Raja Perumal

A story set in the ever-charming, long and increasingly rare train journeys where strangers meet and become part of one’s hope, dreams and fear albeit for a moment. It captures beautifully the sound of the last minute rushing in of the families, the smell of hot samosas and chai and the sight of father running to get the sweets and savouries.The inevitable sharing of the same with neighbours as if for that moment the boundaries of the families are readjusted and expanded to accommodate all around and like a perfect gathering of friends sets the stage for a passionate discussion.

There is the family of three with a teenager, on their way to a vacation sharing the compartment with a curious young graduate student and an old seemingly grumpy grandfather. The conversation gets on to a start with sharing of the story of Puhor, a friend of the family who is busy in his world of generating energy out of waste tea leaves and he has a name for his product called Teenergy! In the same line the young adult too shares a story of dhol makers of a tribal community and how they got help from an organization that used renewable energy to set up an ecosystem that helped people to overcome poverty. They quickly connect the lessons of this project with the teenergy, and how the involvement of further research , collaboration of private and government organizations can make this project successful.