A railway station is a place where trains arrive and depart. And with so big a population especially the working population, there is no way out or in when there is a train waiting for departure at a platform. There is havoc all around the station for those few minutes the train arrives there, havoc all around whether it has to depart in a quarter of an hour or a full.

Everybody is so filled with impatience for getting into the train and finding a suitable seat. There are many more interesting things on the railway platform. The platform is full of passengers. Hundreds of men, women and children are to be seen there. Passengers are talking and walking. Some people come to receive their friends and relatives while others to see them off. At one place we may see village women with long veils on their faces.

On other side there are Muslim ladies wearing their ‘burquas’. One can see fashionable ladies, sitting on the benches or walking here and there. The hawkers sell sweets, toys, newspapers, hot tea and betels. They cry at the top of their voice to sell their goods. There are book stalls and permanent shops too to fulfil the needs of the arriving tired or departing and looking-forward-to-a-bright-journey people.

There are beggars from one end to the other, some full of anxiety regarding tonight’s morsel and some full of relief after getting a piece of cake. There are handicapped ones too; whose condition fills one with sympathy. There are passengers sleeping or gazing over their luggage.

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The scene of the railway platform is really veiy charming. Whether it is midnight or midday, we can never find silence and loneliness there, even for a second. There is hustle and bustle everywhere as if there is a big fair. There are all kinds of people there, come from different or same states, with a different language and culture and dresses and tone. All are waiting for train’s arrival.

The scene of the telephone booth on the railway platform is not less interesting. There is a big queue of the people calling their family and informing them about their trains being on time or late. Some people look nervous, as the platform in a way is a frightening place, especially when you have come on time to find trains late or come late to find trains gone. Some are anxious, some are happy.

Some are reading, some are enjoying time-passing groundnuts, some are busy in talking. And all these factors make a railway station quite an interesting place. It always presents a scene of activity. Whether they are passengers, or hawkers or beggars or handicapped persons or coolies, all look busy in doing something or else.