For 2 ½ weeks we are doing a travel component in India- traveling through and visiting the states of Andhra Pradesh, Maharastra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Delhi, and Mumbai. Trains were our main form of transportation which gave us a whole new way to experience India.
Imagine waking up at 6 listening to a large group of women chanting prayers until about 8 and then resuming in the evening from 6-9.
Imagine a constant stream of beggars coming in at every stop. They are blind, missing fingers or arms or legs. Their very brokenness breaks you, their persistence and continuance grates on your nerves, and the whole thing makes you very burdened. You don’t know if someone disfigured them in order to make them a more pitiful site to gain larger donations and you don’t know who will actually pocket the money at the end of the day. All you can do is pass out cookies or fruit to the outstretched hand or limb and hope that this small gift will give them joy.
Imagine the repetitive call of “chai, chai”, “coffee, coffee, coffee”, “cold drinks, Slice!”, “byiriyani, byiriyani, chapatti, chapatti, chapatti!” all day and part of the night
Imagine the putrid smell at the train stops from the human waste that has gathered there
Imagine rocking back and forth over a squat pot and watching the track whiz by through the hole
Imagine very tight and cramped spaces, total strangers coming into your bearth and sitting on
your seat.
Imagine sitting on a train for 28 hours! You can only imagine how glad we were to step of at different stops and run through the crowds just to get some exercise and have a chance to run. Since people were already staring, we gave them a show as we skipped, ran, and leaped down the stations- constantly dodging the hundreds of people in mid-air.
Imagine listening to men snore all night long, or the blinding light when people in your bearth get off at a stop during the night, or setting your alarm for 4:45am to be ready to get off at 5am.
Imagine running through the train stations pulling all your luggage behind you to jump onboard the train.
Imagine watching cockroaches climb around the bunk while you are trying to sleep. You bury yourself deeper in your sleep sheet to try to avoid them, and end up watching them crawl over your sheet the rest of the time.
Imagine all of this, and you will have a small taste of what we went through. Still, I am glad for the memories that I have made
Imagine waking up at 6 listening to a large group of women chanting prayers until about 8 and then resuming in the evening from 6-9.
Imagine a constant stream of beggars coming in at every stop. They are blind, missing fingers or arms or legs. Their very brokenness breaks you, their persistence and continuance grates on your nerves, and the whole thing makes you very burdened. You don’t know if someone disfigured them in order to make them a more pitiful site to gain larger donations and you don’t know who will actually pocket the money at the end of the day. All you can do is pass out cookies or fruit to the outstretched hand or limb and hope that this small gift will give them joy.
Imagine the repetitive call of “chai, chai”, “coffee, coffee, coffee”, “cold drinks, Slice!”, “byiriyani, byiriyani, chapatti, chapatti, chapatti!” all day and part of the night
Imagine the putrid smell at the train stops from the human waste that has gathered there
Imagine rocking back and forth over a squat pot and watching the track whiz by through the hole
Imagine very tight and cramped spaces, total strangers coming into your bearth and sitting on
your seat.
Imagine sitting on a train for 28 hours! You can only imagine how glad we were to step of at different stops and run through the crowds just to get some exercise and have a chance to run. Since people were already staring, we gave them a show as we skipped, ran, and leaped down the stations- constantly dodging the hundreds of people in mid-air.
Imagine listening to men snore all night long, or the blinding light when people in your bearth get off at a stop during the night, or setting your alarm for 4:45am to be ready to get off at 5am.
Imagine watching cockroaches climb around the bunk while you are trying to sleep. You bury yourself deeper in your sleep sheet to try to avoid them, and end up watching them crawl over your sheet the rest of the time.
Imagine all of this, and you will have a small taste of what we went through. Still, I am glad for the memories that I have made
wow. this is an amazing description.
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