sunrise, sunset... wax on, wax off......

my brain feels like mashed potatoes at the moment... it seems that with every sun rise and with every sunset i seem to be having some sort of adventure, or incident or something....all of which seems to take place on a train.

during the train ride to lucknow i met a lovely elderly sindhi couple, Mr. and Mrs. Duggal. He started up a conversation with me, asking me about my travels and what not. I asked him what he did, and he said "oh nothing of much interest, i owned a business... you see beta (child) in society there are misfits... and i fall into that category. I never completed my formal education. I was a youngster during the 40's and joined India's fight for freedom. Living in Amritsar (remember the Wagah border with Pakistan is just an hour away from here), during the partition*, i had to save the lives of many women and children"... he said this all matter of factly, almost as if he were talking about the weather. But as I looked at his face, I could see the tears well up in his eyes... He grew silent, rubbed his eyes, and said " but I was the oldest in my family and had to take care of my brothers and sisters. So that was the end of my political career. I was not able to take the path that I had chosen. Instead I took the path that was chosen for me."

He told me that if it was okay with his wife (he had to confirm with the boss) that they would love to have me stay with them during my stay in Lucknow... of course I accepted. Unfortunately they forgot that there son was coming to pick them up and along with their made and 9 bags there would be no room for me in the car or at their son's house. No biggie, they suggested that I stay in the retiring rooms at the station so I didn't have to venture out too late and to come to their house in the morning.

Train stations in India are very dodgy places... so when its late at night, you're sick and tired, the last thing you want to be doing is running around it. Of course that's what happened to me.. it was a freaking nightmare trying to actually get the room... first it was follow the signs to the retiring rooms upstairs, to find out from the attendant that i have to go to the T.S. Office, whatever that was... of course after running around a bit, turns out it was all the way at the other end of the station.. and there was a line... and like every counter in India, the people behind it have all the time in the world, and don't realize that you have places to go, like say the bathroom!!! So after what felt like an eternity, i got my little room ticket and was told the rooms were upstairs... so back i went... turns out that upstairs where i was before is only room 4-7, i had 2... i had to go to the other section of retiring rooms... the guard tells me that its downstairs on the left and then up.. Definitely not there. so i go back to the T.S. office to well at the guy and he says go out of the platform into the main hall and its on the side upstairs... still can't find it, go back to the first place to see if she can take me, she tells me to go to the T.S. Office........

i'm sneezing, coughing, sweating but don't want to take off my sweater at 10pm in the lucknow station, i stop for a moment, take a breadth, say a quick prayer to the great god of finding lost things and open my eyes. I swear it was like being in Harry Potter.. a door and sign that i swear i couldn't see before appeared out of nowhere... salvation!

Clean room, clean bathroom.... blanket had bedbugs. HA! I woke up in the middle of the night, and like i always do sat there and searched till i found and killed the little bugger, he got me twice.

Finally got a bit of sleep and as soon as it was 7am hopped out of bed and got myself a rikshaw real quick to the Duggals. They were totally my saviours, treating me like one of their own. With some home cooked food, and a bedbug free bed I was feeling almost 100% by the time I left the next morning to go to Varanasi... almost.

Okay so this train ride was almost as long as my blog entries. Basically I'm traveling from one town where the BJP (a political party) MLP was killed along with 6 of others and going to a town where there were some riots and looting because of it. Great. The train left 40 minutes late and arrived 4 hours late. Although the train was called an express it seemed to make all the local stops... as the sun began to set, the station police would board at each station and look into my compartment and ask whose bag was on the top shelf (who's do you think, is there anyone else in here) and if I was alone (um, again is there anyone else in here). They locked the doors of the train on one side, and told passengers to not get off the train.. a bit nerve wrecking to be honest... scenes from old Bollywood films where the bandits would rob trains flashed through my head. Fortunately, I didn't have to sing a song while dancing on glass in order to save the life of my hero** (good thing because i didn't have any hero to save) as we arrived to Varanasi in one piece. I think part of me was looking forward to a bit of excitement and luckily that part of me didn't find it



* - after the decision to partition a seperate Pakistan there was a massive exodus of people from both sides to move to their 'new' homeland. Trains filled with muslims heading to Pakistan and Hindus heading to India were often found filled with nothing but bodies by the time they reached their destination. Throughout this region and others Hindus and Muslims brutally killed each other, raped each others wives, daughters, sisters, and burned down each others homes.

** In case you were wondering about the bollywood movie reference it's 'Sholay', song- Jab Tak Hai Jaan - CLASSIC FILAM :)