Feb 28th
woke up ... sealed up my bags while i tried to help my frantic father and sister double check their items for the train ride. made it up early enough to finish off uncle Hurris bananas in a delicious smoothie with oranges + mango juice to go with the delightful french toast Letta made for Monika and i. as my dad ran back and fourth making sure his credit card was active to us making sure we pack our slippers for Goa...
as the morning went by ...things came pretty smoothly ...the driver arrived early and i had a chance to chat with him a bit...i learned his sister was a dds in Cali...we discussed the differences between the us and India..a nice guy...
once we made it to the train station it was packed! tons of people roaming around..including beggars... it was really sad..we saw a young boy holding a young baby boy! our dad explained to us about begging reigns who swarm the station - professional beggars.. he said tell them "the-dia" meaning i already gave. the baggage man put our bags on a cart..jackass ripped the bags away from Monika and i...as we waited for the train..we saw a rat and feces on the track..pretty disgusting ! ha...
the train came...by now Monika was hating this idea...i didn't mind aside from the foul smell. boarded the train ..lucky we had a nice couple as our train-mates...there's bunkers on top of our seats..its a very different environment. once we started moving on the tracks i think Monika started to ease down.
dad looks at life half full
told us about grandma being a pioneer when becoming a female Dr. as opposed to the typical male to female oppressed methods.
dad explained to me yet another inefficient Indian idea after the colonization of India. India gained its independence but became a socialist state... to keep good ties they gave one of the leaders the monopoly car company..the man with the company didn't make any changes aside from the grill on the car every now and then. the issue being that people had to use a waiting list to get a vehicle...people who didn't really need a car would register to the list in order to take bribes for their spot in line. India put a very high tax on bordering countries and forced its people to buy from within.causing people to bribe pone another for spots in line and pay 3x the typical buying prices. a very stupid system indeed. finally in the yr 2000 the Indian people got fed up and started using different cars.
dad shared story how he used to take the trail a lot when he was younger to go to a school. the ride took 2 days ... he told me how they used to pop their heads out the window and the coal would fly in their face.
Monika asked the conductor what happens when a person cant pay the ticket the young Indian couple next to us got a good chuckle.
as the train ride went along we had our lunch consisting of doll rice..and mine a vegetarian Indian tofu like cheese. unfortunately for my sister,my dad, and myself is we didn't have any table to place our trays on... i asked the young man sitting across from me if i could use a piece of the newspaper he finished reading so i can protect myself from stains...the train was shaky every now and then and the curry was shaking right off the tip of its tray...after hearing the bathroom was a disgusting hole (literally it was a hole) i was a bit apprehensive to use my eating utensils questioning the cleanliness of them... after lunch we past the rural areas and entered Mumbai... at that point my dad convinced me i should shoot some photos out the dingy window.. to this i moved across our cabin to sit next to another nice man near the window. the man watched me as i aimed the camera directly behind the window glass and shot pictures of the country.... as my battery began to fade...the man finished reading his paper we had a moment of just staring at one another (we were sitting maybe less than 1 ft across from one another)
the man asked me if I'm visiting...this opened a good conversation of him and i chatting about the Indian job market..i learned he was an engineer and he had family in the u.s. despite not ever being there...he was 30 yrs old and his brother worked on the nation street light system.
once my battery completely died ..Monika and my dad wanted to grab some sleep.. now the challenge was how to get them up to their bunks haha.
once Monika and my dad were settled ..i sat next to the young couple with nothing to do.... they asked me if I'm from India this led to a long conversation into the night. my new friends Brigesh and Pooja ... i learned everything from how they met at a wedding and have been married for 7 yrs. Brigesh shared with me his experience being a captain on a ship. as my sister and dad woke up we all had our train lunch and they also got to know our new friends. as night came along we found ourselves playing an intense game of Uno (which Monika and Pooja dominated). as everyone fell asleep the nice man sitting horizontally to us gave Monika his bottom bunk as she was having difficulties getting up and down the top bunk. Brigesh and i ended up staying for a good part of the night while everyone slept. he explained to me the corruption of the Indian government.. we talked about how they drive for money and fail to accommodate the poverty in Indian. we talked about the differences and similarities between India and the u.s. ... i joked at how he calls himself BJ and how that can be a very humorless name in the u.s. ...he told me how Indians can be even harsher when it comes to insulting friends. our conversation carried on with chatting about life in general ...meeting certain people in life.. religion and how his wife is pregnant. BJ told me how in Indian many remote parts still follow the old methods in which they'll kill the child if they learn its a baby girl...and this many people skip the monogram(?)... as the came across the early night...BJs wife woke up in-front of us... we all ended up having a late night snack..they shared some fine homemade chipaties with me.
as his wife went back to sleep.. BJ and i sat and enjoyed the quiet and peaceful night. we both decided to try and grab some sleep despite both of us having a hard time sleeping on moving vehicles. ...after a good nights rest i woke up early to a man asking for tea.
