Incredibly Creative!

Gautum Dutta is like any other middle class Indian. Government employed, breadwinner for the family but there is something about him that would make you connect instantly. Be it his infectious child like smile, his love for speaking, his portly figure or his demeanor, which speaks volumes of the person he is.

Clad in his uniform of a blue shirt and black trousers, Gautam can be recognized from a distance even as far as a hundred meters, always involved in some activity. Because when it comes to the National Raliway Museum, situated in Chanakyapuri in New Delhi, Gautam has both his hands full.

Affectionately addressed as ‘Gautam Da’, he is recognized by one and all, greeted and smiled at. For, it’s him, who has been a fulcrum of sorts for the Railway Museum for a sweet twenty five years now.

He joined the Railway Museum in 1986 and has reasons behind why he finally decided to move out of Calcutta.

“The political pressures in a state like West Bengal are immense even on normal people and they are hounding most of the times. There is not one household in West Bengal that does not have an artist. The irony however is that the realization for many is not there. West Bengal is so much marred in its own sets of problems, that the artist within never happens to recognize one’s potential. Thankfully I’m not one of them.”

However, something else is of more interest than him being the centre weight of the

museum. The marvelous models of the engines on display, be it in the indoor gallery or the Souvenir Shoppe, most of them have been handcrafted and designed by him.

Gautam’s initiation is self attributed. Hailing from Calcutta (now Kolkata), West Bengal, Gautam made a replica of a water treatment plan right outside his house as early as a student of the eighth standard. With no background in engineering and architecture, this was no mean feat.

“My model was embraced by the Municipal Corporation of Calcutta who paid me a princely sum of Rupees two thousand. For a standard eighth student, getting this much money, the joy was inexplicable,” says Gautam

Later his water treatment plan was selected for the Ganga Action Plan when he was a student in Intermediate.

“The simplicity of the model caught the attention of the eye of the officials for the Ganga Action Plan in Calcutta. When my father came to know about this development his joy knew no bounds. We were a family in cash crunch but my father made it sure that our schooling was best as per his resources and I, proved it beyond doubt. Till this date I have never under gone any training for the models that I make and yet they are so accurately made each time. I’m left baffled at times too.”

He has made innumerable replicas of train engines, but the one closest to his heart is that of the Great Indian Peninsular Railway locomotive (GIP1), which was the first locomotive to ever run in India in 1853 from Bombay to Thane.

“When I made this particular locomotive, I had a feeling as if I had been pushed behind in timeline. I considered myself extremely fortunate in getting the opportunity to handcraft not just any other model, but the first and one of the finest to have run on Indian soil.”

His technique is intensive and time consuming. “I usually take about ten days to complete one model. Once done, and if the demand is high, I can complete near about twenty models in a month’s time. You need to get the process right in the first attempt and if it falters then you falter on every model you make.”

The entire process depends upon how well the wooden cast wheels adjust on the rails. Gautam usually takes the help of technical people while placing the wheels, as one slight variation in size can ruin the entire replica. Each wheel with all its spokes needs to be correct in every dimension, he clarifies.

One needs to have oodles of confidence and patience as not everything can be done by you explains Gautam. “The delays can be inordinate. No one has a clue as to what time would be taken by the fabricator to weld the aluminum sheets or the time taken by the glass caster. I have to pressurize them each time but in the end they do the job for me.”

He has made a replica of Fairy Queen, which is the world’s oldest running steam locomotive having been commissioned by the Eastern Indian Railway (EIR) in 1855 but now being run by the Northern Railway, operating between Delhi and Alwar via the Sariska Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan.

Other notable replicas to his credit are those of the Patiala State Monorail Trainways (PMST), built for Maharaja of Patiala State, Sir Bhupinder Singh in 1907 and a WAG Diesel locomotive, where W stands for Broad Gauge, A for AC Traction and G for goods duty.

The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway System (DHRS) and the Nilgiri Mountain Railway (NMR), UNESCO declared sights and India’s two of the three narrow gauge running toy trains have also been made into replicas by Gautam.

India is a land of myriad charms and there is no dearth of people like Gautam Dutta here, who listen to what their heart says and do what they feel, gives them the maximum pleasure. He indeed is befitting as a role model for all of those who still believe that doing what their heart says is a pessimistic approach to life.