About the Book
Book: PLATFORM TICKET
Author: Sangeetha Vallat
Publisher: Penguin
Price: Rs 399/-
A former railway insider reveals the untold stories of ticket clerks, station masters, and lively platforms, writes KUMAR CHELLAPPAN
Is there anybody around who does not like train journeys? It is quite rare to come across people who have not boarded a train at least once in their lifetime. Railways and train journeys are embedded in our hearts, as this mode of transportation is the common man’s odyssey to the world outside his village, town, or city. Who has not dreamt of becoming an engine driver (loco pilot), guard, or TTE in their childhood days?
Once, while interviewing Rahul Bajaj, this writer asked him about his childhood ambition. “I had my school education at Cathedral and John Connon School in Bombay. But I always thought of becoming a railway engine driver,” said Bajaj.
There is a certain romanticism associated with engine drivers. Don’t you remember the song “Dhanno ki aankhon mein hai raat ka surma aur chaand ka chumma”, sung by R.D. Burman for the film Kitaab (1977), directed by the brilliant filmmaker Gulzar. Pran played the role of a steam locomotive driver, and the whole cinema hall erupted with excitement. Much has been written about engine drivers, and the first book that comes to mind is Footprints on the Track, authored by Noel Thomas. It is a tribute to the Anglo-Indian community, which dominated the Indian Railways for decades. Those were the days when community members, after completing their matriculation, went straight to the engine room as firemen, senior firemen, and then engine drivers.
However, books on other railway personnel are few and far between. The most widely read and discussed book on railways is The Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux, the American novelist and travel writer. Although Theroux describes his intercontinental train journeys in detail, he remains silent about the people who make these journeys possible.
For the first time in the history of Indian Railways, a former staff member has written a book exclusively on personnel such as booking clerks, parcel booking staff, station masters, assistant station masters, and porters. The book Platform Ticket by Sangeetha Vallat. What makes this book unique is that the author, worked in the Railways for 14 years in various roles, starting as a commercial clerk. She takes readers into the intricate world of the fourth-largest railway network on Earth. It employs 1.25 million workers and has a route length of 69,182 km. The Indian Railways operates 13,000 passenger trains and 8,000 freight trains every day. According to Indian Railways, it carried more than eight billion passengers in 2022. The size, scale, and vastness of this central government department are truly mind-boggling.
Sangeetha successfully excites readers about the workings of the Railways. She was recruited through the Railway Recruitment Board Examination while she was in the tenth standard and, after two years of training, was appointed as a commercial clerk at one of the stations. The personnel manning railway stations across the country-including ticket issuing clerks and parcel booking staff-are the face of Indian Railways, and the author vividly portrays their world. She narrates her life as a railway professional with élan, sharing anecdotes from platforms, ticketing cubicles, and parcel offices.
Before the introduction of computers, reserving tickets was a cumbersome process. Issuing journey tickets was also complex. The long-drawn-out procedure of booking a ticket took minutes, as commercial clerks had to check seat and berth availability in registers maintained for each train. Tallying card tickets-now artefacts and museum pieces following computerisation-was an intricate task, one that railway customers were largely unaware of. Platform Ticket is a beacon that illuminates the workings of Indian Railways.
Interrupted Flow
The author remains silent about the names of the stations where she worked. At times, the smooth flow of the book is disrupted by the vocabulary she employs. Too many obscure words dampen the reading experience. Phrases such as “He told me the person I was replacing had fled from the clutches of this desolate fleck on the aforementioned map”, “The ladies descried the clerk’s error”, and “As ticketing staff, I have seen a gazillion hands-stubby, albino, gnarled, wrinkled, calloused… the physiognomy often looks familiar” exemplify her narrative style. Perhaps this is an attempt to showcase her extensive vocabulary, but in doing so, she obscures the content of the book. Using difficult words occasionally is fine, but overloading the text with them can be self-defeating.
