STOPHERE📍

  alphacoders.com T he shunting of the engine woke up Muthu from his deep slumber. He peered cautiously out of the coal wagon at his surroundings. The Freight Train stood at the siding yards of Karnal Junction and somewhere on the Gwalior-Ranchi line. The engine was being replaced for the onward journey. It was early morning; dawn had arrived two hours ago, and the early morning chill was in the air, with mist hanging in the yard. Birds called out to one another from the nearby trees. “The next stop would be Habra!” Muthu thought. Years of travelling on the Freight Trains had turned Murtha into an expert on the stops where the trains halt. Muthu was from Karnataka, but it made little difference to the North Indians, for them, he was just another Madrasi. Muthu was an Indian tramp, a wandering beggar who travelled from place to place on the Indian Railway. They foraged and begged for food and clothing, and sometimes, if circumstances were harsh, they stole a little. There were...