"The Night Train at Deoli" by Ruskin Bond
There are some moments in life that are never forgotten. It can be anything — a favourite toy from childhood, a time of shared laughter, the pain of lost love, the scent of a flower, sunlight on a distant mountain top, the platform of a small railway station in northern India, in the soft quiet light of early morning...
When I was at college, I used to spend* my summer holidays at Dehra, at my grandmother's place. I stayed there in the hills from early May until late in July. Deoli was a small station about thirty miles from Dehra; it marked the beginning of the heavy jungles of the Indian Terai area.
The train used to reach Deoli at about five in the morning, when the station was poorly lit with oil lamps, and the jungle across the railway line was just visible in the early light of day. Deoli only had one platform, a waiting room, and an office for the stationmaster. On the platform there was a tea stall, a fruit seller, and a few thin, hungry dogs; not much else, because the train stopped there for only ten minutes before rushing on into the forests.
Why it stopped at Deoli, I don't know. Nothing ever happened there. Nobody got off the train and nobody got on. But the train always stopped there a full ten minutes, and then a bell sounded, the guard blew his whistle, and soon Deoli was left behind and forgotten.
Vocabulary
oil lamps - керосиновая лампа
visible - видимый
a waiting room - зал ожидания
a stationmaster - начальник станции
a tea stall - чайный киоск
thin - тощий
to rush on - устремляться, мчаться
to get off - сходить
to get on - садиться (на поезд)
to blow the whistle - свистеть в свисток
*Конструкция «used to» нужна для выражения повторяющихся действий в прошлом и не имеет ничего общего с глаголом «использовать». Ее значение можем перевести на русский такими словами, как «раньше» или «прежде».