Lifeline Express

The next time you are at CST station, hop across to Platform No. 13. For that is where a colourful five-coach train — the Lifeline Express — will be stationed for the next three days and will be on show for the public and school children from 11am to 5pm. The train, which is on a life-saving mission to the remotest of places in the country, is currently in Maharashtra for its 100th project, which is to be held at Atgaon village from April 20 to May 8. Deepa Suryanarayan and photographer Anshuman Poyrekar hit the tracks

It was six years after his retirement when Delhi-based Col Randhir Singh Vishwen found his second calling.

“It was on board the Lifeline Express when I realised that this was what I was meant to do,” says Col Vishwen, CEO of the Lifeline Express — a train that has travelled to the remotest of villages in the country.

It is Col Vishwen’s job to identify the right places for a three-week project; set up meetings with the local administration and convince them of the need to bring the train to their area; identify patients who are mostly illiterate and impoverished tribals; and convince them to visit the mobile hospital for a completely free-of-cost surgery.

“But it is all worth it when we see the smiles that light up their faces after a simple surgery,” said Col Vishwen, recalling the time when a young girl with a cleft lip, who had been rejected by suitors several times, underwent a reconstructive surgery on the train.

“Thirty days later, her father came to us with a small box of sweets and announced the news of her engagement,” he said.

Then there was the time a young boy was brought to the hospital with severe hearing difficulty. “The problem was so simple — ear wax. Once his ear was cleaned, he could hear absolutely normally. And he just wouldn’t stop chattering after that,” he said.

“We even had tribals who were clad in nothing but leaves coming to the train for treatment in Bastar, Chattisgarh. They were armed with bows and arrows and presented a funny sight,” chuckled Col Vishwen.

Not all stories have a happy ending. Some are heart-wrenchingly sad. “When our train went to Bolangir in Orissa, we came across a boy who underwent a minor surgery on the train. The doctor who performed the surgery decided to visit him in his village,” said Col Vishwen.

“The boy’s adult sister brought the boy out of the hut. The doctor then asked for his mother, who came out only when the sister went into the hut. That is when we realised that the family had just one sari, which the mother-daughter shared,” he said.

But it is precisely such people, who can never afford a doctor or a visit to a city hospital, which the Lifeline Express wants to help. “That is why we have initiated the Community Health Project (CHP), with the help of the state government and the National Rural Health Mission,” said AH Tobaccowala, Chiarman, Impact India Foundation, which runs the Lifeline Express.

“When we started the Lifeline Express in 1991, we thought that we wouldn’t need it for more than 10 years. But the need is great – and so the train continues to serve,” said Tobaccowala.

s_deepa@dnaindia.net