Forty 'wonderful' hours on a train

---

You may think that a forty hour train ride isn't a particularly exciting thing...and you would be right, it was horrible and extremely boring. We have decided to write an entry on it however for a few reasons. One reason is that forty hours is actually longer than we have spent in some of our stops so it kind of deserves a blog of its own, also it was an important journey for us as it took us back to Mumbai which is our final stop (not including a quick side trip to the Ellora Caves) before we fly home. The final reason is that the journey was an absorbing experience and we made some interesting observations about India and its people that we wanted to write about.

Our journey took us from Kochi up the west coast to Mumbai. We travelled sleeper class which is the cheapest class which still provides a bed...of sorts. During the journey there seemed to be a conveyerbelt with a continuous stream of beggars moving along it. At every stop along the way groups of beggars would board the train and make their way down the aisles asking for money. Because we are 'rich' westerners they were particularity persistent with us. I think my opinion of beggars in India was perhaps a little naive to start with. I assumed, that like most people on the streets in the UK, they were in this position through some fault of their own. In the UK there is every opportunity for most people to work and earn money and if not then the government will bail you out anyway so if people are on the streets I tend to think that they are lazy. However, this isn't the case in India. The beggars have no choice, there is no help for them and there is no work for them and it is sad to see the number of people who live their lives with no hope of ever getting out this cycle of dependence on handouts from strangers. Many of the beggars were disabled in some way, many had missing limbs and others were living with gruesome and terrible conditions. One mans leg was hugely swollen and covered in a rotten looking skin disease. I think we have got used to sights like this, back home we would have run a mile if we saw something so gross but now we don't even bat an eyelid.

Someone once told us that 'you can't change India, India has to change you'. It has certainly changed my perception of beggars in countries as poor as India. I am much more sympathetic towards people and we gave many of the beggars some change as they made their way down the train. It is hard to deny them when they are only asking for one rupee (just over 1 pence). One little boy had dressed himself up as a monkey to try and make some money. We made him do a little dance for us in return for five rupees...very wrong of us i think! We also noticed the amount of people who lived in little camps by the train stations. The stations have drinking water facilities so it is an ideal spot. They live under grubby old sheets stretched over branches and they cook over fires in the dirt. It was very sad to so many groups of families living like this, what hope do their children have for the future?

Another observation we made was how little Indians seem to care for one another. Most completely turned a blind eye to the beggars which, i guess, is perhaps understandable as they must see hundreds every day and they cant give something to them all, but they seemed totally unmoved by it. The caste system in India means that all people are NOT equal so maybe to them these people are where they ought to be. But even simple things like moving a bag off the chair next to you so someone can sit down, or moving along on the benches to make to room for someone seemed too much for some people. They'd rather see them stand. They really didn't seem to like each other very much at all.

On a brighter note, one the great things about Indian rail travel is the constant supply of delicious food and drink. Every few minutes somebody came down the aisles with dosas, samosas or other tasty snacks and of course chai (tea) was always readily available. All this food creates a lot of litter and being the environmentally conscience souls we are we tried to do the right thing and give our rubbish back the train staff. They laughed at us and pointed to the window. Everything gets thrown out of the window into the surrounding countryside which to us was just unbelievable. Indian Rail is the countries largest company and they cant even supply bins on the trains. Their lack of care for their own beautiful country frustrated us but we had to remember those wise words 'you cant change India, India has to change you' so reluctantly we started to throw our waste out of the windows. It would have ended up there anyway i guess. This wasn't the only waste leaving the train as it turned out. The toilets on board lead straight outside and what ever came out of the passengers ended up on the tracks, they were covered in human stools.

So after forty hours and two sleepless nights we pulled into Mumbai at 5 am feeling like utter poo. We headed through the streets, stepping over the huge number of homeless people sleeping rough, to our hotel for a much needed nap, very happy the ordeal was over.

---

Comments

[Suragh]

After 20 years
Well Maybe in twenty years time if u come back here , the good or better things u saw about India will be much more widespread than it is today. Maybe.. Because if u had come twenty years ago..Wait, My guess not many wud have wanted to come here twenty years ago.Twenty years ago we had no more than a few billion dollars. Today we have a Trillion..So lets see.Fingers crossed for my country.. Thats not say tat u shudnt come back here before tat..