Chennai Central Station (India) Poem by Rajendran Muthiah

Don’t buy platform tickets
in the hope of seeing your kin
when they get out of the train
and step on to the platform.
The electronic board shows ‘A’(Arrival of trains)
and not the platform number by which
the superfast train comes and halts.
When you’re standing before the board
in the hope of glimpsing the number,
by wringing your hands, or hooking your thumbs
into the pockets of your pant or cursing the railways,
your kin will call you up to meet them
at the entrance of the station!

Don’t roam in the station to pass time,
as you’d see the ugly interiors of the beggars,
who lie on the floor throwing open the showcase
as the fans are not working or their minds need repair.

Don’t go to the railway canteen
where the stuff and price are cheap
but neatness has gone off
with washbasins full like Tungabadra Dam.

When you travel by train,
take food-packets from home.
Open the packets when the train gallops.
The eatables are brought to coaches in open plates
through the narrow way between the toilets
unwashed, unshut and under repair often.

To alert these railway workers,
can the minister concerned visit the station daily
or skip the flight and travel by train
while coming to this southern end of India?