An Indecisive Indian

  I am just back home after a hectic tour of InnoTrans, Berlin, the biggest biennial rail exhibition in the world. Covid had taken its toll and there was no 2020 version so this time it was happening after four years. Not my first time at InnoTrans and I did expect the proverbial déjà vu. Looking at the advancement in rail technology with mixed emotions of my jaws dropping, getting struck dumb and inevitably, doing a frequent double take.   The gap between where we were in India and where the world, particularly Europe, Japan and even China, had reached was like a huge chasm. An eye opener and a reality check, certainly. But more than that, so numbed by our inadequacies after seeing the exhibition and fast swanky trains, I would readily believe Puck , a.k.a., Robin Goodfellow of the bard’s Midsummer Night’s Dream , the mischievous fairy jester who delighted in pranks, if he whispered to me, “ I’ll put a girdle round about the Earth In forty minutes.”   I would a...

  I am an elementary disciple of many poet-uncles, chiefly Shakespeare, the Bard, and chachā (uncle) Ghālib, of course. I also harbour modest pretensions of being a lover of visual art. But how did my uncles look at painters and their artworks? Although Anglo-Saxon art had developed into a unique English style and, later, the medieval period had a strong tradition of religious painting, the advent of the Anglican Reformation was not particularly supportive of art as such. Nicholas Hilliard, “the first native-born genius of English painting,” was a contemporary of the Bard, and many painters had begun to make their mark, but painting was still not an art form that commanded universal respect. The arts were always patronised in India, particularly by the royal courts, and great traditions of cave, temple-wall and mural art flourished through the ages, from prehistoric times onward. Mughal emperors were known to be great sponsors of the fine arts. Individual artists, however, ...

  The third rake of Train 18/Vande Bharat is finally out and reportedly tested successfully at 180 kmph, after a wait of more than three years,. Gratifying news indeed, particularly for me and the team that built the first two; this being a fully-owned technology of Integral Coach factory (ICF), not put together through any disabling Transfer of technology. The improvements done in the train are welcome. When a product is your own creation, improving it is free of any dependence on a technology-provider, and this upgrade, with an experience of running two trains for nearly four years, was expected to supervene. Some details can be read about in these two reports:   https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/new-vande-bharat-trains-boost-travel-experience-advanced-features-indian-railways-1998603-2022-09-10   https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/transportation/railways/with-all-trials-successful-vande-bharat-trains-manufacture-to-begin-from-october-ashwini-va...