Railways a melting pot

Did you know that the Anglo-Indians are major contributors to the building of the Indian Railways. Right from building, maintaining, manning and even operating – the Anglo Indians have been doing that for years and years. And that’s the reason why we sometimes come across generations of Anlgo-Indian families in various roles in the Railways.

One such ‘generation’ is that of the Fullers in Chennai. When the first train chugged out in 1856 from Royapuram, the first Fuller was in service and after that, generations of the family have always been with the Indian Railways – there has been so time since 1856 when a Fuller was not in the Railways. This month, the tradition will come to an end as Noel Fuller, the last of the Fullers to have worked with the Railways, is set to retire at 60.

Noel’s father, Patrick retired as a train driver and of the seven siblings, Noel is the only one to have chosen to work in this line. Noel has two sons - Denzil, a marine engineer and Andrew is a Captain in the Indian Army.

Maybe hisorians need to study this generation of Anglo-Indians more and make this an integral part of our history – their assimilation in our society is now like sugar in tea – sweet.