Trains: The Last Rail Master

Tuesday, 24 February 2009

This is a story about the trains in Mauritius. As you know, my father is from Mauritius and the other day he was telling me a very funny story about trains and rails when he was a kid. Last time, Mauritius had electric trains (that was between the 1950's and 1970's).

The last time my father took the train for a few times, he was with his cousins and they use to get magnets from the rails or from the train coaches. It was easy to pull the magnets off since they were broken. At times, they had to break the magnets before the train would pass the station near their house, in the village along the Mauritius national Highway.

While collecting magnets, his uncle would do his business on the rails. His uncle (who is only 5 years older than my father) said the people in Bombay, India would do their business on the rails and then they would watch the trains cut their stools. It was a fun game for the kids there, he had said. I was in full laughter upon hearing this from my father.

They called it cutting the stools in two businesses and that was popular in Bombay, India and is apparently still very popular it seems. My father even told me that at one point of time, he too went on to do his business on the rails and it was probably the very last time he had seen the rails and the last train of Mauritius. I was like ha ha ha as I could not believe that my father did that. He says he was around 5 years old, following his cousins to the rail station and the rivers.

Then there was the train master or rail master whose name was Haroon and he had a fat belly. Haroon had seen the kids doing their silly business on the railways and was furious. He screamed and showed his anger by pressing hard on the train whistle to panic the kids. My father was watching the scene and still remembers the fat belly man pulling the string and shouting at his cousins. That was the last train of Mauritius with the last train master who had a fat belly.

While his cousins ran away from the scene, with him following them, my father could not help laughing too at the idea that they just did their silly business on the railway. Ha ha ha.

One fine day, the government of Mauritius had decided to shut down the trains and that was because the country had no money and they sold the trains to South Africa. Some people say the trains are still being used in South Africa today. On the last day, before they did their silly business on the rail, my father and his cousins were given a final ride on the trains. The fat train master Haroon was kind to them and was even sad that he would not be riding his trains anymore.

By Asir Husain, 11 years old. School: Sekolah Kebangsaan Taman Kosas, email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .ukThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it  - He is a young Malaysian writer.

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