woke up ... sealed up my bags while i tried to help my frantic father and sister double check their items for the train ride. made it up early enough to finish off uncle Hurris bananas in a delicious smoothie with oranges + mango juice to go with the delightful french toast Letta made for Monika and i. as my dad ran back and fourth making sure his credit card was active to us making sure we pack our slippers for Goa...
as the morning went by ...things came pretty smoothly ...the driver arrived early and i had a chance to chat with him a bit...i learned his sister was a dds in Cali...we discussed the differences between the us and India..a nice guy...
once we made it to the train station it was packed! tons of people roaming around..including beggars... it was really sad..we saw a young boy holding a young baby boy! our dad explained to us about begging reigns who swarm the station - professional beggars.. he said tell them "the-dia" meaning i already gave. the baggage man put our bags on a cart..jackass ripped the bags away from Monika and i...as we waited for the train..we saw a rat and feces on the track..pretty disgusting ! ha...
the train came...by now Monika was hating this idea...i didn't mind aside from the foul smell. boarded the train ..lucky we had a nice couple as our train-mates...there's bunkers on top of our seats..its a very different environment. once we started moving on the tracks i think Monika started to ease down.
dad looks at life half full
told us about grandma being a pioneer when becoming a female Dr. as opposed to the typical male to female oppressed methods.
dad explained to me yet another inefficient Indian idea after the colonization of India. India gained its independence but became a socialist state... to keep good ties they gave one of the leaders the monopoly car company..the man with the company didn't make any changes aside from the grill on the car every now and then. the issue being that people had to use a waiting list to get a vehicle...people who didn't really need a car would register to the list in order to take bribes for their spot in line. India put a very high tax on bordering countries and forced its people to buy from within.causing people to bribe pone another for spots in line and pay 3x the typical buying prices. a very stupid system indeed. finally in the yr 2000 the Indian people got fed up and started using different cars.
dad shared story how he used to take the trail a lot when he was younger to go to a school. the ride took 2 days ... he told me how they used to pop their heads out the window and the coal would fly in their face.
Monika asked the conductor what happens when a person cant pay the ticket the young Indian couple next to us got a good chuckle.
as the train ride went along we had our lunch consisting of doll rice..and mine a vegetarian Indian tofu like cheese. unfortunately for my sister,my dad, and myself is we didn't have any table to place our trays on... i asked the young man sitting across from me if i could use a piece of the newspaper he finished reading so i can protect myself from stains...the train was shaky every now and then and the curry was shaking right off the tip of its tray...after hearing the bathroom was a disgusting hole (literally it was a hole) i was a bit apprehensive to use my eating utensils questioning the cleanliness of them... after lunch we past the rural areas and entered Mumbai... at that point my dad convinced me i should shoot some photos out the dingy window.. to this i moved across our cabin to sit next to another nice man near the window. the man watched me as i aimed the camera directly behind the window glass and shot pictures of the country.... as my battery began to fade...the man finished reading his paper we had a moment of just staring at one another (we were sitting maybe less than 1 ft across from one another)
the man asked me if I'm visiting...this opened a good conversation of him and i chatting about the Indian job market..i learned he was an engineer and he had family in the u.s. despite not ever being there...he was 30 yrs old and his brother worked on the nation street light system.
once my battery completely died ..Monika and my dad wanted to grab some sleep.. now the challenge was how to get them up to their bunks haha.
once Monika and my dad were settled ..i sat next to the young couple with nothing to do.... they asked me if I'm from India this led to a long conversation into the night. my new friends Brigesh and Pooja ... i learned everything from how they met at a wedding and have been married for 7 yrs. Brigesh shared with me his experience being a captain on a ship. as my sister and dad woke up we all had our train lunch and they also got to know our new friends. as night came along we found ourselves playing an intense game of Uno (which Monika and Pooja dominated). as everyone fell asleep the nice man sitting horizontally to us gave Monika his bottom bunk as she was having difficulties getting up and down the top bunk. Brigesh and i ended up staying for a good part of the night while everyone slept. he explained to me the corruption of the Indian government.. we talked about how they drive for money and fail to accommodate the poverty in Indian. we talked about the differences and similarities between India and the u.s. ... i joked at how he calls himself BJ and how that can be a very humorless name in the u.s. ...he told me how Indians can be even harsher when it comes to insulting friends. our conversation carried on with chatting about life in general ...meeting certain people in life.. religion and how his wife is pregnant. BJ told me how in Indian many remote parts still follow the old methods in which they'll kill the child if they learn its a baby girl...and this many people skip the monogram(?)... as the came across the early night...BJs wife woke up in-front of us... we all ended up having a late night snack..they shared some fine homemade chipaties with me.
as his wife went back to sleep.. BJ and i sat and enjoyed the quiet and peaceful night. we both decided to try and grab some sleep despite both of us having a hard time sleeping on moving vehicles. ...after a good nights rest i woke up early to a man asking for tea.
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