A few days back I read a news article which talked about a few villagers in Taj Nagar, India, who built their own railway platform. Taj Nagar is just outside of the national capital Delhi. It now has two platforms and some trains would make a scheduled stop there. This would help the residents of Taj Nagar to have a better commute to work and in turn to have a better quality of life. For this project to materialize, each resident contributed Rs. 3,000.
Indian Railways had, in the past, declined to construct the platform because of budgetary reasons and the insignificance of the place. The one good thing about this whole project was, that at least the railways did not create any hindrance in the people's effort and rather agreed for some trains to make a stop, if the residents built their own platform.
It is a great example of team work, will power and perseverance. This just goes on to show that if we decide we could achieve anything. Think about a bunch of villagers taking over a giant, the "Indian Railways". I sometimes feel that the city dwellers lack the enthusiasm and drive to change the society, that the people from small towns and villages have. Urban people want the system to change but they do not want to take any steps to change that. I include myself in this group. The only meaning we, as citizens of India, have understood of democracy (people power), is to destroy the state machinery in the name of protest.
I hope this platform becomes a launching pad for many more such successes for India. I also hope to be a part of at least one such success story in the future.
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