I hope many of you are aware of this, but still want to share something which helped me booking a tatkal tckt through www.irctc.co.in in a convenient way. Nobody told me before. At first, I thought it's bug in that site, then I realized later that the logic behind this is correct.
If your boarding point is not the train's starting point, then you can book the tatkal tckt much before 1 day (not 24 hours).
Example:
(1) Konark Express:
Starting Point: Mumbai, Maharastra
Destination Point: Bhubaneswar, Odisha
If your boarding point is Hyderabad, Andra Pradesh then you can book the tatkal tckt for 3rd of Jan on 1st of Jan as that trains has already started the journey on 1st of Jan from Mumbai, it'll reach Hyderabad on 2nd of Jan (which is 1day before your journey date) and you are booking it on 1st of Jan only.
(2) Falaknama & East Coast:
Starting Point: Howrah, West Bengal
Destination Point: Secunderabad, Andra Pradesh
If you want to board it from Bhubaneswar, Odisha you can book it (in tatkal quota) 2 days before your journey in a similar fashion.
So no need to stand in the queue 1 day before our journey for tatkal tckt booking. But sometime it is still good to get up early
