My father, a central government of India employee, made sure we made our religious LTA (leave travel allowance) when he was in service. Thought there was no IRCTC , my father almost always made sure we had all the tickets reserved in advance, which meant a trip to the railway station and long wait in the queue and with a finite probability of not getting your tickets after hours of standing in the queue. Once the tickets in hand, these journeys those days used to be great, especially because my father used to make it a point to write to all his friends about our train travel, the date and the likely time it would hit the station close to them. Invariably, we had someone or the other come and meet us along the way at the stations that our train used to stop, so this once in 4 years LTA meant we did meet our friends and relatives albeit for a couple of minutes on the platform. As kids the most interesting aspect, more than just getting to meet them, was t...