How the romance of a train journey has lost steam in the age of smartphone

Trains used to run late, and the toilets were dirty. Yet, every moment was a moment of thrill and adventure

No, it is not about being nostalgic and unnecessarily romantic. There was indeed a time when even in a crowded sleeper class I could retain my poetry and positivity. My romance with railway stations and running trains used to enchant me. Seeing the landscape through the windows of the train; feeling a sense of connectedness with a tree, a temple, the echo of an old Geeta Dutt song wafting from a tea shop near the railway track, a village girl on a bicycle moving towards school, farmers sowing seeds in the expanded paddy fields of the Gangetic belt, women washing