yet again ... getting lost ... then enjoying self-discovery ...

Title: The Social Life of Indian Trains - A Journey Author: Amitava Kumar  Publisher: Aleph Price: 399/- ISBN: 978-93-6523-896-9 Genre: Non-fiction First Published: 2025 Pages: 142 This review finds place on the Deccan Herald here . Thanking the team at Deccan Herald. Amitava Kumar takes us on a journey with trains - a journey where he touches upon history, literature and personal experiences.  He sets the tone in a manner befitting the book, “ the railway lines that criss-cross the country, and are longer even than our majestic rivers, bind the landscape into a whole and give it a sense of a nation ”. He has us revisit classics like Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi , Gulzar’s Raavi Paar , Kamal Amrohi’s Pakeezah , Dushyant Kumar’s Tu kisi rail si guzarti hai , Bhisham Sahni’s Amritsar Aa Gaya Hai , and others. With a keen eye, comfort in multiple languages, and dexterity with words he elucidates the role of trains in these poems, movies, and books, and as a corollary in our soci...

Some questions, Some numbers  Storms delay 50 flights and divert 50 flights in Dilli. Heavy rains cancel 50 flights in Bombay. Headlines like these are common these days.  Headlines which raise few questions.  Since when have flights become indicators of bad weather?  Does weather affect only those who travel by flights?  Are we, our media, bothered only about the upper crust that travels by flights?  Is time important only for those who travel by flights?  Are flights our only or the most popular mode of transport?  If it is about flight delays do flight delays at smaller airports make news?  Is it only the English media that reports in this manner?  In a country like India should this be news leave alone headlines? If nature has decided on rains and storms do we have an option other than waiting? Just so that we have a perspective Roughly 4 ~ 5 lakh people in India travel by flights each day Roughly 40 ~ 50 lakh people use the Dilli Me...

I had been on them a couple of times but finally we took the local train, to enjoy the train. The journey from station nearest to home to the last station on line, Arts College to Falaknuma, cost 5/- per person. A quick check – after return – on the fare for cab for the route pointed to 300/- and indicated consuming thrice the time. Some Sunday evenings we go to Lamakaan to soak in events; that day it felt as if we were going to another city. Not only did the constructions outside give the feel but also the people we shared the coach with. Falaknuma station I had walked on for about 20 odd minutes when, during a return journey from Bangalore, the train had taken an unscheduled halt. My memory was restricted to an interesting quiet about it, a long structure – rooms stitched together for storing goods and a double-decker train. The red and yellow train was present today as well and the storage space appeared equally laid back. Google Earth, April 2016, Falaknuma Station and ac...