Some journeys come full circle in the most unexpected way. As a little girl in Darjeeling, Sarita Yolmo would run to the railway station the moment she heard the toy train approaching. Like any child, she’d stand there, watching the train make its way through the mountains. Nearly five decades later, that same train is her workplace. At 55, Sarita became the first woman Train Ticket Examiner (TTE) on the 146-year-old Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR). It’s a UNESCO World Heritage toy train that runs between New Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling in West Bengal.
“Are you a celebrity”
21 May 2026 | 15:04
What is the one thing that women are tired of being asked?
Tourists along with Sarita Yolmo.
In an interview with BBC, Sarita recalled how she would run to the station in her childhood . “During the rainy season, we would stand and watch the train with umbrellas. It was fun to see all that.” But, despite growing up around it, she had never travelled on the full route herself. “I had seen the small train many times, but I had never travelled on it,” she says. “Today, I am travelling on the same train. It feels much more special.”In February 2026, when she reached the station and joined duty, everyone in the Railway staff congratulated her. And at first, the passengers became curious. Sarita recalls, “Passengers started asking questions. They were taking pictures with me and congratulating me,” she says. “‘Are you a celebrity?’ they asked,” Sarita says, laughing. “People had come from different places but they wanted to talk to me. I felt very good.““When I told them why everyone was congratulating me, they took photos with me and wanted to know about my experience,” she says. “Everyone was looking at me. My hands were shaking,” she remembers. “I felt like a celebrity.”But the photos and the praise are just one day on the job. Behind them is a career built over more than three decades.
She joined the railways in 1991
While the spotlight on Sarita is new, her railway journey began decades ago. Sarita joined the railways in 1991, at the printing press in Kurseong, West Bengal. When the printing press shut down, she was moved to New Jalpaiguri in 2019, where she took on different roles, of an announcer, enquiry counter, and more.She became a ticket examiner in 2018, working her way through both platform duty and on-board checking. “First I used to check tickets on the platform and then I started duties inside train compartments,” she says. Like many railway employees, she has witnessed how technology has transformed the job. “Earlier, we carried charts with passengers’ names. Now we use a tablet,” recalls Sarita.
Left college to take the railway job
Her path here wasn’t a straight line. She was studying at a college in Darjeeling when the railway job came through and she left college to take it. That one decision, made years ago, has now written her into history.
The journey was far from easy
Sarita is the first woman Train Ticket Examiner (TTE) on the 146-year-old Darjeeling Himalayan Railway. (Photo Credit: ANI)
For Sarita, the journey to be where she is right now, wasn’t a smooth one. “I have faced many challenges in my life,” she says, matter-of-fact. “What I am doing now is just another hardship. Sometimes I have to deal with difficult passengers. Sometimes I have to travel alone.”That confidence also wasn’t always there. When she first got the posting, doubt crept in.” I thought I would not be able to do it because I had to go alone,” she admits. That’s when her family stepped up.
The support from family helped her
“In my family, I have my husband and my daughter,” she says. “I came here with their support. They encouraged me and told me that I could do it. That’s why I went ahead.” Her husband, Dawa Yolmo is a retired senior section engineer from the Tindharia railway workshop. He calls Sarita a committed railway employee who’s managed to hold her career and her family together. Despite the long hours, she genuinely enjoys being on the Darjeeling route. “Darjeeling’s experience is very good,” she says. “The passengers enjoy it a lot.”At 55, in an age when many people are thinking about slowing down, Sarita has stepped into the most visible role of her career. Every day, she boards a train that has been running through the Himalayas for nearly 150 years and quietly reminds people that milestones do not come with an age limit. Sometimes, they arrive after 35 years of hard work. And sometimes, they arrive on a toy train climbing the hills of Darjeeling.
