ट्रेन

Last Thursday I embarked on my first Indian train ride.  Well ahead of time, I took the TIFR bus to the Victoria Station, carrying with me a little suitcase and a big backpack.

Here's a picture of Victoria Station which I did not take: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mak999/417506259/

The huge building and throngs of hurrying people were a bit overwhelming, but eventually I asked enough security guards to figure out where my train was and where to sit.

I was in a "sleeper car", which meant that it was possible for a fraction of the passengers to lie down.  Here was the setup:  Each row had a booth holding ६ passengers (३ facing ३), an aisle, and then another pair of opposing seats.  There were two opposing perches above each booth, and a perch above the opposing seats.  These three perches could either hold luggage, or a sleeping person.  The ceiling held several fans; there was no air conditioning.  I had a window seat, and learned how to operate the window very quickly.  It was a rainy day, and the window needed to be locked in the downward position when it was raining, and locked in the upward position when it wasn't.  There were several vertical bars on each.  People toss their garbage out the window without a thought.
 
I arrived quite early for my ride, and sat across from a tired-looking gent.  While we waited he got bored and pulled out two treasured bouncy balls which had a snow globe effect, and Disney characters (Winnie the Pooh and Mickey) suspended therein.  Later he took a nap.

Many people walked by the aisle, and against the window asking for money.  There were the standard vendors of food and chai, but much more.   Many of them were blind; I guess walking down the aisle of a train is much easier than other things they could be doing.  Anyway people were selling flashlights and chains and noisemakers and henna tattoos and Ganesha coloring books (his face looked a lot like that of a certain Disney flying elephant character).  At one point two men walked by singing, the second person blind with his hand on the other's shoulders.  One unfortunate sight you'll sometimes see is a woman with a baby who will come look at you.  From outside the train, they'll even reach in through the window and tap you on the shoulder.  Finally, I should mention a bizarre sight that I don't quite comprehend.  An older fellow was doing something like a crab walk, in which his knees were extremely bent and his head was about the level of my seat.  I'm not sure if he is a contortion artist or had a medical condition; some kind of carney I guess.  Anyway he also wanted money.

The view from the train was much more interesting than from American train's I've ridden.  As we raced along at ५० kilometers an hour, I saw an abundance of people, animals, and plants.  Tons of people were walking along train tracks beside us, often with umbrellas.  It is evidently not a big deal for a gentleman to relieve himself in public, as long as he is facing away from the nearby train.  I also saw many goats, cattle, and dogs.  We passed through a mountain and got to look down into a beautiful valley, the grandeur of which my simple camera could not respectably capture.

Here is a video of a vagrant puppy hanging out by a station.  I filmed him from my window seat.

Eventually I arrived at Pune.  My interview there is a tale for my next post; this one is about trains.

For the ride back I only had a ticket to an intermediate city Kalyan.  I was to purchase a local train ticket from there to Mumbai in person.  The train to Kalyan was much more crowded.  There were seats for १०० people per car, but it seemed like an additional ५० were in the aisle at any given time.  I had a window seat again. I should mention that at no point in my travels did anyone ask me for a ticket, although nearby passengers were very much aware of who had a right to sit where.  People were traveling in groups, and switching seats quite often.  At one point when it was particularly crowded I found myself surrounded by women.  Perhaps this was a makeshift "Ladies' Booth" to protect them from the squirming men in the aisle, but I did not participate...

At Kalyan I saw some horribly long lines, and I wasn't quite sure which ones to stand in.  I did my usual trick of asking the security guy for help.  He wound up taking me to a man operating a ticket machine, so that I didn't have to wait... The local train back to Mumbai wasn't bad, but it was extremely slow.  The view was interesting, but there was only so much I could process.  Back at the Victoria Station, I took the Number ३ bus back home.  Just for fun I did some aggressive squeezing to board it with my luggage.

Next:  पुणे.