So, Here it comes my tiring journey from UMB to LTT. It all began two weeks ago when I was invited to a wedding which I had to attend. Thanks to this site I managed to use a chain from RDB (My report on that separately) however, I found that there was no useful return chain and hence had to book WL 7/8 which turned RAC upon chart preparation. I alongwith my brother had to return asap and the tatkal options were there but we chose to take up the train. We boarded and looked around to find at least 4 more RAC guys so our hopes of confirmed tickets were dashed. However, the TTE turned up checked our tickets and mentioned 'dekhte hai kuch to hoga, thoda intezaar karleejeeye'. I was surprised that even though another 3AC coach has been augmented my tickets still remained WL. Well more surprises...
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in bag - This train is a pucca passenger viz. full entry all the time is sleeper, 3AC, and 2AC by almost anyone and everyone. Anyway, around evening TTE janaab paid a visit to me and asked 'aapka RAC hai na' and went back, he returned after half an hour again and same question - Which mean he wanted to have an 'adult chat' separately for which I followed him and his demands became clear. INR 200 per berth up for grabs, period. I being a little 'usoolo wala' rejected his offer and came back. Unlike me, my brother scolded me for being stubborn and went back and confirmed our tickets. Even though we had a confirmed berth now the guilt of being part of the stupid system is creating a stink within you as well. You somehow get over it but there is scores of people boarding and deboarding the train all the time. I just wished I could get the upper berth rather than the side lower. The journey is pathetic and should not be undertaken at all for long distance journeys. I somehow pity the sleeper class passengers who not only have to suffer the 40+ temperatures but also the swarm of daily passengers which board and deboard this train. We reached Thane at 3.30 in the morning and I must say I had no energy left in me (I had cramped feet and an upset tummy from the food we managed during the journey). My next link back to Pune was on Indrayani which was 3 hours away. I only wished I should land home somehow. A mention on the Indrayani Loco - a 3rd instance to find Erode WDM in charge ... Quite a offlink.
Thanks for reading. Your 'get well soon' messages are most welcome

Great to see a WE getting LHB rake and augmentation. In summer also not much demand.
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2013-05-03, Fri WL35 WL# 5 2h 34m old Refresh
2013-05-04, Sat WL35 GNWL# 18 / WL# 17 2h 34m old Refresh
2013-05-05, Sun Avbl 1 GNWL# 7 / WL# 6 0m old Refresh
2013-05-06, Mon Avbl 164 GNWL# 17 / WL# 16 0m old Refresh
2013-05-07, Tue Avbl 391 GNWL# 5 / WL# 4 0m old Refresh
2013-05-08, Wed Avbl 422 Avbl 2 0m old Refresh
2013-05-09, Thu Avbl 291 WL# 16 0m old Refresh
2013-05-10, Fri Avbl 279 WL# 8 0m...
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old Refresh
2013-05-11, Sat GNWL17 / WL14 WL# 9 2h 34m old Refresh
2013-05-12, Sun Avbl 186 WL# 2 2h 34m old Refresh
2013-05-13, Mon Avbl 456 Avbl 6 2h 34m old Refresh
2013-05-14, Tue Avbl 392 Avbl 8 2h 34m old Refresh
2013-05-15, Wed Avbl 17 Avbl 15

It has been quite sometime that I had experienced the difficult life back home. Staying in Europe for a while had put me in a different comfort zone and now that am back in India I was trying to get up from my lazy couch. What best to do this than trying to book a tatkal ticket so here it goes.
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Am back home now at Pune so guess the home still needs a lot of work to look like a home. Among important essentials I need to get an internet connection. But as you see it is quite difficult to get one. It's been a week and Rcomm has still not installed my wimax yet. I will extract my revenge by shorting the stock one day when it rallies down....
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Anyway, so I have to depend on my 3G from DoCoMo or the office connection. 3G is quite unreliable as I have experienced so I'm left with the only option to try to book from office. It is not a cakewalk though. I'll have to beat several contenders, First - The PRS queue, then the IRCTC virtual queue, and last my office IP Queue (as only two tickets allowed in tatkal per IP). Looks like the world cup final against Pakistan where Dhoni, Kohli, and Tendulkar all are sitting out and you're left with the likes of Unmukt Chand who have to prove a lot.
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Reached office at 8.30 (I've gone used to starting early from my stay in the west) and was glancing thru the papers when I decided that I would need a strategy to book a ticket. So, I would need to be logged in by 9.30 AM on IRCTC (so that I beat the PRS and IRCTC login queue as well as my office queue), next I need to keep my train list ready in my plan my journey. As well I needed to keep clicking the radio buttons till 10 AM so that I am first to click the book button as soon as the # disappears.
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As it is life is not easy I was able to pass time by clicking all over the trains' radio buttons but when I most needed the 'kaal chakra' to stop it refused to respond till 10.15 when I lost patience and clicked search trains again. I clicked on the SL radio button assuming AC would have been gone by now (and I was right). Voila the Book button was available now with a 182 no of seats (against a quota of 260 for 11019 from PUNE to SC). So i quickly add in my details and enter the captcha and am at the make payment screen where the availability now is 162. I quickly click the payment button and am now waiting again as the kaal chakra is taking me to the payment options page. Am simultaneously tracking availability on the govt. maintained site where availability is fast filling at the tune of 20 seats per minute. God is gracious and most helping when we need, I reach the payment options page. I have experienced that netbanking is by far the fastest method to make payment and here I quickly select the hdfc netbanking method. Within seconds I've authorized my payment and the kaal chakra is revolving as I track the fast filling seats now standing at an availability of 52. Fingers crossed and I see fast filling seats at 16 and boy I have my ticket booked.
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Phew, now I can fight my daily survival with a new spirit.
PS. Thanks for reading thru, My objective was to help others to be successful to book a tatkal ticket on IRCTC. Hope this helps others here.

One of the worst website i have seen is currently the IRCTC's.....
Today morning i was eagerly waiting to book tatkal tickets from sec to awb...i had successfully logged in and was waiting to pass 10:00 am.....as soon as the clock turned to 10:05 i completed all the formalities and was heading towards the final payment gateway.... first i tried with my dad's sbi debit card...after entering the final details the web showed that my transaction is being processed....it was being done for more than 10 minutes....suddenly a message popped up saying that there was a connection error...hence the payment was successfully debited but my ticket just flew away in the air.....the same thing happened with the icici debit card......i lost almost rs1200+...now irctc says ''payment not yet received from the bank''.........now what can i do ??????
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When IRCTC can debit the amount then why can't it just give me the ticket?????