Translated fiction: A vintage steam engine looks back at history while travelling across India

The Sampark Kranti Express took a U-turn, leaving behind its long shadow on the Veli lagoon. Standing at the door of his coach, Karamchand was looking towards the rear of the train. Sunlight reflected off the headlight glass of the Wanderer. Suddenly the piston, coupling and connecting rods of the steam engine sprang to life. The wheels that had been arrested and silenced for decades gained speed. They woke up. The coal caught fire, spewing clouds of black smoke into the sky. Two blackened men kept feeding the gluttonous furnace of the steam engine. A white man clad in coal-blackened overalls and a black cap pulled levers and drove the train. It sped along, breaking the rules of time and space. Distance and speed perished in the heat of the furnace that was capable of burning down everything that came in its way.

Fire.

The fire spread in Karamchand’s panicked mind. The universe had given all its luminosity to the fire. He travelled backwards in the company of fire. A page from an unrecorded era in history dropped into his imagination.

Karamchand saw a horde of hominids – who, progressing through evolution, had started to walk upright – traipsing through forests. Without language,...

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