A Journal of Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya

and bowed before the engine. I saw the
water tanker behind the engine. I cast
a glance at the other seven wagons. That
load of seven wagons was a small load.
I could see the guard and the guard could
see me. I don’t know who the fireman
was. He was silently looking at the spade
and the coal.’
‘Before I left, the station master had
told me that I should never stop the train
at the Kanmitrazai station, “If you stop
the train, just after that point there is
an acclivity. You will then have a problem
and will have to sweat in that cold. You
will get a run through signal and therefore
you should not stop the train’’.’
‘But when I stopped my goods train,
it was near the Kanmitrazai station. I had
the run- through signal. The guard was
waving his green flag. The fireman was
feeding coal into the engine with his spade.
But I let the vacuum of the engine fall.
There in front of me there was a crowd,
waving their hands and making a noise.
There were empty buckets, pots, drums,
and copper utensils in the hands of the
people in that crowd. And there also was
the green flag of the guard, and the runthrough
signal.’
‘And you stopped the train?’ someone
asked.
‘I stopped the train. Applying the brake
of the engine, I got down from it. The
guard also got down from the brake and
said to me in anger, ‘I told you not to
stop the train here.’
I was silent.
The fireman also said in the same voice,
‘Sir, you don’t know these people. They
are all dangerous. Don’t get involved with
them. You still have time. Drive away
the train from here.’
‘Then what did you do, Raka?’ a man
sitting on the bench asked.
‘I did what one man should do for
another. I saw people waiting eagerly for
water. If they had been dangerous, they
would have attacked the train. They would
have opened the tap of the tanker behind
the engine and would just have taken the
water. But they were waiting with empty
buckets and almost no hope. They had
heard what the guard and the fireman
had said. They thought I would drive away
the train immediately.’
I said in a loud voice, ‘All of you
stand in a queue. Yes, all of you in a
queue. There should be no crowding here.
Everyone will get water, but only after
you stand in a queue.’
‘There was a long queue. In it there
were mostly men and just a few women.
There were three or four girls too. They
were wearing the burqa.’
Two women and one girl were asked
to stand out of the queue. When I asked
the reason, the man who was organizing
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