The last train from Kharagpur

That is the train ,that comes all the way from Puri, starts 7 o clock in the morning and reached KGP at 11 in the night. This is one train that for some reason stops at santragachi , which I later realized why

the Puri Passeneger is one of the slowest trains in the country , and since it touches all stops in the KGP Howrah routes, including, NagaerPakrail, Abaada, Haur, the ones that trains dont even slow down while passing. But this one train stops everywhere

there was one security guy in the coach that I was in, which I later fathomed was the sardar of the goons on the train route. He is the official boss and informer of people carrying stuff on this route. I was carrying a rather costly Omnia Set and was peeved at the idea of getting into a typical scene there,

Well, the train was late and it stopped at halts, at signals and every where possible, the journey of 114 kms from KGP to Howrah took 5 hours,

The only grace from this fall of travel in India trains was the fact that opposite to me there was this family, all hawkers in this route, which I later realized, the mother a Tiranga Gutkha fan, the father a mobile seller with n mobiles on him. He sold tomatoes in the day time,
These guys knew the whole route like the palm of their hands, they knew which part of the platform the train was in, they knew the tea vendors by the first name, they knew which train was passing by , almostby the sound of it

KGP was a chilling, it was almost 7 degrees when I started, and with the train going fast at times, and without proper windows , which shut half way, got stuck some where, lucky or unlucky me , to get a window side seat, I took like the chaddar that was supposed to be used if I laid down, I wore the chaddar , closed myself in, and observed this family,
Wondering this wonder of the railways,
This family , just lived in the trains, they knew the cops, they knew the TTs , they know where to do what, which platform to get down

From the sound of parcels and cartons getting offloaded at the stations from the vendor wagons, they could tell, what was getting loaded,
they told me the cauliflowers, ( fresh as they can be ) getting offloaded in Sankrail, fish which is fresh to the point the the most miser of the Bengali middle class would pay a fortune for was getting offloaded in the Panskura and the Mecheda station

I was surprised at their intrinsic and almost instinctive control of the running train

at one point of time, they were talking " lets get down here, go to the toilet, buy some fish and take the next local"
it is like walking naked in your own bedroom ,for them


Anyways, I did capture a nice picture from the running train inside the platform of the KGP staion

I am an amateur foto grapher, and this is a proof of it for sure