Artist Bhavya Desai’s latest illustrations delve into the chaotic energy of the Indian Railways

If you haven’t met a “binge-eater Pushpa” at a railway station, you have been one; the person who hastily grabs a few samosas wrapped in newspaper out of a platform vendor’s basket, through the train window grill.

It is also through these window grills that we see bits of life unfolding in a train, as families unpack tiffin boxes, heave suitcases down from the upper berth, and socialise with strangers to kill time. The pulse of the Indian Railways is inevitably etched onto all of our travel experiences.

For Chennai-based artist Bhavya Desai, a recent train journey from Chennai to Bengaluru opened the floodgates to many such memories and observations. He translates this experience into a series of illustrations that delves into the nostalgia-inducing, chaotic energy of the Indian Railways as we know it. ‘Binge-eater Pushpa’ is one of the many characters that make an appearance in this series titled Chaotically Organised.