Labour train / Manjira Saha ; translated by Purna Banerjee

PROLOGUE -- I FROM LABOUR TO MIGRANT -- From Labour to Migrant -- II WHEN THE TRAINS STOPPED: Now We Think of Them! -- They Who Live on the Border! -- The Fear of Corona in Bodies of the Living -- Fearmongering: A Game -- Is this the Work of a Poltergeist? -- Jai Hind! Jai Hind! Jai Hind! -- III WHEN THE TRAINS WERE RUNNING: Line.. .Line . . . Line -- Gopinath from Malda -- The Beta' from the Sundarbans -- The Keshar Mill -- The Mud-Brick House at Magra -- They Visit the Tower -- Samatali's Eldest Son -- Fear Grips the Island of Satjelia -- The Labourer's Wife from Mandipara -- The Market at Satjelia -- Kanu, from Kochra -- The Kidney-Less Man from Bindol -- The Labourer's Daughter from the Sundarbans -- Tale of Phulmoni and Those that Live by the Chiramati -- Stories from Hamidpur -- Return to Gadkhali -- NOTES

"A larrice of bodies packed themselves in the train while a sundry arm here or a sundry limb there dangled from the doors and windows of the train as it chugged off the station. Which train is it? Farakka Express, though locals of Malda Town callit the Labour Train. It goes to Delhi. Every day thousands of labourers go to places like Delhi, Mumbai, Haryana, Kerala from various parts of West Bengal. Sometimes they return. at times, their dead bodies or even worse, only the news of their death arrives. During the Lockdown, these people have been given a new identity-Migrant Labour. Their lives are now part of the breaking news or headlines. Labour Train is all about these people and their lives before and after they turned to headlines."-- Back cover