“How can we get a seat?”
“Do you know how trains work in this country?”
a haggled European, I think Dutch, asked us, sweat pouring down his face in the Train Station in Agra.
Vasi and I laughed. We were at the “reservations counter”, yesterday we’d bought tickets to go to Agra only to discover they were “unreserved” and thus we had standing room only. this was okay until the stench from a nearbye toildet hole, some aloo parathas I’d eaten for breakfast and still recovering from high fever made me nauseated to the point of contemplating sitting on the floor of the train. So, now, we bought return tickets, but wanted to make sure our “general tix” enabled us actual seats. At the original ticket counter, the man was nice until a tiny woman started jabbing Vasi in the back and then the whole crowd men and women (in the “woman” line) started yelling at him to make us hurry up. On the third jab in her back, Vasi flarred around, eyes wide,
Would you please stop that for 1 minute! she barked.
Anyway, that man sent us to reservations to reserve seats. We got in the line that said “Foreign Tourists, Physically Disabled, Freedom Fighters” we figured we fit at least one category. That man, however told us that we need to reserve seats six hours in advance, so go to the TC office.
After wandering around we finally found the TC office, a fat, bored looking woman stared noncholantly at us as we explained we needed seats.
“sorry, you’ll have to do that on the train, go to the conductor, he’ll give you seats”
“No, we just were on a train without seats, now we need them and we have flights to catch tonight in Delhi”
“Im sorry, the trains are all 4 hours late, I can’t give you seats, go to reservations or to the Conductor.”
I repeated myself about four more times, so did she, then she just ignored us, we went back to reservations, where we, sounding like experts adviced the European couple on what not to do.
The next entry will be about Agra itself, this was a short blurb on Indian transportation, but really, everything worked out. We got on a 1:45, looked stupid and American, sat in a sleeping booth that wasn’t ours, told some really annoying teenage girls that we couldn’t sit with them because we had to work (read Holy Cow, a highly insulting and funny book about India), then finally we came down so they wouldnt tell on us that we were sitting their illegally and filled out their autograph book with such scintillating details as
“first date” “words on love and friendship” and “favorite actor, song etc.”
I have a few drafts that Im trying to finish talking about all the lovely things/people I’ve met — usually they don’t make as good stories, but being in Agra really made me appreciate the rest of the trip. Previously, despite some small hassles we’d rarely if ever been ripped off, overly hasseled, pushed etc. I’d felt a genuine connection to many people, Agra is different though. more on that in the next entry.
Tags: India, Travel
nabrams
Leave a Reply