Some Dahi on the side on the train

The Kana Kacha Railway Station falls on the Karachi-Peshawar line in Pakistan's Lahore district. It is, from at least one account, a tantalising place. Why else would Messers Mohammad Shahzad and Iftikhar Hussain, both drivers of the Karachi-bound train full of passengers, make an unscheduled stop? Well, it turns out the two employees of Pakistan Railways had a mission that could not be jeopardised or postponed - buying dahi from a shop near the station. It also turns out just the way milk turns that one of the drivers had no choice in the matter, as his mother had actually 'sent him' to get dahi the curd rather than the easy way.

While filial duty is looked upon with admiration in the subcontinent, the railway authorities - like the passengers on the suddenly stalled 1,687 km journey - were not touched. Shahzad and Hussain are, since their shopper's stop on Tuesday, ex-employees of the Pakistan Railways. 'Pakistan Railways is a national property. It cannot be used for personal use,' was the terse message. The dahi, one hopes, made it to the Shahzad kitchen, where one presumes a good thing was mustered up from what would very soon become a bad situation. But spare a thought for the son and his dahi bhai. The public sector can, a little here and there, become private property. For that is the subcontinental curds and whey.