Page 16 - My FlipBook

"Muttajji thinks she was 16 when she got married,"

said Putti, "but she could have been 15 or 17 or 18."

"She also said she was about 9 or 10 when her
Bombay uncle told her about the 'clean' train," said
Putta. "Ajja may know what that means."

Ajja was in the reading room.

"Ajja," whispered Putti, "in the olden days, did

people get dirty travelling by train?"

Ajja nodded. "There were steam engines then,
which ran on coal, not electricity," he said. "Black
coal dust used to fly out of the chimney and land on

everyone and everything. Terrible!"

"That's it, Putti!" hissed Putta."Electric trains were

the 'clean' trains!"

16