Q1.
Have you or your family members ever taken a train or a metro? What sort of economic activities did you see around the stations? Share the experience with your classmates.
Answer
This is a look-and-report activity, so the answer must come from a station you have actually seen — or from someone in your family who has. What the question is really testing is whether you can spot the economic life that grows around a piece of infrastructure.
Method. Stand outside the station (or recall your last visit) and list what people are buying, selling or being paid for, in three rings:
| Ring | What you will usually see | Who earns from it |
|---|---|---|
| Inside the station | Ticket counters, food stalls and IRCTC vending units (Fig. 7.9), book and magazine stalls, water and juice sellers, porters, cleaning and security staff | Railway or metro staff, licensed vendors, porters |
| Just outside | Autorickshaws, taxis, app-based cabs, cycle stands, parking lots, tea and snack carts, fruit sellers, mobile-recharge and photocopy shops | Drivers, cart owners, small shopkeepers |
| The wider area | Hotels and lodges, luggage and footwear shops, coaching centres, godowns and courier offices, wholesale shops that use the station for freight | Shop owners, their workers, transporters |
Sample answer: “Last Diwali we took a train from our town to my aunt’s city. On the platform there was an IRCTC food stall, a tea vendor with a kettle, a bookstall and two porters in red shirts. Outside the station about fifteen autorickshaws waited in a line, with a fruit cart and a chai stall beside them. Across the road were three small hotels and a shop selling suitcases. On the way back we used the metro. The metro station itself had only a ticket counter and a small coffee kiosk inside — the rules there are stricter — but at the exit there were cycle stands, app-cab pick-up points and a row of shops in the mall next door. I noticed that the busier the station, the more people earned a living around it.”
Why it happens: a station gathers a crowd at fixed times every day. Wherever people gather with a little time to spare and a journey ahead of them, selling becomes worthwhile — food, transport, storage, a place to stay. This is what the chapter means when it says that as the railway network expanded, “trade grew, major markets developed, and new settlements emerged near stations”, and that railways create “many indirect jobs like catering, vending, and taxi services”.