I plug in my headphones without re-ally turning on any music and just listen to people’s conversations. It’s a great way to eavesdrop and stops people from talking to you when you’re trying to write or just want to be left alone. On Indian trains, particularly, there’s never a shortage of fascinating conversation,” quips Monisha Rajesh. It’s the oldest trick in the book really. Millennials and Gen Zers have been resorting to it for years—using tangled earphone wires and protruding AirPods as effective tools for discouraging conversation when they don’t feel up to talking. But how many of them have an award-winning book to show for it? Rajesh chuckles modestly when I point this out to her. The UK-born second-generation Indian is the author of a trio of titles centred on the humble locomotive: Around India In 80 Trains (2012), Around The World In 80 Trains (2019)—winner of the National Geographic Travel Book of the Year and shortlisted for the Stanford Dolman Award—and Epic Train Journeys, which was published last year. To say that Rajesh has a passion for rail travel would be an understatement; the 40-year-old is practically buoyed by any mention of the railways.
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