Man who knew it all: from driving rail engines to recording their past

His published works on history of railways are: History of Bombay suburban railways,Nehru and Indian Railways (published by the Railway board),Voyage history of seafarer’s movement in India. His research articles have been published in some magazines and newspapers.

Arora achieved honours like ‘Rajasthashri’ from the Governor of Rajasthan; first rank in Russian History contest; ‘Vocation’ from Rotract club of Bombay Harbour,etc. Besides this,he was also featured on many TV programmes like House of efforts; Unsung heroes,Jyoti — there is a woman behind every man’s success (episode on Dr Arora); Kanot— world record of pen pals; Chakraview,Saath-Saath,and the greatest Indian Railway by National Geographic channel. Moreover,Arora’s popularity and friendly nature can easily be understood by his record number of pen friends,which is even listed in the Limca Book of world records.

Born on September 18,1947 in Ajmer,Arora was only son of his father,a railway cashier. He joined Western Railway in 1967 as an apprentice motorman and was driving trains independently since 1971. He retired on July 1,1998. Arora had arranged exhibitions and went on foreign trips to attend events and seminars. “He took interest in every sphere of life. He helped over 20 students in their research work. Last year,he had renovated a primary school of 600 students in a village near Jaunpur in UP,and upgraded it to senior level. He purchased books worth Rs 15,000 and a TV set for them. He was a social worker too,” says his son Sunil. “During his last days,he did not quit writing… a lot of his stories are unpublished,” he added.

“He was suffering from diabetes,and his kidney got infected. He was on dialysis since three months,” says Sunil. Arora is survived by his wife and three son. R R Bhandari,who too wrote many books including one named Western Railway — Glorious Saga recalled,recalls him as a nice human being. “He used to visit Jodhpur to meet me. We used to have long discussions on history. Not only a good historian,he was a very nice person too.”