It is no secret that just about anything can be bought in our country. Even so, it seems a little shocking, that while people are known to queue for hours, and that too months in advance, for outstation train tickets, a well-established parallel system exists that can generate genuine, confirmed tickets just hours before the train departs. For an extra cost, of course. Not only that, the ticket is issued for someone who need not even be present, though regulations specify that a ticket can only be given against original identification.

In the light of heightened security concerns, it is all the more astonishing that the black-marketing of tickets goes on under the noses, if not with the collusion, of the authorities. On one hand sniffer dogs check outstation trains. On the other, any anonymous person can buy a ticket — or six — for a couple of thousand rupees more.