My Train 18 Story Paperback – 1 June 2021

My Train 18 storyBy - Sudhanshu ManiTrain 18 is a beautiful, remarkably well crafted book filled with gems. Author of the book Mr. Sudhanshu Mani is Retd general manager of the integral coach factory chennai. After a career spanning thirty eight years with intensive experience in projects, railway operations and maintenance and rolling stock design & technology, capped by the assignment in Berlin, Germany as the senior- most representative of Indian Railways outside India.He signed off his career with the turnout of Train 18.Book is much more than a train. It is a symbol of Atmanirbhar Bharat, driven by the vision and belief that we could be world beaters. Book has an interesting narrative and a live example of how a strong leadership, accountability and an enthusiastic team can transform the way of the world.Don't miss the book, And don't lend it to a friend after you read it. You might want to go back on the book journey again and again !!!

The book chronicle how the project was a fight against all odds.Inspiring, uplifting, engaging read.It's also tragic. The team leadership that gave everything to ensure the success of the project got sidelined and got mistreated and how some of their careers got adversely effected.Finally someone else took full credit.

What could one committed individual do for a country? What is the creative power of an individual in a stifling bureaucracy? How could one excel even when the odds are stacked against? How could one demonstrate character and antifragility to conquer black swans? Please read this wonderful book written by an equally wonderful person.Mr. Mani created Train 18, India's first train set called Vande Bharat in mere 18 months. This book takes us through the trailblazing journey of transformation he delivered during his stint in ICF as Numero Uno. Mr. Mani through his book demonstrates the unlimited potential and character embodied in a determined human being. This book is a rare combination of engineering achievement led by a principled man with unrelenting discipline, personal dignity, profound erudition, holistic view of life, admirable diction, keenness in sports and a phenomenal sense of humour, tempered by philosophical depth.

It is good overall and achievement of Sri S. mani which deliberately described in book and ICF overall development and base arranged for Train-18. The book can be write in well known english spell words other than hard searched words to excess everyone.

The reading of the book gives a technical account of what can be best described as the saga of making of India's own train from conceptualization, design development, manufacturing to finally putting into operationalization. This is very inspirational for it exhorts one and all to take up what one's heart's calling is, come what may! And most importantly the achievement has been a great confidence builder and the wish more such great things happen to our Great Indian Railways, lifeline of nation and huge potential to contribute towards development of the nation yet to be tapped fully. It is a must read for a Indian Railway enthusiast whose heart beats for Indian Railways!

The author was General Manager of the Integral Coach Factory in Perambur ( near Chennai) where the Vande Bharat train sets capable of 160-180 KMPH were built and delivered in a record time frame of 18 months, by October 2018. The train was at the time, code named "Train 18" to drive the very tight time table home. This was a world class integrated all-AC train designed and manufactured in India at an incredibly low cost of around Rs 115 crore ( approximately US$ 14 million), with a very small number of imported elements. Yet while so much hype has surrounded the Vande Bharat trains every time a new route is opened, no one in government has bothered to recall and give credit to the small group of engineers and designers and the hundreds of workers who assembled and built the trains in Perambur. Mr Sudanshu Mani, the author, now narrates the full story of the making of Vande Bharat and thanks to him we know the faces and names of the skilled personnel who helped deliver this exemplar of Make-in-India. There is a lot of technical detail but Mr Mani also provides many human -interest episodes. A valuable document of a singular Indian engineering achievement indeed. The author peppers his narrative with copious quotes from Shakespeare and innumerable Urdu couplets and some readers might find this interupts the narrative. Nevertheless this is one story that needed to be told.

Finally the people and the leader are quite important for any organisation or for the country to embark upon great mission. Leaders make things happen and even lead an average team to perform great tasks. Leadership does matter most. This book is about a leader and organisation performing extraordinarily by the leader . This story is also about a nation building project in transport sector which has realised the dream of rail fans. My dad who was part of the team used to say "Many of us being in the team used to witness the daily impacts he made in the system. A true description of the Leader's prospective of performing extraordinarily task". Criticism and victimizations are quite common in our society and if a leader attaches undue importance to these than projects remain only on drawing board. I can only say it's a wonderful effort to describe the entire process and congratulate the author to make so lively.