Indian railways' offtrack man of letters

By Richa Sharma   Published: 24th Jul 2016 

Hemant Kumar, member, Railway Board(Photo|Shekar Yadav)

New Delhi: Under the Prime Minister’s train project, there is something special for all. From the high-end Tejas to the commoners Humsafar, railway officials are giving wings to the PM’s much-talked about proposals.

The man behind the mammoth task is none other than the talented Hemant Kumar, Member Mechanical, Railway Board. Designing new products require ideas and Kumar takes inspiration from writing satire and poems, and breaks the monotony of the regular 9am-5pm government job.

Apart from garnering praise for coming up with up-to-date railway technology, he has been lauded for his second book.

His recently released book Dhakadvani, comprising 24 short satires on the society, media and current issues, has been praised for the writing style. A gold medalist in mechanical engineering, Kumar prefers writing in Hindi.

He started writing at the age of 21 but took the pen seriously after an interaction with noted satirist and humorist poet Kaka Hathrasi. Kumar writes under the pen name of ‘Dhakad’ and had published his first poetry book in 2014. The man from Allahabad has also written plays and short stories.

Dhakadvani is a collection of write-ups on social issues and touches incidents such as December 16 gangrape, Swachh Bharat Mission and bureaucracy. A railway employee for the past 40 years, all his satires have an element of the official carrier.

“Writing blogs and poems give me piece peace. It also helps in improving concentration. You can always take out time and do things close to your heart,” says Kumar, who plans to take up writing full-time post-retirement.

Of late, he has been fascinated by ancient history and wants to explore writing on ancient Indian civilisation. “Railways provide immense opportunity to travel across the length and breadth of the country and that has also helped in refining my writing,” he says.

Kumar, however, doesn’t take sides, and therein lies his USP. He presents both sides of the coin and leaves it to the reader to decide and arrive at a conclusion.