Even at the age of 10, S Yuvaraaja, a resident of Tamil Nadu’s Tirupur district, was aware that he had the knack for solving problems. He enjoyed working on the computer to decode math equations and his passion to learn coding and create solutions for daily issues led him to excel in his academics and become the first engineer from his village to attend Anna University in Chennai. To further pursue this passion, he completed his post graduation at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur and joined an Aeronautical firm in Bengaluru.
He later left his job to start a business on his own in 2014, and tackle problems in the field of logistics. Wherever a problem arose, Yuvaraaja says, he was keen to find an answer. But little did the 32-year-old expect that this passion would on October 23 this year, land him in a Coimbatore jail, reconsidering his entire approach to life.”I was at home, working on some software, when the Railways police came in and asked if I had developed two mobile applications — Super Tatkal and Super Tatkal pro. I said yes and they immediately wanted to arrest me. They said my app was illegal and against the Railways Act,” Yuvaraaja tells TNM, close to a month after his arrest. He was let out on bail a week later, after being held under judicial remand.
These two applications were in fact created by the techie, in one of his problem-solving spurs in 2016. They allowed users to save the data that is usually filled in to book tickets on the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation(IRCTC) website, to be filled on the app instead. Users could then transfer the details directly to the website at the time of booking the ticket.”In short, they were auto-fill apps and I actually first made it for my own use. In 2014, I was married and living in Bengaluru while my family lived in Tiruppur. So I was constantly taking the train to come home. That is when I realised how slow and cumbersome the IRCTC website is,” he explains. “So I created this application which is a very basic one and began using it to make the process faster. It was initially full of bugs but I rectified it and shared it with friends for their usage,” he adds.
“I am an honest man and I have a business which I rely on for a living. This app was never meant to make money. The allegations made against me are shocking and hurtful for my family,” he says. “My wife and mother were distraught when I was arrested and we haven’t even told my daughter what happened. The kind of words used to describe my motives are shocking,” he adds.Yuvaraaja is now fighting a legal case and says that the last month saw even relatives treating him differently. “While friends understood my intention, relatives were readily assuming I was in the wrong,” he says. But the hardships have not stripped him off his passion to solve problems.”If the Railways is interested, I am willing to share my ideas to improve their current booking system so that it provides a seamless booking experience for end users,” he offers.
