"Trains in India are public sites and they are sites for social exchange and its a collective identity but what the smartphone has introduced is not only the private sphere into the public one, but also a flagrant abuse of the public sphere by making it totally private! This includes the watching of shows at a loud volume and having conversations like that too."- Amitava Kumar, author, The Social Life of Indian Trains, talks to me on the Books & Authors podcast about how train travel has changed, the people he met on his journey from Kashmir to Kanyakumari on the Himsagar Express, memories of earlier train journeys in childhood, lost loves, how caste plays out in our lax attitude to the disposal of waste, the famous train scene in Satyajit Rai's Pather Panchali, and how the vast mass of Indians who are not affluent are subdising luxury train travel for the few.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices