In the previous frame, we have seen those symbols of Nehruvian development and progress – a row of electric towers holding hands via their cables. These towers are not too far away from Apu and Durga’s home in Nischindipur village. But they seem a different country, a different age away.
Durga has no answer to Apu’s question. She has no idea what ‘those’ are. She shrugs and returns to the shade and sway of the kansh grass. Apu tries to open his mouth again – ‘If Ma…’ He probably wanted to tell her, ‘If Ma knew we’ve ventured so far, she would be very angry.’ But before he can finish his sentence, Durga puts her finger on his lips – it’s the universal sign for ‘Shut up’.
She has already heard another sound over and above the breeze. Impatiently, Durga starts to look across the horizon. She’s heard something, and it’s approaching in their direction. On the left of the frame, we see a tail of black smoke forming. Sister and brother run out of the kansh grass and make a dash through towards the source of the sound. Belching black smoke and crossing the landscape, a giant caterpillar, keeping a steady beat, makes its way across swiftly.
The camera suddenly swings. We see Apu rush off towards the train. We see next the field and kansh grass swaying from the opposite end of the tracks between the wheels of the passing train. And then, Apu picks up a stone and throws it at the exciting, awe-inspiring beast that is the speeding train.
You’re right. The last bit is made up. But the kind of discussion (sic) I heard over the last few weeks on the stones hurled at the Vande Bharat Express, makes me want to hurl a stone or two at ‘expert panels’ in TV studios. Instead of focusing on the acts of vandalism conducted on the new semi-high-speed train, these boffins are obsessed about making it a political fracas — a Modi government vs opposition-ruled states thingie. All because a couple of days after a Vande Bharat train on the Howrah-New Jalpaiguri line in West Bengal inaugurated by the PM recently, a window of the passing train was damaged by a stone pelter. It must have been an act of political gunda-gardi.
This week, three persons were arrested for throwing stones at the coaches of Vande Bharat – in Visakhapatnam, YS Jagan Mohan Reddy-ruled Andhra Pradesh. The police found the miscreants not to have smashed the train’s windows because they were anti-Modi or anti-BJP, but – drum roll – because they were inebriated. Since the launch of Vande Bharat in February 2019 on the New Delhi-Varanasi line, on an average, there has been three cases of stone-pelting on various Indian Railways trains across the country. The sites of the crime – by the Railway Act, 1989, Section 152, attacking or vandalising a train is a punishable crime – range from near Jaipur, Visakhapatnam, Bhubaneshwar and various stretches in Kerala. During the December 2018 trial run on the Delhi-Agra line, someone had smashed a window of the train too.
According to the Railway Protection Force (RPF), almost all attacks on passing trains are by kids who live in shanties next to the train lines. For them, it’s a thrill. By the time a train registers it has been damaged and slows down, these kids have long fled from the scene. The ones always arrested are drunks throwing empty bottles at passing trains.
The truth is, public property is never seen as belonging to the public. It’s the government’s. So with no notion of ownership, trains are open game for cheap thrills. The shinier, the better. It has zilch to do with politics.