The moment we were looking forward to had arrived. We were finally getting to embark upon our exciting adventure to Shimla! Many of the kids in the choir had been counting down to this trip for the past couple of months. I was especially excited since it meant that I would get to see some more of the immense country of India and get to try some North Indian food for a change. The trip turned out to be quite eventful (it seems more like I've been gone for a month than just for a few days). The highlights of the trip included snake-charming, socializing, singing, sight-seeing, and shopping - all of which I would like to expound upon over the course of the next few blog entries.
OK, you caught me - there was no snake-charming involved in the trip. The only reason I wrote that was that I couldn't think of a word for "traveling" or "riding on a train" that started with an s. However, travelling was a huge part of this trip to Shimla. We loaded up the Tempo Travellers (a mini-bus type vehicle) on the 23rd of December and headed for the train station in Bangalore. From there, our adventure would proceed aboard five different trains (seven if you include the Metro in New Delhi), the two Travellers already mentioned, a bus that we chartered and the hospital bus in Shimla until we would arrive back in Hosur on the 31st of December.
I have never spent so much time on trains. We got on the train in Bangalore on the 23rd and spent that night, the next day, the next night, and the morning of the 25th on the train. Once we arrived in Delhi on the 25th, we had about an hour to wash up before performing in the Christmas program that afternoon. Then, after lunch and a bit of shopping, we had to get aboard another train to take us up to Kalka. We spent the night of the 25th on the train (actually, more accurately it would have been the morning of the 26th since our train was three hours late) and arrived in Kalka on the 26th. Then we took the Shimla hospital bus up to Shimla (about a 3 hour drive). The next couple of nights we stayed in Shimla (Friday and Saturday), but then on Sunday it was time for the trip back. This trip started down the mountain from Shimla to Kalka on the "Toy Train." Unfortunately, it was dark out so we did not get to enjoy the view as much as we would have liked, but it was still a pleasant trip. It did take significantly longer than the bus ride, though, at five hours. After reaching Kalka, we switched trains and arrived in Delhi the next morning (the 29th). From Delhi, we hopped on the bus that we had chartered, and, after a quick stop at the Union office for some breakfast, we headed for Agra. I would estimate that it took us about five hours to reach Agra from Delhi. After some sight-seeing at the Taj Mahal, it was off to yet another train station. This time our train was a grand total of seven hours late. We were supposed to leave around 11 p.m. I believe, but the train did not arrive until around 6 a.m. So, Tuesday the 30th and most of the 31st were spent on that train. Finally, we arrived in Bangalore at around 8 p.m. and got aboard the Travellers again for the ride back home. Phew. For those of you who weren't keeping track, that means that out of the 8 nights that we spent on this trip, 6 of them were spent on a train (or in a train station).
Fortunately, I find train travel to be quite fun (for the most part). Certainly, there are some things about it that are less than desirable (Old Delhi station, I'm looking at you), but for the most part, it is not difficult to entertain onesself. During the trip I finished three books and read over 400 pages of another one, learned a few new games, and played a number of rounds of Taboo.
Despite the fact that I find train travel in India fun, it definitely does have its pros and cons. The arguments for it are that it provides plenty of time to read (which I took advantage of) and socialize (which I took less advantage of), it's cheap, and it gets you from point A to point B.
Unfortunately, there are quite a few cons to train travel in India as well. The biggest of the cons is that it is dirty. Old Delhi station was probably one of the dirtiest places I've ever been. There was trash everywhere and one could watch the rats scurry back and forth under and around the train tracks. Coincidentally, the train that we took from Old Delhi to Kalka was the dirtiest train I've been in. We were located right next to the bathrooms which provided quite a pungent aroma to sleep to. Also, the bunks themselves were quite filthy, which meant that it was beneficial to grab a wet-wipe and clean a spot on which to lay one's head. Another point against train travel in India is that it can be more dangerous than other forms of travel. One has to watch out for their belongings so that they are not pilfered. Fortunately, I have not had any such thing happen to me yet, but I have been warned time and again to be careful. Also, the trains are a common target for terrorist attacks (from what I hear) - especially in the Northeast. The final argument against train travel in India is that it is crowded.
If there is one thing that I dislike more than anything else about India, it is the Indian concept of crowd control and lines. There is no courtesy here - no holding the door for others, no letting someone else go first. It is all push, shove, elbow, and force onesself to the front. The greatest example of this would have to be an experience I will relate that took place on the metro in New Delhi. We had boarded the metro and were arriving at our destination. When we reached the station where we were to disembark, we found that there was a solid wall of people vying to be the first one to leave the platform and set foot on the floor of the carriage (sorry, I've been reading too much Sherlock Holmes - at any other point in my life I probably would have said "train-car"). Now, any logical person would realize that it would make a great deal of sense to let the people who were already on the metro get off and then board once there was more room, but, apparently, these people had been so entranced by the "me first, me first" attitude that all logic had left them. Seeing that I would have my hands full with getting off the subway, I planned my attack. Selecting a middle-aged man who was looking particularly selfish, I lowered my shoulder a little and when the doors opened I plowed into him. To my immense satisfaction he stumbled backwards and I am sure he was at least the second person to board the metro that day. After that it was considerably easier to navigate because someone else had already cleared a path for me.
Unfortunately, this tendency of the crowd to become selfish is exemplified all to well on the Indian trains. It was not an uncommon occurence for our entire group to get on the train with our luggage and then not really be able to move or do anything because everyone was trying to get situated all at once. I would try to contribute to this as little as possible by getting out of the way, but part of the problem was that there was not that much room to work with. One other problem that relates to the crowdedness of the Indian trains is that of squatters. Squatters are those who do not have a ticket for a seat (usually due to being on waiting list I believe), but decide to take up a seat anyway. This is all fine and good, unless they decide to take your seat. (I must mention that my understanding of the booking system of Indian trains is not extensive enough to be able to explain all the details of how all of this happens - I think I have heard of cases of someone having four tickets for only two seats and cases of two people being booked for the same seat, but only one of them was confirmed - it's all quite confusing to me.) This occurred to us when we boarded the train from Agra back to Bangalore. We all got aboard with our luggage and found that there were no open bunks where there most definitely should have been. I have always been one who takes delight in righteous justice so I can say that I did get some pleasure from waking up four or five people who were lying on the bunks that we had claim to. What I could not believe was that a couple of them had the audacity to ask to see our tickets. They knew that they had no claim to the seats, but yet they made sure that we did before giving them up. Even after showing them the tickets, some of them still tried to stay and just take up less room, but we would have none of that - once we started moving their luggage for them, they seemed more willing to give up their perches.
Travelling on Indian trains is definitely not for the faint of heart, but for the adventurous spirit it can be quite an experience and even - I dare say - fun. Now that I have related the greatest chunk of what happened on my trip to Shimla (when measured by time), the readership can expect further relation of my experiences in coming posts.
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