for its original purpose, to share thoughts and ideas. Maybe the moon is made of blue cheese. Maybe.  But  do Check out Vijay’s views on the Set Max telecast of the World cup, at Bangaloreblues.wordpress.com