It is a fond and enduring memory, the annual trips my family and I would take from Bombay to cities in South India whenever schools shut for the summer. This was in the early 1980s, and we would often find ourselves at Victoria Terminus in the first week of May, ready to board one of many trains that would carry us across the country.

Having said that, when I think of those journeys now, I am aware of how nostalgia can colour the past. It’s why several unpleasant images also come to mind when I ask myself if those trains were comfortable. I recall railway stations with the bare minimum of facilities, rusted faucets with no signs of running water, and a complete absence of clean waiting rooms or toilets.

Luckily, this is how things were back when India was managed by politicians who weren’t in touch with the people. It’s a far cry from today’s trains which, based on government ads in newspapers, are arguably among the finest on Earth. I haven’t been on a train out of Bombay in decades, and viral videos on social media appear to show that little has changed for the poor who can’t afford a First Class sleeper ticket, but are those videos real? How can they be, if one reads any of the press releases issued by the Railway Ministry?