Train Ka Tashan - How the Indian Train Carries More Than Just People
Mayank Singhal
1
🛏 Sleeper class isn't just a coach.
It's India's middle-class theatre.
Spilled chai. Steel tiffins. Cracked windows. Snoring uncles.
A 16-hour crash course in trust, tolerance, and thermocol pillows.
2
🥚 The pantry guy? The egg puff vendor?
They aren't staff - they're part of the train's unofficial microeconomy.
Every ride funds thousands of small businesses - one chai at a time.
3
🧳 Trains are India's migration lifeline.
From Bihar to Surat. UP to Punjab.
Students, workers, dreamers - packed into General class - chasing survival, not scenery.
They're not just commuting. They're relocating futures.
4
👑 First AC to General - Indian trains literally sell class.
Your berth decides legroom, lighting, safety, and sometimes dignity.
Same destination, 6 levels of inequality.
That's India in motion.
5
🪑 Where else can a tech CEO, a CRPF jawan, and a temple-going dadi sit cross-legged across each other and share mango pickle?
Trains break barriers. But only for a moment.
By the next stop, class creeps back in.
6
🧼 The real unsung heroes?
Train station cleaners. Bedroll guys. The guy yelling "garam chaiii."
They're India's service class - keeping things moving, cleaning up what gets left behind.
7
🧍♀️ Indian trains also tell stories of gendered navigation.
Where to sit. Who to avoid. What to pretend not to hear.
Mobility isn't just distance - it's a dance with discomfort for every woman onboard.
8
🧘🏽♂️ But there's magic too.
The stranger who offers paratha. The aunty who watches your bags.
The toddler giggling under the middle berth.
You arrive tired - but oddly restored.
9
🧠 Indian Railways isn't just a ministry.
It's a mood, a memory machine, a mobile economy.
It connects not just cities - but stories.
If you want to study India, don't start with a textbook.
Start with a ticket.