Smouldering wicks
Traveling on Indian railways is always an exhilarating experience. Flights can never replace the joy of train travel. And with the massive upgrade of the railways, it is better than ever before. The new facade of the railway stations, the colorful lights, and the ethnic architecture are worth admiring. The new trains and the upgrading of the old ones, with new colors and pictures, are great to see. Vande Bharat (VB), the most recently introduced one, is sleek and cute. But once you enter the station, it is still the same or better than before. Crowds are more than ever, almost a stampede at times, a 4-hour wait for the VB to arrive and a 7-hour delay to reach the destination, the waste from the previous run pushed into one corner of the train (there was no time for the turnaround trip), the large beautiful bio-toilets, but left un-flushed by the previous occupant, the automatic closing of the doors, etc., give you a mixed feeling. That some things never change. The uncertainty of trave