He is an e-historian for the railways

Tuesday, 2 February 2016

S Vishnu Sharmaa

Chennai: They silently keep the nation moving through the railways. Nobody spares them a second thought unless when they are a passenger on a train. But this vital sector of the country has abundant talent in not just managing one of the biggest railway networks of the world but also in other spheres.

A Hari, who works as commercial inspector with Southern Railway, runs a Facebook page, a blog and a Twitter account. So, what's new, you may ask. They are all not run for any personal benefit or vanity.

The blogspot indianrlynews.wordpress.com, Facebook page 'Railways Got Talent', and Twitter handle @indianrlyinfo are awash with the positive side of the transport behemoth. Not wanting to restrict himself to just the good he finds with his employer, Hari also runs the blogspot 'inspireminds.in' that deals with achievers outside the railways.

Look up blogspot indianrlynews.wordpress.com and you will find that it completely lists policy changes, innovations and reforms of the railway establishment. His blog for railways began in 2008, when the idea of popularising railway services among the larger sections of society struck his mind.

"Railways does a lot of service and very little of that gets noticed while negative aspects manage to catch everyone's eyes. I wanted to take the good work done by railways to the masses and began the blog," he said.

His blog does not restrict itself to Southern Railways. "I take information from all the zones of railways and paste them in the blog. Good services aren't restricted to southern zone alone," he smiles.

Hari uses the Twitter handle @indianrlyinfo, started a few months ago, towards the same end: provide valuable information about railways. It already has 13,000 likes.

After coming to know of the abundance of talent among the railway employees, he wanted to record them in e-form. So, he began a Facebook page three years ago.

There are achievers among railway employees like artists, photographers and sportspersons and their achievements, too, deserve credit. With his horizon expanding, Hari didn't wish his passion of recording good news to be restricted to railways alone. Along with the blog for railway news, he began running in 2008 another blog, inspireminds.in, which carries stories about people outside the railway establishment who have achieved something in their life despite all odds.

He has so far uploaded more than 5,000 positive railway news on the blog and recorded about more than 20 railway achievers on the Facebook page.

"This won't be the end of it, as more keep coming, it will be added," he said.

Once the venture begins, constant work is needed to keep it moving. "I work for about four to five hours a day to search for information and post them on the blogs, Facebook and Twitter," he said.

What motivates him to do all this? "Railways does a lot of service to society, uploading the good work of the establishment is in a way a humble way of giving back to the organisation as a token of gratitude," he added.

He also found that good brings in good. There was one remarkable instance when his achievers blog, inspireminds.in, even saved the precious life of a youth.

"An individual who failed in CA exam saw my inspireminds.in blogspot on achievers and came to know about a person who managed to pass CA despite suffering from cerebral palsy. This information stopped him from taking his life. When the man met me later and told me about how the blogspot inspired me, I was delighted. What I do has paid me rich dividends," he says emotionally.

The stories about an artist who works as a trackman at Lalgudi Railway Station in Tamilnadu, who has the impressive ability of painting any picture in a few minutes, and a poor woman vegetable vendor building a big hospital and educating her child to become a doctor are his personal favourites.