Book Review - Platform Ticket by Sangeetha Vallat



The Indian Railways is one of the largest operating organisations in the world. Zillions of people travel through trains every day, including you and me. And yet how little we know about it!

In her debut novel Platform Ticket, author Sangeetha Vallat has shared candid narratives of her life as an employee of the Indian Railways. 

From working at platforms in unheard-of stations, to earning the title of The Express Lady for her speedy work in booking tickets, Sangeetha has been there and done it all.

The book contains details of her tryst with the Indian Railways, a bond that began when she was just twenty years old. The experiences that she has had and the people she has met and befriended over the years – these form the crux of her narrative. The author has written in a manner that is casual, factual, witty and poignant all at once.

The book transports you into another world – that of the Railways where it is not just the trains or passengers that form the essence, but the beggars sulking in a corner of a platform, the sweepers, the police force ever ready to aid, the zillions of employees handling the tiniest of details that make for the smooth functioning of the organization, the clerks, the ticket-issuers, the ticket-checkers, Station Masters – it is a whole universe here! The author has successfully brought this universe to life through her detailed and exuberant narrative.

The narration is excellent, not only keeping the readers engrossed but also involving them deep into the scene. Candid glimpses of the author’s personal life show her struggles and her silent grief and add to the poignancy of the narrative. Snippets of the lives of her friends and the people she met during her working days add in a sense of the reality of life. You can feel her yearning for her friends and for good old days, and you can't help looking back at your own life and wanting to go back to a good old time as that mentioned in the book – a time when life thrived on personal connections and humane touch.

I know this book will stay with me for a long time. Can’t recommend it enough! Definitely a must-read for everyone.  

 

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