An Indecisive Indian

Creativity is contagious.  So pass it on. (lines stolen from Einstein)   I am neither creative nor artistic. But I intend to really pass it on from one place to another. Fresh from our successful experiment with Art in an industrial setting, after this adventure had begun way back in 2011 at Bangalore station, am I ready to push the envelope?   Absolutely. I am now working as the General Manager of Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Chennai, the flagship train builder of Indian Railways. It is a very large factory, with five times the number of employees as compared to Rail Wheel Factory, Bangalore, turning out more than 2000 train carriages a year, arguably one of the busiest in the world. A very strong committed workforce.       Trains have romance. Making wheels has it’s own magic. But building trains? In any case, who wants to replicate, do an identic, even if it’s an encore of your own doing? It’d be great to bring out something like a duple. 

      (this sketch is the best tribute ever paid to me by anyone)   Let me start with a cliché, oft repeated by us. Indian   Railways (IR) has always been an unintended fountainhead of art and culture, reflecting the unique heritage and multi-cultural ethos of our country. Lily Pandeya & I said it in our previous book, ‘Art & Railways, a Bangalore Saga’.   We had started the Art movement, Safar , in the year 2011,   and looking at its success and appeal among Railway men and travelling public alike, chronicled the experiment in this coffee-table book. Later, we parted ways and I landed in Germany for   a stint in the Embassy of India, handling IR’s post-contractual works all over the world.   A relatively stress-free job but it involved extensive travelling. It helped me acquire a new perspective on Art in so many unusual and unlikely settings. A warehouse here, an eatery there, a shrine yonder.   I was back in   Bangalore after three years and o