Snackwalla

Peter and I took an overnight 'A. C. Two Tier' superfast sleeper train for an 18 hour ride north of Mumbai to Jaipur. This is not a high speed train. Superfast means not super slow. Occasionally we pulled over on sidings and let other faster trains go by... I'm not sure what that's all about. For the first couple of hours we traveled through the huge sprawling metropolis of Mumbai where the tracks are lined with mile after mile of corrugated tin and plastic tarp shanty town homes teaming with people living, farming, playing cricket, sleeping or occasionally taking a dump. At crossing gates, huge jams of trucks, busses, rikshaws, motorcycles and bicycles stacked up and waited patiently to get through while people walking milled around the tracks, seemingly oblivious to the train whizzing by. Slowly this gave way to rural farmlands, pastures and countryside, mostly dry and flat, with the size of the crossing jams diminishing as we went, but all still waiting patiently behind the gate, which is far back from the tracks, an odd contrast to the usual free-for-all traffic situation. The endless miles of trash and junk of urban life starts to disappear too, giving way to tidier looking farms and small ornate temples that randomly dot the countryside. Chaiwallas and snackwallas walk through the train and sometimes chant their offerings, sounding a bit like a weird baseball game to my Western ears. We're in what seems to be the first class section of the train, so according to Peter there are fewer wallas coming through and we're missing out on the conviviality of the 3 tier and non-airconditioned trains, which are all packed to the gills. Maybe we'll sleep a little better, but if Peter can stand it one more time (the stories never end), I think I need to take the cheap seats on the way back for the full on India experience.