Why do our trains look the same year after year? The same metallic box with featureless windows and doors? Sudhanshu Mani, creator of India’s first semi-high speed train set Train-18 Vande Bharat Express and retired general manager of the Indian Railways’ biggest coach factory Integral Coach Factory (ICF), breaks his silence on this most-common question raised in commuters’ minds in his book titled, My Train 18 Story.

The newly-released book is peppered with lines by renowned Urdu poets and quotes by William Shakespeare. Mani details how he tried to break that barrier of “babudom” to successfully design and commission India’s first-ever semi-high speed train set. Mani said the heavy layers of bureaucracy tried to scuttle it at every point since the first day, but it was only due to the determination of his team at the ICF that he could do it successfully, with the support of the Chairman, Railway Board and the railway minister.