And I wanted to ask you why it was that you wanted to write about the railway system.

Well, one reason is that there is nothing that so obviously serves as a metaphor for India as the Indian railways.

This, as many of your listeners must be aware, is a country of almost unimaginable diversity and human density.

It's a country with about 800 living languages.

It has... hundreds of ethnicities, it has almost all the major religions of the world, all kinds of cultures.

How does a country like this of a billion and a half people, what are the symbols that keep it kind of connected with itself really? What is it that happens in the space of a real journey where all of these things that I've described to you rub up against each other in the form of people? But this is just a very basic starting point.

You know, anybody can access this metaphor.

And what does a typical working day look like for you? Are you writing every day now? No,