Back to normal?
Yay! The rains seem to have stopped and the flood waters have finally gone down. I am hoping that the electricity will not be cut...seems to happen alot in india due to the huge demand and supply that cannot keep up with it. I'm now back at the internet cafe and will try to blog about the last 2 weeks of my life. To date, I have written 8 letters to my sisters (the eighth one is 6 pages long) and am hoping to send them soon.The reason for my disappearance for the last 2 weeks was due to a rather exciting AIESEC India conference known as June National Conference. That is in itself a huge story....
3 day train ride from Baroda to Siliguri.
I love train rides! And I'm not kidding when i say that. I have done the 5 day train hike across Australia and train rides from Hongkong to Beijing and Shanghai, overnights in Spain. Plus Amtrak in the states but that doesn't count since it's only to Chicago. :P
Let me just say, trains in India are quite another matter. We were travelling 2nd class non A.C. from Baroda to Siliguri. This is a 3 day train ride and I was rather freaked out not being able to shower for 3 days. The train carriage is divided into berths...3 beds that unfold and another 2 that are fixed at the side windows. We were travelling in the heat which was not the brightest idea since the carriage did not have air conditioning ( I am so spoilt). The AIESECers prepared food and advised us not to eat the food from the train. The diet consisted of chips, what looked like pancakes (Indian style) and lotsa Pepsi, Miranda as well as bottles of mineral water. I was rather unused to sleeping in the train and waking up to see a stranger stare into my face. Needless to say, i tried not to use the bathroom for the 3 days ( I actually did it) despite drinkings bottles of water.
Mumbai train station: OMG! The local trains are crazy! These trains which are like the subway in NYC or the tube in UK do not stop at all. It kinda grinds to a rolling pace, whereby one hags to jump off or onto it in order to ride it. Watching people come off it in peak hour is like watching the train give birth to humans. They just swarm out like ants...popping out. If Ketan (AIESECer) hadn't pushed me onto the train, I would have missed it.
Sidetrack: We met some AIESEC Pune people on the same train. Really cool people in my opinion. I had a chat with Natasha about Parsis in India...fun! Oh, plus met a 16 year old who reminds me of my high school crush. The difference? I actually told him he was cute this time! ;P
The scariest part of the journey was when we ran out of water on the train...i mean no water in the taps and we weren't stopping. The heat was so intense I thought I would pass out. The worst thing was that we ran out of water ourselves and so 13 kids in this train..I'm sure we all thought we would die at some point. So for 8 hours, the train chugged on...finally stopping at a train station. Juanita (Canadian Ceeder) literally ran out of the train and jostled with the Indians to get water from the snack stall nearby. And then Sabrina (AIESEC baroda) appeared...she brought us food and water and coca cola! I love this girl....she's so bright and cheery and really took care of me at the conference.
Later that night, we stop at Bihar. Bihar is reputed to be quite unsafe due to the poverty in the area. Don't really understand the correlation there...but I was alittle freaked out by the men who gathered around the window to stare at us from outside.
That aside, the train ride was life changing in many aspects. I learnt that i can do without a bathe for 3 days though it still sounds disgusting and I am not about to promote doing it. There are more important things in life after the near death experience.... Travelling light is really important... And I got time to think alot which was great. Finally, I learnt that i have principles in life that I need to stand by in life. Honesty....it's not an easy value to uphold.
Read on for the conference experience.
4 Comments:
Great ending:
I got time to think alot which was great. Finally, I learnt that i have principles in life that I need to stand by in life.
So, you are close to find yourself. i thought, i found mysef, but last couple of weeks teached me a lot as well. i guess, we have a lot to talk before, at and after IC.
I loved this post. It reminded me so much of when I visited India, and how well we had it here in the states, and how contrasting life can be on the other side of the world. Those experiences really make you reevaluate life and what you are made of. Glad to see you're enjoying India!
isn't it great that you think I can't do that, f.e. I have to shower every day otherwise I don't feel good. but when you have to do something or just can't do something (like having a shower every day) it's ok and it's not that bad. you can live with that or in your case without that.
and of yourse as arnaub wrote you can be more thankful for this things which you were used to and were so normal for you...but it's not!! unfortunately not in a big part of our world!!
hey there,
good to see you arrived well back in Baroda :-D we also survived the train ride to Bombay, much nicer this time with rains cooling down the coaches...
how is the ceeder-life going on, busy with recruitment? hope you can come to bombay, just send me an email (or give me a ring) if you're making plans, i think juanita and joe have my contacts
tc, sarah
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