Tracking a passion

Nobody forgets his first love. Delhi-based public relations professional Shashanka Nanda would agree. As a child, Nanda fell in love with trains because his grandparents8217; house-where he went during vacations-was located close to a railway line.

Nobody forgets his first love. Delhi-based public relations professional Shashanka Nanda would agree. As a child, Nanda fell in love with trains because his grandparents8217; house-where he went during vacations-was located close to a railway line. As the mighty steam engines chugged past the house, Nanda watched with fascination.

That fascination has given birth to a passion. Nanda is an active member of the Indian Railways Fan Club of America IRFCA and a moderator of the IRFCA website. The IRFCA is a non-governmental non-profit effort that brings together people and ideas on anything and everything connected with Indian Railways. The 8220;America8221; in the name is because the group actually started as a mailing list among Indian students in the US in 1989. Today, the network spans cities, continents, even nationalities.

Try googling for the year in which the first locomotive ran in India. Or for historical milestones of the Indian Railways. Or even for some trivia on some important trains in India. You will get these nuggets of information and more at irfca.org.

This enigmatic interest in the railways has also contributed to the lexicon. Ever heard of 8220;railfanning8221;? You won8217;t find the meaning of the word in a dictionary. But for many IRFCA members 8220;railfanning8221; is a way of life. Railfanning is a verb8212;the act of watching trains go by.

IRFCA members are everyday people8212;they are us. It could be a software engineer based in the US, a graphic artist from Kolkata, a PR executive in Delhi, or a history teacher from Australia. What binds them together is a passion for Indian Railways, the same missionary zeal that keeps the IRFCA chugging.

Samit Roychoudhary is a veteran of this common platform. A graphic designer based in Kolkata, Roychoudhury has just put together a comprehensive atlas of the railway network in India. Delhi-based Vikas Singh has put together a collection of stamps, first day covers, brochures, coins, cards, booklets and RMS Railway Mail Service cancellations on Indian Railways. Some of these date back almost a century. Nanda is overawed by the operations and well-oiled logistics. 8220;Does a passenger realise that an army of almost 4,500 work behind the scenes to ensure that the train in which he is travelling reaches its destination safely and on time?8221;

Of course, for some IRFCA members, interest in the railways goes beyond just being a fan. John Lacey, a history teacher from Down Under, is a serious student of the Indian Railways. He participated in the UNESCO sponsored Darjeeling Himalayan Railway World Heritage Stakeholders Conference in 2003. Lacey regularly writes in the Indian Steam Railway Society8217;s newsletters.

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This enthusiasm has to sometimes grapple with archaic regulations. The picture gallery, for instance, is hamstrung because you need a permit to shoot a picture of a train.

Public services in India are so pathetically inefficient that most government-run establishments probably have hate clubs. But the Indian Railways8217; rich legacy and unparalleled contribution to nation building has put it in a different league. Ask IRFCA members.