A ticket on a runaway train

Pushpak Express connects Nepalese migrants to Mumbai for employment, but a tragic accident leaves many dead and injured.

Every day the Pushpak (meaning a flower chariot) travels towards Mumbai from Lucknow, covering a distance of 1,436 kilometres, traversing 16 major stations, across a little over 25 hours. For people migrating from Nepal and a few districts in Uttar Pradesh to the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) for employment, the train is an important connection, for employment.

Kamala Bhandari, 43, was a regular passenger on the Pushpak Express. She was returning from a short vacation she took from her work as a house help in Mumbai’s Churchgate area. Radha Bhandari, 35, accompanied her mother-in-law, on her first journey to find a job in Mumbai.

On January 23, at the Government Medical College in Jalgaon city, about 400 kilometres away from Mumbai, Radha waits outside the Department of Anatomy. Her face is pale, and she is trying hard to hold back her tears. “She was the strongest person I knew, the backbone of the family. For the past 14 years, she has been working in Mumbai, and has endured a lot all her life. Even death caused her pain,” says Radha.

Radha and Kamala were among over 150 passengers in the general coach of the Pushpak Express train who, on January 22, deboarded the train over the fear of fire. Many jumped on the railway tracks, only to be mowed down by the Karnataka Express, running at 130 kmph.

“Seven Nepal nationals lost their lives among the 12 in the incident, and four Nepal nationals were injured from provinces in West Nepal, with severe injuries on their body,” said Ayush Prasad, District Collector, Jalgaon.All the deceased and injured were either visiting their families or returning to their jobs.

At the hospital, spread out across 196 acres, Radha is waiting for her mother-in-law’s body. It will be put into the ambulance and taken to her village in Sudurpashchim province in Nepal. She will travel in the ambulance, 1,022 kilometres to home. She and her brother-in-law, who had arrived in Jalgaon after the accident, refused to go back by train.

Before they set out, Radha piled some soil and stones she had carried from the place Kamala died, and performed a few rituals.