The Great Shutdown: A Story of Two Indian Summers
Editor: Jyoti Mukul
Publisher: HarperCollins India
Price: Rs 599
Pages: 372
As a resident of Mumbai, local trains have been my lifeline. I have relied on them to take me to college, work, dates, and social outings. I was shocked when train services came to an abrupt halt during the Covid-19 pandemic. I had never imagined a situation in which local travel would be deemed unsafe, and closed down to contain the spread of a deadly virus. Rail networks, after all, are the city’s veins and arteries. They enable supply of labour and leisure. They