day 108

Day 108 on thsi very multi faceted journey,, about to embark upon a nine hundred fifty seven kilometer, eighteen hour train ride from Jamnagar back to Jaipur. I was planning on spending the new year on the coast in Dwarka, but unbeknowst to me, One hundred thousand Hindu's were converging on that spot for a seven day festival so wasn't a room to be had. I did spend Christmas day and night in this holy pilgrimage site, and got to watch the sun decend into the haze before it finally dipped into the haze that hovers above this country... The Haze, it blankets the whole country below the Himalayas. The haze, I borrow this term from the weather section of the newspaper where the forecast is never 'sunny' but 'hazy'. The Haze, nothing a kin to that famous strain developed some years ago. "This is India" an old traveling companion of mine loved to say with utter contemp and cynicysm as he was days until his departure. Wishing only that they had good 'haze' in this country,,, Travelling by train in India has a certain nostalgic feel to it. Certainly the coaches aren't new. The horn that blows constantly warning people and animals of the trains approach,, most of the roads that cross the tracks have gates which are still operated manually, by men who wave green flags as the trains pass. Thus far our coach is relatively empty, but this is rarely the case. On my last train ride, the woman next to me had facial hair, a funny boice, and many missing teeth. I couldn't tell if she was a man before and her partner, a woman who must have weighed more than three hundred pounds, had layers of fat buldfing out everywhere her sari didn't cover. And there was a man sitting beside her. Four of us, o na bench for three, I was squished by the window for three hours. Thinking if I had been tripping I owuld have fled. Now, after that harrowing experience, the complete opposite occurs,,, two hours into this trip, there are stil three of us in this berth, A young guy dressed smartly and a baba dressed in saffron, long white hair and beard, They are chatting away in Gujarati. We pull into a station and four boys rush into the berth excitedly, they have three large bags of food with them, complet with a metal tray, cups and real silverware. Also a blanket, which they give to the baba. They address them as Guruji, and when the train starts rolling less than five minutes later, they all touch his his feet and hhurry off the train. When the train is moving, this couple invites me to join them in the feast, nad I mean feast. The baba ensuring I get a proper serving, I offered them some chikus afterwards which they accepted. Neither of them speaks english,, at the next stop, an hour later, the scene was repeated except with two young children and their mothers, and a few men, They all know what coach and seat he was sitting in. Then then as thge train started rolling, they all ran to the windows outside to say their good-byes,,,and receive some final blessings. Both of these stops last less than five minures,. Now this, "is India!" India, where you experience Heaven and Hell, often in the same day. Where there is trash everywhere and whole avenues in modern cities reeek of sewage, and not only that, but the toilets in teh trains are just holes where you can see the tracks go by beneath,, and trains criss cross the whole country,,, India,,,. Where beautiful children live with their families on the sidewalds of busy intersections, barefoot and wearing only rags, so that they can beg from the buses and rickshaws that stop at the light, India, where traffec laws are te[;aced byu orns, where there is no such concept as 'waiting' in line, it is just a free for all, India, whre you will never get a straight answer on how much a rickshaw or taxi csts. Yes it is easy to get fed up in this country, until you meet some baba on the train who has nothing, and ends up feeding you one of the best meals you've had in the country,, India is a trip alright, I don't think there is anywhere else like it on Earth. If Thailand is called the land of smiles, India might as well be called the land of the Head Bobbing people,,, the way they move their heads from side to side like would to indicate an emphatic 'no', for the Indians, this could mean yes, sure, maybe, why not? maybe, as you like, I agree, ... it is not an easy expression to read or imitate, It is distinctly Indian