The Dreamers of a Railway Station

By Simanta Das

Everybody has dreams and no dream is big enough to be conquered if he or she strives hard to achieve it. Sachin is a village boy who grows up in poverty and aspires to be an Engineer. He works hard to achieve his dream of being an engineer and in the process makes new friends and finds love. He is helped by people unknown to him and he returns their favor. He faces may hurdles in his life and his love abandons him. Yet he is not dejected and moves on with his life. This story is a reflection of many people who struggle hard initially and have a ‘never say die’ attitude. If you are struggling in life then this book is a must read for you.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Notion Press
• Release date: Apr 8, 2015
• ISBN: 9789384878870

Book preview

Preface

Every time I embarked on a train journey I could see young kids selling goods on the railway platform. I never missed an opportunity to talk to them and ask them about their dreams and aspirations. Most of the time they would open up and tell their story and their dreams. They would tell how they landed up in the railway station. At times I came across children who want to pursue their dream and become a doctor or an engineer while trying to make their living by selling goods at the railway station. Their sheer grit and determination inspired me to write this Novel which will serve as a source of inspiration for others to dream big and achieve their dream. This book is a story of one such dreamer who dared to dream.

Chapter 1

Sachin is sitting under a tree, listening to the sweet songs of the birds above. The early morning mist falls on his hands as he contemplates about his purpose in life. Sachin comes from a poor family consisting of his mother, father and one sister. His father is a poor farmer. They live in a small village called Titka, which is situated near a railway station. Their house consists of one room and a small kitchen where Sachin’s mother cooks food for them. Every morning Sachin accompanies his father to the railway station to sell tea to the passengers of the Brahamaputra Express which stops at the station for about half an hour. For as long as Sachin can remember, he has been selling tea in the station with his father to help earn additional income for the family.

Wake up Sachin! It’s already 5:00 AM. The Brahamaputra Express will be reaching the station anytime soon! said his father.

This was the regular wakeup call for Sachin. He would then run along the side of his father’s bicycle with a vessel full of tea. They would reach the railway station early, and the Brahamaputra express would reach the station at exactly 5:25 AM every morning on its way to New Delhi from Guwahati. Sachin will run from one end of the train to the other, shouting Chai le lo Chai, garam garam chai. Passengers waking up early wound up buying tea from them, since they were only tea seller in that small station. Sometimes, they tipped Sachin - and it made him very happy to see the extra money he had earned to buy books and to pay for his education.

After returning from the station, Sachin gets ready to go to school. His father prepares to go to the fields. His mother takes care of his little sister and prepares food for them. In the afternoons, she takes lunch for his father. Sachin goes to a government school in his village where he studied for the most part of his life. His school is in a dilapidated condition with not only doors and windows missing from the classroom, but sadly, even the teachers. There is a blackboard but most of the time, there is no chalk to write with. Most teachers come late to school and are absent for most parts of the year. They allow the students to copy from each other and pass the exams so that they get their grants from the government regularly.

Whatever Sachin learned was from his real gurus and mentors Mohit, Ramesh, Anil and the station master, Suresh. Mohit did his Master’s degree in Physics from the government college in the nearest town. Since he wasn’t able to get a job, he became a coolie in the railway station. Ramesh is good in mathematics and did his Master’s degree in Mathematics from the same college as Mohit’s.

Ramesh opened a paan shop at the railway station to make a living and to take care of his parents. Anil is the smartest of them all. He had a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry and had applied for many government jobs, but didn’t get through as he was unable to arrange for the bribes that the babus demanded from him. He decided to become a thief and began stealing things from the passengers on the train. He makes much more money than Mohit and Ramesh because he sells the stolen goods to the local shop keepers in the village. Suresh, the Station Master, has a Masters’ degree in English. He got his job after paying a hefty bribe to the local officials. He sold his ancestral property to the local money lender and paid the entire amount to the officials who gave him a job in the railways.

This reflects a sorry state of affairs in our current system. People who are educated and have degrees don’t get jobs as there aren’t enough jobs for them. They either remain unemployed or start their own small businesses to take care of their families. Sachin, who is already in the 10th Standard, has his own dreams. He wants to study for an Engineering degree at CITS in New Delhi. CITS is one of the premier institute for engineering in India and it is really difficult to get into the college. But Sachin wants to be like a passenger he met a few years ago on the train.

Sachin was so impressed by the CITS graduate passenger who bought tea from him, that he wanted to be like him and become someone important in life. He wants to travel in the first class like the CITS graduate did.

In his small village, there is no one who has studied engineering. Sachin wants to be the first engineer from his village. Mohit, Ramesh and Anil tried to