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| (1) How I Feel at the Train Station |
When it comes
to trains and train stations, the average American is kind of rail-retarded; behind the
curve as they say, at least compared to the rest of the world. I will amend that statement to say that New Yorkers would not fall into this category. We just do not use
trains in the States and for good reason. For most, they are expensive
and they take away the freedom that cars naturally and more cheaply give
us. In the States, our train system is only partially subsidized by the government. We have one main domestic train called
Amtrak and to just go from Grand Junction to Denver, it is nearly $400.
Almost everywhere else in the world, trains are the main mode of
transportation and they are heavily subsidized by their governments.
This means that they are used more often than other forms of
transportation and it usually means they are cheap as well. To go to Agra
and back, which is about 120 miles, we paid $4 a ticket. All of this
to say, when it comes to trains we Americans are a little bit
train-inept.
Now to continue from where we left off
yesterday: After the guy ran up to us and told us to go to Platform 5,
we looked around and realized we had no idea where that was located. We
asked a few people but our ticket did not say anything other than the
train number, the boxcar number, and the seat number, so no one was
really able to help us. We scouted around and reconnoitered the lay of
the land and finally saw a stair case rising over the tracks leading to a
bridge that crossed Platform 1, which was where we were standing. It
made sense that other platforms would follow on the other side of the
magical rainbow, so we climbed the stairs and saw that on the
bridge/landing, there were 16 platforms up ahead, like Concourse
A,B,C,D…. etc. Still, our train number was not on any of the signs,
which meant having to go to each platform to see if we could find our
train number. We started at Platform 5, but when we walked down the
terminal our train number did not show up anywhere. We quickly
re-ascended up the stairs to the main terminal/rampart and started
checking every platform for signage of our departing train. The place
was packed with thousands of travelers and it was now 8 a.m. and our
train was boarding.
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| (2) Which Way Do We Go? |
We scurried about for another 5 minutes and then we both heard a lady over the loud speaker mention the word "Agra" in Hindi. We stopped to try and listen because they follow Hindi
announcements in English, but the place was so loud and bustling we
could hardly hear a thing. We did our best, but we missed the message
and had to wait another 5 minutes before it cycled through all the
platforms and returned to the Agra arrival schedule. By this time we were concerned we were going to miss
our train, but we rushed down to Platform 5 again as we heard for the
second time where it was we needed to go. This time the signs on
Platform 5 had our train up as having arrived and we realized that when
we had been there earlier there was no signage because they did not
change the signs or update them until the minute that the train was
scheduled to arrive.
Elated that we had found our
train, we rushed to the area that said our particular car was supposed
to be at and walked directly to a pair of seats in the middle of the car
and sat down. Then we checked our tickets for our exact seats and
found we were sitting in them—synchronicity! We stowed our stuff and
slowly chugged toward the Taj Mahal. Once we got going I started
reading the local newspaper and I kept thinking I was seeing something
move out of the corner of my eye, but when I looked the thing
disappeared. A few minutes later Annie jumped and screamed as a cute
little Feifel ran between her feet. That's right, the train had mice.
My first thought was to step on the little critter, but then I
remembered I was in India and that by doing so I would go straight to
jail for killing someone’s grandma, followed by going straight to hell
for killing someone’s grandma. Feifel was left unscathed.
Twenty minutes later, the train stopped and suddenly our car began filling up. There was a bit of a commotion as a young man insisted that
he stow his luggage under our feet, which would have meant our legs
being propped upward with our knees in our faces for four hours. This
was an unacceptable proposition and Annie held her ground until he
demanded to see our ticket as he claimed we were in his seat. We showed
him our ticket and he suddenly said, “You are in the wrong car! This
is S4 and you should be in S6!”
Dang-it, I thought,
no synchronicity!
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| (3) "Your Wife is Not Here" |
We apologized and grabbed our stuff hoping the train was not going to
take off while we unloaded and reloaded. We could not go through the
cars themselves as they were packed and impossible to traverse in any
kind of timely manner. I got off the car but Annie stayed on and so
when I turned around, she was gone. I jumped back on the train and
looked down the rows and she was nowhere to be seen. That was how I
lost my wife in India. If you see her, please return her to the Rak
International Hotel in Delhi. I would be greatly appreciate having her
back.
A moment later Annie poked her head out of the car and said, “Where did you go?”
I asked her the same and we both ran up and down the terminal looking
for our car, all the while hoping the train was not going to pull away.
The problem with finding it stemmed from two sources: one, the
conductor pointed in the wrong direction when stating which way to go;
and two, the cars were all out of sequence.
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| (4) "Too Many Trains" |
The train cars went from S3-S5 and then there was a gap and S7 began
the next series with no signs of S6. We pretty much ran the length of
the train like two runners doing the rope-a-dope between bases, only we
were doing it in reverse by running to one end of the try to a certain
extent and then turning around and going in the opposite direction and
following that pattern but going further each time until we had covered
the full length of the train and had finally found S6. We were probably
quite the sight to see. Logically we should have just ran to one end
and then the other, but when you think your train is pulling away you do
not act logically.
We got back on with plenty of time to spare and chugged along the way to Agra.
To be continued…
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