Even as cities worldwide modernise trams, India consigns them to museums

With the state government announcing its decision to eliminate tram services, a network that has shrunk rapidly since the nineties, fleeting images come to mind

In Calcutta, before it became Kolkata, the electric tram governed the rhythms of my childhood home. Living on a main road bisected by a tramline, the sounds of the day started with the clatter of the first tram at first light merging with the sound of the muezzin’s call from the nearby mosque. At the end of the day, it was possible to set the clock by the time of the last tram of the day thundering by to the nearby depot at 11.30 pm. Through the day, the tinkle of the conductor’s bell and the rattle