Railway station is a place where trains come and go for different stations. The trains alight and take up passengers from this spot. The normal station in a township is situated at the focal point covering five to ten villages or a few nearby townships.

A few rooms a verandah on both sides a gate entry and platforms on the edges of railway track. The bridge helping to cross the lines and toilets on the last corner. These are some of the infrastructures constructed by railway authorities. The important compartments are railway booking office, cloak room, stations master’s officer, signal room, ticket collector’s room and waiting rooms for upper classes. The entry platform has tea stalls, book stalls and a few shops of cold drinks, fruits and children toys. Some push – carriages are moving hurriedly on the platforms. Many vendors are sailing different eatable slice bread pakoras, biscuits, packaged foods and other things.

Then the scene turns over as the assistant station master receives signal for train arrival. A helper in dark blue shirt rings the bell. This changes the scene. The eatable carrier vendors start moving toward their point to sell products. In the same way, station porters in red shirts stand on the door points of the coaches. The train steams in and incoming passengers block the passage and passenger, who are to alight, find it difficult to alight. Goods is handed over through windows. There is cracking noise of vendors and the compartment children, who are struggling for going out. Te tussle continues and then some travelers move to have a stroll on the platform. They find it difficult and, thus, sit back on their seats and try to get eatables on the seat itself.

The train waits for next train which is arriving from the opposite side. Group vendors curtail some of them by shifting to the other platform. They perhaps assess that the remaining few customers can be looked after by a few fix shops or big trolley vendors. Red-shirt coolies also shift their waiting spot to the next train.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

The train arrives on the next track with the same scene. The rush is more there. It seems some political leader is arriving by the train. The train enters, waits for a few minutes and steams off. As the outgoing train crosses outer signal, this train also reports departure and packs out for its destination.

Railways are one of the biggest state-owned establishment in India. It provides employment to millions of Indians. It is expanding day by day but the style of those middle class stations remains the same. They present the same scenes everyday and every moment as the train stems in and steams out. Let us wait till the scene at the railway station changes presenting new shape for passengers and travelers.