What’s common between director Mani Ratnam and author Sangeetha Vallat? It is their love for trains. While most of Mani Ratnam’s movies have a train sequence, most blogs and short stories by Sangeetha have a railway episode — somebody working in railways, or a scene in the railway station. While the filmmaker uses the recurring motif to symbolise connections, journeys, and passage of time, the author has a personal connection to this rail transport. After all, her first step into the world of work was as ‘Commercial Clerk’ at a railway station, ‘424 km from MYS’.
In her recently launched book, Platform Ticket, Sangeetha writes, “Since I began writing this book, reliving the past through the point of view of my present cognisance, the train has never left the platform without me on it…I own the train — the platforms, the engine, and the compartments”.
Sangeetha started her career in 1996 and retired 14 years ago. While climbing the career ladder, she fell in love with reading. In her book, Sangeetha claims that she used to read 70 to 100 books a year between ticket distribution. Her love for literature began sprouting in 2018, in the Alleppey Express train’s middle berth. “My dad had passed away. My mom and I were visiting our ancestral house in Kerala for the sixteenth day ceremony. I was feeling sad that we were visiting my father’s house without him, and I wrote my feelings,” she says.
This note on emotions was found by her cousin, and she insisted that Sangeetha start a blog. The blog became an intimate space where she was comfortable sharing personal stories. “Every blog was like that,” she admits. After being promoted to work under the Railway Passenger Reservations system (PRS), her writing journey also progressed — from blogs to short stories, eventually leading to the publication of her book.
I wanted to get into the details because I wanted people to visualise what I went through and transport them to those places with my words
Sangeetha Vallat, author
Train of thought
Railways were such an integral part of her life that Sangeetha got the idea of writing a memoir after submitting an unedited version of an 18,000-word manuscript to a writing competition hosted on a Facebook group in August 2022. This was a significant step toward her first novel.
Cut to October 2023, her sample chapters — Platform No.12 and Platform No.12A — dealing with beggars and dead bodies were submitted to the Bangalore Literature Festival (BLF). She received a call letter in November, and that pivotal moment transformed her writing process. Sangeetha says, “I cannot fill only my life stories for 60,000 words out of the 300 written pages. I reached out to my friends (she worked with) and collected anecdotes to add in the story.” This process went on for one and a half months. By December 3, she was on her way to Bengaluru — a place where she started her railway career — as a writer, with her book and a pitch. By March 2024, she signed a contract with Penguin Random House India. “And within exactly twelve months, they got the book out,” says the author.
Writing is an organic process for Sangeetha. “The plot just came to my mind also because I am very observant. So, it was easier for me to know how it was going to start and end. I had to fill only the betweens.” Her vivid storytelling stems from deep personal experiences. With her book, she sends a message to the readers: be kind, be empathetic, and be a good friend.
While her first book was launched in the city on Sunday, Sangeetha has been working on two more books. One is a sequel with bits about her experiences living in Dubai. “People have this notion about Dubai, just like they didn’t know much about Railways. There’s glitz and glam, but there are good and bad things about Dubai life too.” The second is a biography of an 85-year-old war veteran. He fought in the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971.
Her literary voyage, much like a train ride, has been full of unexpected stops, enriching conversations, and an unyielding drive to tell the stories of the people she has met along the way.