Life as I find it

Funny, naughty and irrepressible girls having a great time on a top berth of a train

In a world of speed and luxury, I had forgotten the charming sloce of India – long distance travel in Sleeper Class on Indian Railways.

This time, I was attending the HID Forum’s Group Relations conference on Leadership in a Gendered World in Bangalore which was based on the Tavistock model of sensing unconscious group processes, which is a different story. I decided to travel the way I used to travel with my family in my childhood – Sleeper Class.

So here I am on the Udyan Express that left at 8:05am sharp. This Indian Railways experience of mine is complete as I booked a waitlisted ticket days in advance and then tracked its progress eagerly, until it became RAC – Reservation against Cancellation.

Itsdifferent being a kid travelling with a family and the compartment my playground to be an adult female travelling alone, with an unconfirmed ticket and responsible for securing her own seat. Not that I hadn’t travelled by train since then, but Air conditioned compartments are just not the same thing.

I arrived early (being anxious to check my seating status) and ended up entering the train as one of the first passengers in our compartment when it was unlocked.

My first sensation was the smell – its a dingy, ammonia laden horrible smell that is particular to a sleeper class compartments with closed windows and unventilated for some time standing in a busy long distance train terminus with all its implied toilets contributing in turns towards nurturing that particular stink.

I few passengers coughed and opened windows, which brought my attention to a group of four handsome young boys a few seats down. They were watching me with equal interest – the beginnings of long distance train intrigue. More windows opened, more passengers came in, and the smell changed. It was now a complex hybrid of our original smell, perfume, hair oil, sweat, different kinds of food being opened and that typical train smell….. quite overwhelming and kind of nasty but intriguing.

The train took off and things settled down. The smells grew less intense, movement of people stilled, sounds lowered. I had claimed a top berth on entry as usual, intending to sleep my way through the otherwise monotonous journey. Plus, I felt that I had better get some sleep done while the owner of the berth sat below, as I didn’t have a confirmed berth for the night.

Lous tea vendors woke me next and I looked hazily around to see that most top berths were occupied by sleeping passengers – I guess everyone had woken up early to be on the train.

Honestly, I slept for most of the journey, but what I do remember is the sheer diversity of people. All kinds of colours, clothes, languages, foods, ages…… the informal friendliness that needs no introductions….. and three mischief making girls sitting on a top berth near me – they were partt of a large family group going to visit their village temple. Take a look

This is the very first post on this site. I am proud to have finally created this place as a platform for interaction for all sorts of Indians on the subject of their motherland. I’d been thinking about this for a very long time, but somehow always found the project to be too daunting, too huge to take up on my own.

India is a vast place. The sheer diversity of India is perhaps beyond comprehension of a single individual, yet, we are all Indians. Our interests vary, our habits, beliefs, concerns……. they are all different. Yet, we are all Indians and what happens in our motherland happens to us as well, in varying degrees.

Today, India is going good. Our economy is booming, we’re the country with the most number of billionaires in Asia after overtaking Japan. All sorts of industries are flourishing. There is improved satisfaction with life and better hopes for futures.

Yet, the diversity of the Indian society is not only cultural. We have the richest, and we also have the embarrassingly poor. Our educated professionals are respected worldwide for their knowledge, and we are also struggling with illiteracy. We even have the film industry that churns out a phenomenal number of films a year and our population is largely rural.

As we zip into progress, I think a need of the time is to reach out. To reach out to people of all sorts. I don’t only mean the lesser previledged or anything, just to reach out and understand the different people who are with us in this journey, to broaden our own horizons through the diversity of India.

At the moment, I am not very clear on where this initiative will go in the future. I guess, it is like India in this way too. The potential is tremendous, what remains to be seen is how much effort is taken.

I wish myself and all the people here the very best and hope that this site will be able to bring in new thoughts, initiatives and hopes.