Watched this programme on Nat Geo titled Great Indian Railway Journeys presented by Michael Portill. In today’s episode, he traced the railway route from Lucknow to Calcutta. En route he had two pit stops, one at Bodh Gaya and the other one at Chittaranjan. The former known as the epi center of Buddhism and other one famous for its Loco works. In one of the stations, Michael Portill visits the Wheeler and Co book store which is an integral part of any Indian Railway Station. Rudyard Kipling who was in dire need of some cash to visit England, approached the Wheeler book shop and requested to sell his books for 1 rupee so that he can afford a passage to England. His potential customers or readers were the railway passengers. Here is the reference from Wikipedia - Plain Tales from the Hills written by Rudyard Kipling were issued as the "Indian Railway Library Series" by Wheeler. These were the first publications of Kipling's collection of stories. These books were sold on railway stations. They cost One rupee, then fifteenth part of a pound. Richard Jaffa considers them "amongst the early paperbacks"
The other fascinating thing about the presenter is that he had this hard-bound book with him from which he read about the places he intended to visit. The screenshot attached is the final short where he is getting ready to read Tagore and in the background, we can see the Victoria memorial in Kolkata.
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