Trolley suitcase, what a blessing!

The one thing I used to dread those days prior to the advent of trolley suitcases was harassment at the hands of railway porters. Every time I smoothly cruise along railway platforms, drawing effortlessly behind me my trolley suitcase that follows me like my pet on leash, I thank the person behind its invention which almost put an end to the menace of overcharging porters. You can put an elephant calf in a trolley suitcase and pull it along railway platforms!

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There was a time when a porter demanded Rs 100 to carry luggage from my coach to the auto stand at Chennai Central when I arrived from Cochin on a ticket costing just Rs 180. Whatever the porters demanded, you had to shell out without a word of protest. If you tried to argue with them or bargain, they would give you a dressing down. Porters those days earned not less than Rs 1,000 a day, tax-free. Even Governors were not paid that much. But their families never benefited from their earnings. They hardly gave a fraction of their collection to their wives for running the household, which remained as poor as they ever were. What they milked from poor passengers ended up in liquor shops. There were porters who won’t allow you to carry your own luggage. They would tease and torment you by making sarcastic and insulting comments about how shamefully stingy you were in not engaging them.

At certain stations in Kerala in the ’90s, porters went to the extent of stopping passengers from carrying their own luggage. Suitcases used to be snatched from their hands. Hiring porters was made mandatory. Carrying one’s own luggage was an offence. Only passengers carrying briefcases were exempted. Having suffered at their hands so much during my frequent travels to the state, I used to pray for something to happen to put an end to their atrocities. It was when passengers were resigned to overcharging porters that they dropped this trolley suitcase, like manna from heaven. Blessed be the person who is behind its invention. Of course, necessity is the mother of invention.

The advent of the trolley suitcase put an abrupt end to the sufferings of travellers at the hands of red shirts and made the journey tension-free. Even a child or an elderly person can take care of his own luggage. Exploitation cannot go on forever. The other day, when I arrived at Chennai Central with more luggage than I could manage, I looked for a porter to engage in vain. Those days, Central used to be swarming with porters, but now one hardly sees one.

Of course, it is a sad thing that suitcases with wheels rendered many jobless, but who necessitated its invention? Greedy porters who overcharged over a long period! If we indulge in overdoing anything, it ends up in our own undoing.