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‘No Matter How Busy a Train is, You Can Always Find a Quiet Space’: Travel Writer Monisha Rajesh

by Amritesh Mukherjee

Published 2026-06-20 12:00:01+00:00

How does the world look different when seen from a train window in the middle of the night?

0:00 / 12:51 · Narrator Algieba

Context

Monisha Rajesh watches the world from the window of a sleeper car, catching glimpses of lit-up living rooms and people winding down for the night. In this conversation from 20 June 2026, life on the rails turns out to be louder and messier than the brochures suggest. The discussion moves from the loss of anonymity in the age of Instagram to the heavy history of the tracks themselves. It captures the specific kind of honesty that happens when strangers are tucked into a shared, moving space.

Show notes

Travel writer Monisha Rajesh discusses her decade of writing about global rail travel. The conversation covers her latest book on night trains, the impact of social media on traveler anonymity, and the colonial histories built into railway lines. Rajesh explains how the physical closeness of a train car changes her interactions with strangers and the way she views the countries passing by her window.

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