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The Morning Train

Somewhere around 7.15 am a local train chugs out of Kalyani Simanta station in the district of Nadia. By the time train reaches Naihati the largest town between Kalyani and Kolkata. There is hardly any space left to stand properly. At Shayamnagar the rush increases several folds and at Barrackpore there is equal number of people standing inside the train as outside. As stations passes the pressure inside increases several folds. At Belgaria people somehow try to cling to train to reach Dumdum rather than some other hell outside the world. Dumdum comes as a relief for those who will continue the journey to Sealdah. But what about those who got down at Dumdum? Well they still have some more punishment to go through, first at ticketing, then at entry points. And finally at the suffocating boxes which will take these cattle herds to their respective farms in the Central Business district. And Fnow the herd which left for Sealdah. A big part will get down at Bidhannagar. The rest will go to the crowded station of Sealdah and then proceed to farms around the city. This journey won’t end here it will continue till 1200 noon as herds after herds will repeat the same cycle again and again. By 3.00 PM the flow of cattle will reverse and will continue late in night. These herds will follow the same boring, tiring and punishing routine every day. Some of us find happiness in this journey and envy their counterparts who go in the opposite direction in trains which mostly carries empty seats. But today the question is, was it necessary to deny all of us a respectable life and convert all of us to nothing more than cattle herds? More than 50 years ago our visionary CM Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy built two cities one Salt Lake in outskirts of Kolkata the other was Kalyani. He dreamt Kalyani will rival Kolkata built by our colonial rulers. But today the reality seems totally different our comrade ministers who have ruled us for last 34 years seemed much happier in Made by British city than Made by Indians city. Today with every passing day Kolkata’s infrastructure is pushed to limit. When the roads in Kolkata are packed full the roads in Kalyani remain silently empty. When trains towards Kolkata remain packed full coming out of Kolkata carry nothing but seats. Had same focus been given to Kalyani today two of our great cities of South Bengal are dying one because of hunger and other because of over exhaustion. And who is responsible I guess our Railway minister cos she is no communist that makes her guilty in the first place. She should make sure that trains run every 1 min. Why should a communist state minister care whether running trains at such interval is possible? After all it is not under their control therefore the woman must be horrible if she can’t do this.
But today I have a small request for all our Ministers specially our CM, FM, Urban affairs Minister to take a ride from Kalyani or Naihati to Sealdah or Dumdum on the morning train. You all will realize how much work you all have done in last 34 years and who is to blame for these mistakes. But if you can’t find answers to these questions you will surely find more reasons to blame our Railway Minister. So please do take the ride.

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