I vividly remember my journeys on the Indian trains between Lucknow and Kanpur as a child. What is most prominent in the memory is the old 'moongfali' seller whom, I am sure, everyone in the train noticed and bought moongfalis from. His sweet jingle attracted all the passengers and in fact became his USP which made everyone buy a small packet from him almost daily. In his melodious voice he sang something which went like this - "Na mak ke daam moongfalli inaam". And very true to his claim we all relished the small paper packet of masala salt that he gave with the moongfali packet. Today when I sit back and recollect his selling efforts I feel like saluting his understanding of his buyers. His buyers were the typical middle class travelers like me who were on those trains traveling to and fro their work places in the cities that lay between Lucknow and Kanpur. So one can easily reason that this travel had become a hated necessity for most of them. They were thu...