Progress

"Midnight train from Agra stretching on to Varanasi 'cross the Indian sub continent I ride..."


This is the first part of the first verse of the first song I am writing on the first guitar I ever bought about my first train ride during my first trip to India. Lots of firsts. This as I was contemplating the whole of my trip, where I have already been and where I am going and what I hope to do before I come back to the states. I was laying on the distinctly Indian bed in my Agra hotel room the night before I was about to take a sleeper car up the 13 hour stretch eastward toward what is considered one of the most holy destinations in India: Varanasi and the Ganga river.


I had been told the train would be somewhat of an ordeal however I found it no more an ordeal than flying 13 1/2 hours from JFK into Mumbai a little over a week ago. In fact that flight was preparation for this. Only this time I had a backpack for a pillow and a $4 Indian wool blanket I had purchased especially for these kinds of cross country excursions. I had the uppermost berth of three, closest to the ceiling of the train car. I shared this space with three dusty fans inside rusty wire frames and a fluorescent light. The switch to this particular light was by the bottom berth, a situation I found troublesome as the trip progressed. Thankfully I was wearing Alcatraz. A pull down over the eyes and I was back in dreamland.

Once here I made reservations for my exit two days from now on the train to Delhi, and then to Ahmedabad the day after - before I even left the train station. You will recall the Delhi nightmare. I wanted to avoid reliving it. Then it was off to the Sun Shine Hotel. My room, on the second floor with a nice balcony overlooking the street below, is a mere $7.79 a night. It comes with the standard Indian bed (two in fact), a TV, a private bath with hot running water and bright lights so I don't have to use braille in order to get around. The doors all lock with these old fashioned skeleton keys. Not the most secure way to go but for under $8/nt I can't really complain. The room is stained Pepto Bismol pink, probably to commemorate it's use in comforting countless visitors before me.


I took a stroll down by the Ganga after settling in. The first choice would have been to shower but since the power in Varanasi is shut off from 10 am to 3 pm the water would have been decidedly cold. Especially given the long cold spell the north country has been experiencing recently. So smelly to the Ganga it was. I fit right in. Reflecting back on the afternoon later tonight I chuckled to myself at what a total zoo everything seemed to be. There are extremes that you have to deal with from manipulative touts attempting to herd white people like cattle into their latest schemes to poverty stricken cripples and children asking for rupees as you pass by. The bazaar like atmosphere included chaat stands where they will cook you one up while you wait (I tried to get this but Indian aren't known for their ability to stand in line so I never made it to the front of the queue); families who will tiring beads of bracelets and necklaces while you wait. You get to pick out the beads. Bulls and cows roaming freely up and down the same path that you're taking (thank got these fertilizer machines don't have wings). There are also goats, monkeys and dogs everywhere. Old men wanting to take you out in their boats, grieving families burning the bodies of loved ones, chai stands, peanut stands (where your shelled snack is roasted before your very eyes), contortionist children performing to the unintelligible shouts of their mother, post card hawkers and far too many offers of hashish and opium (usually whispered for once). Men and children bathing in the shallows of the river bank and women doing laundry in same.
the same.

In the calm that accompanied the sunset I made my way over to the Lotus Lounge, high up one of the ghats overlooking the Ganga river. In the outside patio dining area with storm lamp candles on every table I had Thai Chicken and a salad for a total of about $5. A quick stop for a milky chai on the way back to the hotel and I'm dumb, fat and happy.