Surviving the Train

I've survived my first night on an Indian train. Just like most everything else in India so far, it was crowded, dirty, and there were far more men than women. In fact I only ever saw 1 other woman, well that is unless you count the 3 Hijras, transvestites, who sauntered through my rail car asking for money. The train was decently comfortable, although my feet hung off the end of the sleeper berth into the walkway, so it was hard to avoid constantly knocking people with my feet. The lights were constantly being turned on and off as people boarded and got off for their stops, which caused expected noise and commotion that my body eventually acclimated. At one point though I was startled awake by loud male voices. I peered over my shoulder to see 4 men in turbans with rilfes flung over their shoulders. Holy shit! I screamed to myself, What is going on?!? They stood around for a while, talking loudly, seemingly trying to explain something to another passenger. I stayed as still as possible, my face towards the wall and pretended to be asleep. They eventually left and I dozed back to sleep. I found out later that those men weren't the terrorists I initially suspected them to be, but armed guards partolling the train.

I spent 26 hours on the train, and during that time I tried all sorts of unknown foods that were being hawked at every stop.Puffed rice served in newspaper, seasonsed with ginger, peanuts, chilies, and salt; homemade potato chips that tasted alomost like salt and vinegar chips from home; rotis served in ingenious dried leaf bowls with potato curry for dipping; samosas served in these same eco-friendly leaf bowls, and of course, many, many cups of chai--the sweet, creamy goodness served in great little clay cups. Its so nice that they haven't abandoned their traditional serving methods and moved to styrofoam!