Over the past century, the ship has witnessed countless emotional states of Man, from a state of severe emotions due to separation to a relieved state of mind when leaving the tired world to go somewhere to forget.
National Geographic photographer Matthieu Paley spent five days and four nights on the Vivek Express train across India to record new and exciting stories taking place at the same time.
The train departs from the southernmost tip of India, along a 2,637-meal (4,243km) route, north from Kanniyakumari to Dibrugarh. This is the longest journey in the Indian subcontinent.
"We live in a world that wants to suppress time and do many things to make it pass faster. I like trains because they are an environment that makes you live slowly," Paley said.
The "slow down" movement may have originated from the industrial revolution from the 19th century - an era of unprecedented rapid development of technology and commercialization. The railway may be slower than today's trains, but the first train traveled just 24 miles (nearly 40km) from Bombay to Thana in April 1853. It was a great success of the technique.
Over the past century and a half, the railway has not only changed Indian culture but also restructured time and space.
Throughout the journey, sellers brought all kinds of strange items into the closet: From food, jewelry, chain locks, books, chewable cigarettes, handbags, ... to air-cooled items for only a few rupees (a few thousand dong).
The railway also significantly eliminates gaps, creates sympathy, exchanges of knowledge, and makes the tourism industry reach the public. But at the same time, it is also an environment for spreading diseases, creating conditions for exploitation of labor and irreversible changes in the natural landscape.
Slow travel brings the value of the quality of interaction between regional cultures. However, as India develops relentlessly in the future, it is unclear what the next generation of trains will look like.
With a $12 billion loan from the Japanese government, India is building a high-speed train connecting the cities of Mumbai and Ahmedabad. It will become a driving force for economic transformation, " starting a revolution in the Indian railway industry and accelerating the journey to the future of the country," Prime Minister Narendra Modi said.
