What I hate most are the toilets. And that people throw things anywhere—we don’t treat our trains as we would our own homes. The general level of dirtiness is nauseating. People think it is not their home so they really make a mess. What I love about our railways is the fact that your co-passengers become friends. You end up sharing everything with whoever you are travelling with—you swap life histories, and share food and laughter and friendliness. The train journey from Siliguri to Kolkata for the shooting of Parineeta was great fun.
(As told to Lata Khubchandani and Amit Dixit)