Every journey leaves you with a story. These journeys could be on your bike, a visit to your relatives on a train or a tip to a foreign land via an airplane. Whatever be the mode there are so many stories that you can share and bring the world closer to you. Railonama is an initiative that is curating your heart warming stories of train journeys through India. The selected stories will be a part of a crowdsourced book that would share those amazing train journeys that might take us to our childhood.
The book has will be published in both US and India. There is a plan to bring out an e-book version too. Furthermore the interesting bit is that all this is for a good cause. The royalties that would be collected from the book will be given to the victims of train accidents in India and for that the NGO PickaFight has been selected.
The initiative has also made sure to create a presence on social media for reaching out to a wider audience. A Facebook page has been created which is seeing a decent traction. The page has created an app for you to submit stories for the initiative. Along with this you can upload your stories from the website itself.
The submissions are still going on and the last date for submission has been extended to 31st May, 2013. But before you type your stories, these are the few things that you should keep in mind –
1. The stories should be preferably between 750-5000 words in length.
2. The story should be exclusive and should have not been published anywhere online or offline.
3. Multiple stories are allowed and click here to upload multiple stories.
4. The submissions are only accepted in English or Hindi.
Once you submit your story, the team at Railonama would inform you by June 30th, 2013. And if you are the lucky one whose story has been selected then you would get a printed copy of the book!
Being born in an Indian Railways family, my entire childhood has revolved around trains so I might try to type in a story or two. Good luck to all, who are going to support this amazing initiative.