My ticket for the Vibhuti Express from Varanasi to Kolkata. (I don’t remember how the coffee stain got there.) It’s a 774km overnight trip that cost Rs 801, for a 3A berth. It’s a waitlisted ticket, but as usual, a berth became available by the afternoon I was to catch the train. When I figure out how, I’ll link this to a larger image so that the ticket can be read. One day I’ll post on the Indian train reservation system. It’s amazingly efficient, and problably like nothing you’ve experienced before!
From my notebook…
Well, here I am in Kolkata. No problems on this trip.
I was seated beside a yoga master and naturopath, along with his bank manager. The yoga master said that he wants to visit Australia to set up a school here. Being between the two of them, I swapped with the bank manager so that they could talk business. Which they did – for hours. They spoke in Hindi, but it was obvious that the yoga master was after a loan as he had a gazzillion documents and dozens of photos of himself with VIPs to show off. He was well prepared to impress. They were gone by the morning.
Opposite was a frail old man who reminded me of Grandpa. He was with his two grandsons, who were escorting him to Kolkata. He had an infected wound in his foot, bandaged up, and they were pouring betadine onto it regularly. It disturbed me that the betadine didn’t seem to be causing him any pain. Health workers in Varanasi told them that he needed to be taken to a major hospital, urgently. The grandsons took turns through the night to look after him and keep him warm – one remained sitting and awake while the other slept. I slept in my sleeping bag to give them extra blankets. As my pack was stored under their berths, I was the last person out of the train – we waited for the crowds to disperse so that they could carry him off the train. He had a bottle which he kept close through the night, which again reminded me of Grandpa when, he was in hospital a couple of months before.
(I had heard a week before this that my Grandfather had passed away in Perth.)
Wheels World 