Over the last decade or so, India has accelerated the pace of replacing its narrow and meter gauge railways with the bigger, faster broad gauge. While the socio-economic benefits of the broad gauge are many, its arrival has ended the era of the slow, leisurely travel – the kind that a few hopeless romantics like me still yearn for. Travelling on these lines meant taking…
Dharakhoh
There is a place on this planet which you probably would have never heard of, had you not been reading this post. Chances are, that after reading this post you will forget about it and get on with your lives again. But that is not the point, in fact there IS no point. It just so happens that it is there. You probably won’t get…
Shaadi Ke Laddoo – Redux
0345 hrs and Nizamuddin Railway station resembles a zombie movie set. It is mostly dark, a few sputtering streetlights barely illuminate the car park. People are everywhere on the pavement, scattered like dead bodies. The odd person walking about, does so in a slow stagger. I am looking for a porter but there are none in sight. I am resigned to heft my heavy luggage single…
Rajdhani
What a jerk! The invective directed towards the idiot who has piled a mountain of luggage in the aisle. And towards the collective force of the train’s weight acting on the coupler as it starts. The owner of the luggage appears, rushing in from the door waving goodbyes to the hordes that have come to see him off. Barging his way past me, he spends…
Aboard a train
Wherever a train goes in this country, chances are that I have been there. And in those hundreds of journeys across thousands of kilometers I have come across uncountable men, women and children some of whom have left an indelible impression on my being. I was lucky enough to capture some on my camera but a vast majority of them are out there is some…