Off-track

If experience is the most brutal of teachers, Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi had a taste of that brutality when he opted for a first-hand experience of commuting on the Kolkata Metro. First, he stood in a long queue for half an hour. Then, when he asked for a round-trip ticket between Rabindra Sarobar and Tollygunj, the clerk told him return tickets were no longer available. When he approached a staffer for an explanation, the minister was asked to establish his identity. The staffer also thought Trivedi was joking when he introduced himself as his boss — the railway minister.