Lines of the Nation radically recasts the history of the Indian railways, which have long been regarded as vectors of modernity and economic prosperity. From the design of carriages to the architecture of stations, employment hierarchies, and the construction of employee housing, Laura Bear explores the new public spaces and social relationships created by the railway bureaucracy. She then traces their influence on the formation of contemporary Indian nationalism, personal sentiments, and popular memory. Her probing study challenges entrenched beliefs concerning the institutions of modernity and capitalism by showing that these rework older idioms of social distinction and are legitimized by forms of intimate, affective politics. Drawing on historical and ethnographic research in the company town at Kharagpur and at the Eastern Railway headquarters in Kolkata (Calcutta), Bear focuses on how political and domestic practices among workers became entangled with the moralities and archival technologies of the railway bureaucracy and illuminates the impact of this history today. The bureaucracy has played a pivotal role in the creation of idioms of family history, kinship, and ethics, and its special categorization of Anglo-Indian workers still resonates. Anglo-Indians were formed as a separate railway caste by Raj-era racial employment and housing policies, and other railway workers continue to see them as remnants of the colonial past and as a polluting influence. The experiences of Anglo-Indians, who are at the core of the ethnography, reveal the consequences of attempts to make political communities legitimate in family lines and sentiments. Their situation also compels us to rethink the importance of documentary practices and nationalism to all family histories and senses of relatedness. This interdisciplinary anthropological history throws new light not only on the imperial and national past of South Asia but also on the moral life of present technologies and economic institutions.

This book talks about some significant experiences during my childhood and how God has formed me for a future life in Africa and as ADRA executive director. It shows the breakout of a typical professional career into volunteer missionary work in Africa. After my permanent return to my homeland, I worked for a large civil engineering company managing multimillion Swiss Francs projects. I started my own planning company before I got called back into denominational work, to be the executive director of an ADRA country office and an ADRA division office. During my career, I traveled intensively in African countries, the Middle East, Afghanistan, and North Korea. I have been a resident in 7 countries (Cameroon, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Zaire, Rwanda, Turkey, and Switzerland) and have traveled to 66 countries. This book explains how I depended on my daily relationship with God. My heavenly father blessed me richly.

Loreta is a young woman with Swiss and Spanish blood in her veins. Still as a child after the divorce of her parents she went with her mother back to live in Switzerland, where she grew up, reached adolescence and frst youth. After a disappointment in love, she decided to travel to Spain to fnd her father, whom she has not seen for a long time, and with whom she has maintained only sporadic contact through the years. She packed her belongings into her small car and headed for Almeria. Upon arrival, she could not fnd her father immediately, and on a hot summer afternoon she got lost between the greenhouses of St. Augustin. Momey, who had been studying informatics in Algeria, was forced to quit his studies due to the severe illness of his mother. He thus had to look for a job to help his family, because their economic reserves were all needed for medical treatments and hospital bills. As there were no suitable jobs available, his father heeded the advice of his own brother - who later turned out to be a human tracker - and decided to send Momey along with Momey’s younger brother to Spain, to fnd success there. For this they have to cross the Mediterranean in a dilapidated boat together with 38 other men coming from Africa. A tragic accident occurs during this crossing. On that afternoon, when Loreta is lost between the greenhouses, Momey who by then heads a group of workers there, fnds her unconscious and helps her to fnd the way out of the labyrinth of plantations under plastic. Loreta fnds her father just when he is handcuffed, arrested on suspicion of murder. Father and daughter exchange some words under tears. She stays with her paternal grandmother, and despite the terrible events, begins to think that she wants to start a new life there in Andalusia. She plans to open her own business. She believes in her father ́s innocence, and provides him with support so that he can overcome the difcult moments he is going through. Te father, who for many years led a disorderly and aimless life, fnds in jail a cellmate, who motivates and initiates him in flamenco singing, as an infallible method to leave behind his bad life and depressions. Te two new friends work voluntarily in jail, and start a passionate singing project together. Loreta and Momey, who come from different cultures, begin to cultivate a beautiful friendship. Tere are obstacles that will momentarily prevent that friendship from ending in love. But as it cannot be otherwise in Andalusia, all difculties are solved, and love triumphs in the end.

The Swiss author Dill McLain surprises us once again: With a fresh, entertaining, direct narrative, she catches us and makes us part of her incredible love stories. In them, often written with an air of humour and set in very diverse places after going through periods of lack, love disappointments and broken relationships, the protagonists always end up finding happiness.