And here is I making the station announcement at Saoner Rly Stn, SECR, on the then Nagpur – Chhindwara narrow gauge section.
02 October 2004. Please excuse the poor video quality. Below is the excerpt from the trip report.
Post lunch, we headed back to the station and got talking to the deputy station superintendent. A very warm and generous person and that meeting turned out to be a great experience. Saoner station is a small two platform one. It has one main line and two loops. The total station staff wouldn’t probably exceed 5 people. The Dy SS was also in charge of selling tickets. We looked around, seeing the token block instruments and the telephones and then we were invited by him to sell tickets. We took that up with gusto, but sad to say, we crumpled each cardboard ticket we inserted into the date punch machine. He insisted we handle the cash too, which showed how trusting and good-natured people in the area are. He showed us the working of the token instrument, and then insisted we make the station announcement. Alok refused but I took up the challenge, and in my broken Hindi, I read out what he had written for me, announcing the very train that was to take us back to Nagpur. I did it twice, to ensure Alok captured it on my digital camera!