An Indecisive Indian

  There are two distinct species of people—albeit at opposite ends of the opinionated spectrum—who are my perennial bêtes noires, my fate-bound tormentors in the grand circus of public discourse. On one side are the unwavering zealots, those impervious to all evidence, chanting the mantra of Vishwaguru! (Teacher to the world), while reality smoulders quietly in the background, like embers that have not erupted into full flames but are still destructive, hiding an ignored quagmire while the grand illusion persists. For them, Indian Railways (IR) is racing ahead at full throttle—never mind the frequent derailments, both literal and metaphorical. No matter that while eloquence and hype swirl abundantly in the air, action and completion remain as rare as a punctual sarkari (governmental) file. Then there is the other lot, equally insufferable, who believe that IR is an irredeemable mess, a grand monument to incompetence, incapable of so much as tightening a loose nut without divine int...

Safety on Indian Railways (IR) comes to the fore with frenetic TV and media debates, narratives, and counter-narratives every time there is a major mishap. But as the national attention span rivals that of a goldfish, the issue fades as soon as the headlines move on. Fortunately, barring the unfortunate stampede at New Delhi Railway Station on February 15, there has been a respite for months. This, therefore, is the time to rise above the din and take a hard look at railway safety—before another disaster rudely reminds us. Whenever railway safety becomes a hot topic, critics claim that IR prioritizes optics over safety, leading to a rise in accidents, while the government alleges nefarious activities of sabotage by external enemies. Both narratives miss the mark. The number of accidents has actually declined, but the sabotage theory, fuelled by cases of occasional track obstructions, was never convincing as most cases were rather trivial, even childish, to cause a derailment. I have al...

  In the deafening din of religious fervour for the holy dip at Kumbh, amidst railway stations teeming like anthills, crowds jostling like marbles in a shaken jar, and Indian Railways (IR) indulging in self-congratulatory chest-thumping over the number of trains and passengers ferried, an uncomfortable truth lurks in the shadows: our approach to passenger safety is not just archaic but a tragedy waiting to unfold. If IR’s assurances were a suit of armour, then the recent New Delhi stampede has exposed it as nothing more than rusted chainmail, riddled with gaping chinks. It is a bitter pill to swallow, but swallow we must, for the calamity has once again laid bare failures that stem not from financial drought but from a callous indifference to the fundamental tenets of safety and convenience. The first question stares us in the face: Was the stampede at New Delhi station on February 15th avoidable? The answer is as glaring as the midday sun—yes, it was. Yet, amidst the cacophony of ...

    I had mentioned in the part II that we would talk about big ticket projects of Indian Railways (IR) in the concluding part III of this blog series. But beware, recalling Helena from the bard’s All’s Well That End Well, “...Oft expectation fails most and most oft there Where most it promises, and of it hits Where hope is coldest and despair most fits” , we may be worse off, with expectation getting belied in both hopeful and hopeless situations. So, this is the concluding part of this blog series on the performance of IR in the year 2024. The links for Part I and II are referenced at the end. Big-ticket projects We are constantly bombarded with updates on the percentage completion of high-profile projects, yet nearly all of them remain mired in inordinate delays. Be it the, Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFCs), J&K rail line, Vande Bharat Sleeper and other versions, High-Speed Rail (HSR), Pamban bridge, station redevelopment, track upgrades for 160 kmph operations and enh...

  The article titled ‘Vande Bharats to run on bullet train corridor, till Japanese Shinkansens arrive’, published under a New Delhi dateline on 22nd January 2025 in The Times of India (ToI), caught my eye with all the pomp and circumstance of a royal proclamation—only to quickly unravel into the literary equivalent of a magician pulling a rubber chicken out of a top hat. What began roughly as an affirmation of the publication's unflinching faith in official proclamations soon spiralled into a fever dream of fantasy—a heady determination to do one better than Indian Railways (IR), concocting unbridled optimism and wishful thinking, served with a garnish of absurdity. By the time I reached the end, my bemused disbelief had given way to hysterical laughter, the kind that escapes when one is faced with the sheer audacity of the hooey. One cannot help but wonder if the ToI is no longer just a news outlet but a willing participant in the grand IR theatre, taking every official whisper an...

A sagacious senior once shared with me a piece of advice that became an anchor in my life: while it is natural and noble to have dreams, four things must precede them—your family, your friends, your health, and your spirit. This counsel was a stark departure from the loud chorus of worthies who relentlessly urge youngsters to "chase their dreams." Instead, he urged patience, advising me to nurture the fire of my dreams, to let them simmer, not extinguish, and to wait for the opportune moment to bring them to life. When that moment arrives, he said, seize it with all your commitment and passion, guided by the timeless words of the people's President, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam: "Dream is not what you see in sleep but is the thing which doesn't let you sleep." “Go wisely and slowly. They stumble that run fast” ,  Shakespeare warns through Friar Lawrence in Romeo and Juliet, a reminder that dreams pursued recklessly can falter before fruition. The wisdom of measured p...

  The railway ministry announced on 9th January at a plenary session titled "Green Connections: Diaspora's Contribution to Sustainable Development" of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas convention that Indian Railways (IR) had achieved a milestone and the Hydrogen fuel-run train engine developed by it has the maximum horsepower in the world. Stating that only four countries in the world make such train engines, it further added that, "Other countries produce somewhere between 500 to 600 horsepower while the engine produced by IR using indigenous technology has an output of 1,200 horsepower, the highest so far in this category. The first such train is expected to make a trial run in Haryana soon on the Jind-Sonipat route. While the engine manufacturing has been completed, system integration of the same is currently underway”. I had last written on Hydrogen trains in 8th Sep.21 issue of The Pioneer titled, “Let all green initiatives not be just gas” .  A brief summary of this...