Just like the train services, there are no bells or whistles when an Indian train is about to start its journey. One minute you’re still – the next moment, you look out and see the platform slowly slipping away. At night you may find them if you look carefully, but during the day it’s easy to see the people hanging out, sleeping and living on the tracks around train stations.
Trains too have people who live their lives on and around them. Besides the attendants assigned to each sleeper car and the conductors, there are the chai wallas, coffee wallas, food sellers, magazine vendors and the random other vendors that jump on at any given stop. At any given hour of the day, people are moving up and down the aisles peddling or doing something.
I woke to what felt like a bustling city on the other side of my berth curtain. The kicker that got me out of “bed” was the daytime conductor who opened the curtains wide and asked to see our tickets again. No “Good morning”, no “Knock knock”, no “I’m sorry to disturb you”, not even a “Hello” – just a “Tickets.” At least it wasn’t long before the chai walla came around – easily identifiable with his “Chai, chai, chai, chai, chai, chai, chai, chai, chai.”
Wallas are a major part of the Indian service experience. We take the term “walla” to mean someone who performs a manual labor service. So far, we have encountered chai wallas, coffee wallas, parcel wallas, dress wallas, baggage wallas, snack wallas and people in hotels that run around and get things at random who are not called bell hops – so we have come to figure they are general service wallas.
Train stations all have baggage wallas also called coolie porters – which somehow sounds worse (and I think an old racist epithet?) than walla. For 25 rupees (50 cents), baggage wallas will carry a bag or box of up to 40 kg on their head. For 40 rupees (80 cents), they will carry up to 80 kg on a two-wheeled cart. Indian families had baggage-wallas running their bags from taxis and cars to the trains.
More amazingly, people come with giant boxes and bags of various things to take or send to their destinations. Baggage-wallas walk around with giant boxes on their heads, often jumping off platforms, crossing tracks and then miraculously hopping up to the opposite platform with boxes still on-heads. These are perhaps the most skilled of wallas.
We chose to self-walla and carried our bags from the luggage-check to our train once it pulled-up to the platform. Given that we were an hour and a half early and were boarding at the terminus station, we had plenty of time to find out berths, store our bags and get settled. This turned out to be good because as people arrived, a chaos particular to Indian crowds developed.
The section across the aisle from us meant to seat and sleep four people was somehow overfilled with a family of eight. Two of them stood in the aisle, chatting up a happy storm for hours. Even when we were making up our berths with the linens provided us, the guys in the aisle saw no need to move one inch.
Meanwhile a grandfather and young grandson were dealing with a bloody nose, the car attendant was running around delivering linens, vendors came aboard selling various items and passengers with all their luggage were barreling down the aisle. It became as hectic and busy in our car as it was outside the train.
We are riding on 2nd class air-con, the highest class available on this train. With light-wood paneling, electrical outlets, personal reading lights, fewer passengers than in other cars and privacy curtains (not found in 3rd class), it’s not bad. Various wallas come around with food and drink for sale and we have everything we need.
I had been worried about the lavatories, but perhaps because of fewer passengers in our car, they have stayed relatively neat. There is even one with a western-style toilet. The smell has remained surprisingly inoffensive even after 14+ hours. The secret? Nothing stays in the toilet tank or system. There is no toilet talk or system. Whatever goes in, drops through a long pipe, onto the tracks below – and is left behind. Good news or bad news? I can’t decide.
Emily and I both slept somewhat fitfully. Emily couldn’t sleep because she had two bags – one being the all important “office” which contains our computers and everything vital – sharing space with her and walking her up every time she moved. I had trouble sleeping because I was in the lower berth and had a circus going on the other side of the curtain. Every now and then, an elbow or the edge of someone’s luggage handle made a pass at my face.
Nonetheless, our train seems to be making good progress toward Jodhpur. Our interesting and fun neighbors – the family got off at about 6am and we got new people somewhere in Gugarat – have engaged in great discussion and shared very useful information for our time in Delhi. They are air-traffic controllers for the Indian Air Force, speak great English and are very educated, knowledgeable people able to share interesting perspective on India and the world.
At the end of our journey, we’ll have traveled roughly 600 miles in the course of 18 hours. Shockingly slow? There’s not enough track in India for all the trains to get where they need uninterrupted. Trains have to pull over onto side tracks and slow or stop to allow other trains to pass. Otherwise, there are fewer trains to go around – which would impact people’s ability to get around the country even further.
While I’m not anxious to do another 18-hour train journey, this has been less traumatic than expected. There’s nothing about a train that’s magic here in India – but it is how most of the country travels long-distances and it’s a worthwhile experience.
*Photographs will not be seen today due to limited bandwidth from the train. Please excuse the incovenience and thank you for your understanding.
