Title - Weekly train to Assam packed

Though there was a general rush to get on the Chennai-Dibrugarh Express at Egmore railway station, it wasn’t entirely because of fear for their lives - it was a fear of missing out on the once-a-week direct train that would take them straight home to Assam. It might be easy to say the Chennai also witnessed an exodus of north-easterners, but that would be inaccurate.“All of us are from Assam,” said Talash, who had boarded the train with 17 other friends, “As are most of us on this train. It’s all because of family pressure,” he added grimly.Quite clearly there were almost no north-east Indian students nor workers anywhere on the train that departed at 10.30 pm on Thursday. This was quite surprising, because the train was bursting at the seams despite four extra coaches having been added. “After 8 pm there was a massive rush and almost 1500 tickets for the unreserved compartment were booked by them (Assamese youths),” confirmed a railway official. However, the train to Meghalaya was underpacked with only 250 unreserved tickets being booked - almost 100 below the average. Southern Railway has also announced that the remaining passengers - including those coming in from the South to leave to Assam - can hop on three special trains from Bangalore to the north east that will stop at Chennai.

Most of the Assamese youths who boarded the train said that they had been working in restaurants and hotels around Chennai for the past few years. “When the message started circulating that Muslims would incite violence against us after Ramzan, our families asked us to take leave and return,” said Kapil, who works in the kitchen of a fried chicken restaurant chain. “I don’t want to leave, but my mother kept crying on the phone, so I agreed,” he said, grimacing.

Most of them, while worried that their houses and belongings might be pilfered in their absence, are determined to return. But their primary fear is that they may end up losing their jobs because of the urgent departure.