Jammu, Sept. 19 -- If you belong to my generation, you probably only have childhood memories of how hard it was to get a train reservation in India. If you are younger than that, ask your parents about the delays, the frustrations, the long lines at the ticket window, the black marketers and the touts. Ask them about the long lines for kerosene, the years spent waiting for a gas connection or a telephone connection. Ask them what it took to fill out an income tax form and how many years before the refund finally arrived. Or what it took to get a passport.

You probably already have the nightmarish 1980s image of a Sarkari office in your mind. You enter and you are mobbed by "agents" asking for bribes. Your life is at their mercy.

But tha...