Counting wagons

Despite an electronic system of tracking wagons, their number cannot be declared with certainty by Indian Railways

In those days, in the early 1970s, I was an undergraduate student in Kolkata. My father got transferred to Delhi. I suspect the imagery of a firearm is inappropriate. Nevertheless, lock, stock and barrel, the family had to move from Kolkata to Delhi. Perhaps trucks weren’t the preferred mode then. One needed to get a wagon from the Indian Railways (IR). Nor were those days when you did everything online through the IR’s freight operations information system (FOIS). But you could apply for single wagons then, though as with every period of shortage, wagons were impossible to get. (People will