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Close Encounters on Parallel Lines
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Re: Close Encounters on Parallel Lines
An engaging account of a brilliant rail official's career,narrated with self deprecating humor.A few minor spelling mistakes and formatting errors do not detract from the content.
The author offers invaluable advice to budding railway officers.
Re: Close Encounters on Parallel Lines
A book by a Railway officer, it talks about the day to day activities and duties of the railway men. A good read for all, a must read for young railway officers and rail enthusiasts. This book also talks about the various aspects of railways and the constraints they face. This book also shows the passion with which the author has worked in railways for 3+ decades.
Re: Close Encounters on Parallel Lines
Comments by G. Surya Kumar, PhD, C.Eng F.I. Mech.E (London)
2 February 2017
Indian Railways has a staff strength of two million plus and is one of the largest employers in the world. It is the busiest and operationally the most complex rail network in the world. No other railway comes anywhere close to Indian Railways. It carries 23 million passengers a day. To put that figure in perspective, it carries the equivalent of India’s 1.2 billion plus population in under two months.
Managing such an organization is not simple. In the wise words of S. Kasy Aiyar, another outstanding railway man:
“One of the curses that have befallen the railway community is that not a single railway man has put down in writing the work he or she did. Though the scope and complexity of the job that even a “junior” scale railway officer does is far greater than Managing Directors (MDs) of many companies. And there are any number of books which often achieve Biblical authority!”
That was written in 2010. We are happy and indebted to Venkateswaran Anand for bridging that void and writing this wonderful book. Anand started as a Junior Scale officer and went on to become General Manager of Southern Railway. Southern Railway is one of the busiest and largest of the then nine zonal Railways. He held that position from 2002 to 2004. Only a handful of railway men are entrusted with the coveted and demanding position of General Manager of a zonal railway.
Venkateswaran Anand is endowed with phenomenal memory and has chronicled the trials, tribulations and triumphs of his checkered career tinged with humor and in great detail.
Before India achieved independence in August 1947, steam locomotives, rolling stock, permanent way and signaling equipment were all obtained from Britain. Today, Indian Railways not only manufactures diesel -electric locomotives, Electric locomotives, Electrical Multiple Units, coaching stock and all its wagons, but also exports to neighboring countries in Asia and Africa. It also has a cutting-edge Research, Design and Standards Organization (R.D.S.O.)
The track mileage, number of trains, freight and passenger traffic carried, have all increased by leaps and bounds since Independence. Indian Railways is the lifeline of India.
It would not be out of place to point out that Pakistan Railway system started at the same level in 1947 but has stagnated since.
This remarkable transformation of Indian Railways would not have been possible but for outstanding railway men like Venkateswaran Anand, the author of this book.
Anyone with an interest in railways will do well to read this excellent memoir.
I have had the privilege of working with Anand only for a brief period and that was in RDSO. I immigrated to USA in August 1975.