Indian Railway Ticket Status on Phone

Computerization has made it a lot easier to book the ticket with Indian railways. Gone are the days when I used to fret with the imagination of standing in long queues for getting reservation, on mercy of "Sarkari Babu" gone for tea break in between working hours. Initially there were hicups in the way irctc.co.in used to work but now it looks good.

Recently I got the reservation in waiting list and knew that it's possible to see the status online of your waiting list ticket which is a far relief again from the days when you got to know about your ticket confirmation only after reaching train station. Now based on the availability check ahead in time (2-4 hours before train departs), you can plan what to do next. However again it's not possible to have internet connection and laptop everywhere unless you have internet connected phone.

So I thought it would have been great if the same (availability check) is available on phone too. By chance, I dialed to one of my friends and asked him if he would have time to let me know about my ticket confirmation from internet when I am away on the road. The next thing what he told me is what I really wanted.

It's certainly possible to look at waiting-list ticket status on phone by dialing 139 from any phone from anywhere. It will ask you the PNR number of your train ticket and will provide information on the current status of your ticket. It's also possible to know about the arrival and departure of a train and book ticket with cash-card using 139.

I felt great to know about it and thought others like me who don't know about it should know it too.

Wedding Culture of Bollywood

Today I was watching one of my favorite movies again, "Main, Meri Patni aur Woh". The movie is quite refreshing as it touches many of North-Indian cultural nuances which are mostly untouched in Bollywood movies. Though the movie focuses on the insecurities of a person short in height, the instances/emotions/human psychology is quite near to North-Indian cultural sensibilities.

One of things which attracted me in the movie is the depiction of the way arranged marriage happen in North India. In Hindi cinema, I have observed whenever it comes to marriage, its rituals and traditions, most of the times it looks like that Panjabi traditions are default to all North-Indian marriages. Our real North-Indian wedding traditions are never shown in Hindi Cinema. This movie endorses my view as by looking at the movie you realise the cultural richness in North-Indian arranged marriages. Also it looks like there are many stories waiting to be told which may focus on cultural richness of small towns of UP/MP or Bihar.