Battered and fleeced at railway station

new delhi: the northern railway has always boasted about facilities at the new delhi station —- about trauma services, wheelchairs for the disabled, attentive staff on platforms. but now here is the traumatic story of a spanish couple visiting india for the first time and coming into new delhi by train from karnataka. what drew dhyana torrente and mauro maltagliati here was faith.what they faced was a robbery attempt, a fall from a moving train, completely indifferent railway staff and rs 17,000 medical bills in two days flat. after being yanked out of a slow-moving train barely 200 metres from the new delhi railway station and left to fend for themselves on the platform, dhyana makes an understatement when she calls the experience ‘‘traumatic’’. on march 22, 28-year-old dhyana, a freelance journalist, along with her husband and a 50-year-old friend, were arriving in new delhi from puttapatti on karnataka express. it was dhyana’s first visit to india. ‘‘a stop before the new delhi station, i got off the train to click a few pictures. once the train moved, i climbed back and seated myself on the floor of the train. since it was moving slowly i thought i could click a few more pictures, when i saw this man running along the train and jumped onto it,’’ she said. at first the stunned couple thought he was one of those who hiked a free ride from one station to another. until he lunged for dhyana’s camera and pulled at it. ‘‘she pulled back and held on to the camera but he wouldn’t let go,’’ said mauro. ‘‘within seconds, the two were hanging on to railings outside the train and were down on the railway tracks. instinctively, i jumped too and saw the attacker run away towards two other men. we had to get out of the place and didn’t know where we were,’’ he said. unable to get dhyana on the train, mauro picked her and up and headed towards the station which they found was just walking distance away. it was at the station that the real shock came. ‘‘it was chaotic. there was a crowd but no help forthcoming. it seemed nobody understood english. there were two uniformed men with machine guns who didn’t budge: neither to help us nor to investigate what happened. we yelled out for help but with little response,’’ recalls mauro. ‘‘since there seemed to be no medical facilities around, our friend, henry gomez, went looking for a wheelchair. we got a wheelcart for our luggage instead. on insistent searching, we were told that there weren’t any wheelchairs. when we whipped out a rs 100 note, we got one in two minutes. we then wheeled her out over the tracks on to the road and looked for a taxi. we were entirely dependent on the driver to take us to a hospital. he took us to one on new rohtak road for rs 200,’’ mauro said. ‘‘i understand that the attack on me could have happened anywhere in the world. but delhi being the capital of this country, should have had better facilities at its premier railway station,’’ dhyana said. the couple also recall with a laugh how they were handed a ‘‘police baton’’ after paying rs 200 for a crutch at the hospital. besides bruises all over the body, mauro has hurt his head. dhyana has hurt her waist, her back and the side of her lower abdomen. ‘‘and i have given up any hope of getting a composite bill from the hospital for our insurance cover,’’ he said. a few good words:‘‘the only person who really ran around trying to get us some help at the station was the chaiwallah on karnataka express,’’ says dhyana. ‘‘but he didn’t know the local language and was quite helpless,’’ she said. the hospital doctors were good, quick and helpful, she said. the couple were received by a helpful staff at their hotel in karol bagh. ‘‘when our credit card wasn’t working, the staff even lent us cash,’’ mauro said. the two are now looking forward to a peaceful holi and their trip to dharamshala.