Anupam Ray, recalls travelling by train from Delhi to Chhapra district in Bihar as a child for vacations.

The 16-hour journey to her village in Ekma in the beginning of summer is a memory that Ray, now 30, cherishes. As are the recollections of the building anticipation before meeting her loved ones, squabbling with her siblings over who gets the window seat, and being greeted by relatives on alighting at the station. “Our family home was five minutes from the station and we would sleep on the roof during the nights. All throughout, we would hear trains passing by,” she says to us over the phone. The thud-thud of passing trains was almost a lullaby, she adds, “It was a point of pride if you lived in a village that had a railway station,” she says.