An Indecisive Indian

Should I clarify that my love for art, or my obsession with art, as may like to term it, is not an exercise in self-aggrandizement ; since I can neither sketch nor paint, I can easily excuse people who think so. But more than that, as a student of science and later still worse, engineering, I have always found myself deficient in appreciating some more exquisite chattels of life, like visual art. I would visit museums and art galleries and while I wore an appreciative look deliberately, the truth was that I was mostly lost. I can, therefore, quite shamelessly say that all this is indeed a means to extract some vicarious pleasure out of the visual treasures created by others. I attribute my attempts at experimenting with art and artists and then writing books on my experiences with them to a wistful desire for getting rid of this deficiency. This deficiency also prompts me towards the endeavour to snoop peek into the minds of the artists not merely by looking at their art works but also...

I started writing the ICF and Train 18 story sometime in January 2019, within a month of my retirement. It all started when many magazines and journals requested me to write a story on making of Train 18 and I did not know where to begin. But, willy-nilly, I wrote some articles which were promptly printed. Many magazines and newspapers carried my interview also and that content was readily available without me needing to stretch too much in sitting down to write ab initio . So far so good. But I soon realized that it was easy to put down the story in an article. It needed more detailing, more space. I, therefore, revived my moribund blog, An Indecisive Indian , and started to write more meaningfully, or so I hoped. With uncertainties and even gloom engulfing the future of Train 18, my spirits to continue writing the story dampened. I have repeatedly been told by well-wishers that my story was complete in itself and future need not be a part of this story. Well, I have decided t...

Even as the cacophony surrounding Train 18 was picking up, thanks to odd presentations by ICF officers in various forums and the buzz being built up by the media, I  was awarded the certificate of excellence for transformational initiatives at ICF by the Minister of Railways in April 2018. While many of my colleagues felt that it was a befitting recognition of the humongous work done at ICF, there were others who attributed it to my closeness to Ashwani Lohani , the then Chairman Railway Board . One way or the other, It hardly mattered to me as one is used to awards and shields being decided on whims and fancies in railways. What I did know was that Lohani indeed decided on this award overruling others in Board who wanted to scuttle it; Lohani, in any case, is built in a leader’s mould which is always exuberant in words of recognition for one of his team. I must also mention Satish Kumar, the then Principal executive Director/Transformation in the Board who was doing a great job i...