‘Trains’ are generally the automatic first answer to any question of whether colonialism had its benefits. When I was younger, considering railways as a genuine tally in this hypothetical pros and cons table always seemed rather lacklustre argument-wise and a bit distasteful, and learning more about how railways enabled an awful, gross drainage of resources out of the subcontinent and towards Europe just reinforced that sentiment. 

With this piece, we wanted to flip the idea of trains — tech and trade, the shiny glorybringers of Progress — being value-neutral and part of the ever-running internal mechanisms of the world. The tiger and the girl are undeniably more alive and vibrant and we wanted to show how maybe the points where magic can be realer are in the people and living beings of a place — not just as static aesthetics or symbols but as dynamic, bright, expressive characters, capable of disruptive power.