Reflections

Travelling by train, especially between major cities, has become little passe for us middle class in today's era of cheap flights. However the Indian Railways still carries 17 million passengers every day, more than the population on an average sized country. The people who keep the wheels running are not acknowledged, and often ignored by the passengers who benefit from their work. Swapan Sen writes about the unsung heroes of the Indian Railways. I met Nageshwar Rao at a railway level crossing in Araku valley, where my car was held up as a passenger train was passing by. Nageshwar was the gatekeeper at that crossing and was busy showing his green flag to the driver of the train. A cheerful man in his early thirties, Nageshwar had been doing this day-in day-out for the last five years. He had made his little cabin his home with the loving care of a house-owner, converting the little space in-front into a picturesque little garden. A flowering Bougainvillea creeper, Marigo...