An Overnight Indian TrainOdyssey

A train journey in India is rarely dull but our latest overnight journey has been the most dramatic I have ever experienced.

We boarded the train at Mughalserai, 20kms from Varanasi and one of India's busiest junction stations.  Try to picture the scene: it's dark, the tracks are a seething pit of giant rats, there are many beggars and shoeless children collecting recyclables amongst the rats. Travellers of all types are waiting for their trains; it is especially busy because of the Durga Puja Festival. Thousands upon thousands of people are there of which only two have white faces.  We are like zoo exhibits, but we can live with that - it's actually quite amusing.  Our train was only a little late, which is a great relief as the previous days was delayed by almost eight hours. The 24 coach train is one of the most crowded I have ever seen.  In second class people seem to be about three deep, every inch of corridor is covered with a seething mass of humanity. There is no first class compartment and so were are in A/C two tier. We found our berths and appeared to be surrounded by nice families.   I was in the lower berth and had to literally kick people off all night long, after every stop (and there were many), when they were trying to get on my seat behind my 'privacy' curtain. The 'chai wallah' made numerous visits up and down and the hawkers selling everything from mobile chargers, hair straighteners, torches, cooking knives to toy cars; you name it,  plied their wares.

Then, around 1.30 am when all was still and quiet, the woman opposite started screaming and shouting, mainly in Hindi, but with a little English thrown in, crying hysterically and saying she wanted a divorce, she started to beat her husband and then the whole carriage joined in the drama.  She shouted that she had found her sister, who was travelling with them,  and her husband 'having fun' in their berth.  I was just thinking 'God knows how'; in a tiny berth, in a packed carriage and with various others trying to edge their way onto your seat, how did they manage that? After about one hour of this an armed army man appeared with a rifle over his shoulder and then three more men with large guns joined him.  She screamed at them about her husband, everyone else adding their take on it all.  Men with guns shrugged and disappeared.  The soap opera continued.  Husband wailed and wailed for forgiveness.  Wife carried on shouting and screaming, lying on the floor and slapping her husband, and then beating her sister. The sweet little boy next to us  started to cry and his gentle mother took him to the rest room to try to appease him.  On and on it continued.  As things were calming down marginally, the tragic couples' poor little three year old daughter started to sing 'See Saw Marjorie Daw' in perfect English.

Me, I hid under the sheet texting Adrian with the latest instalments.  Lori Carlson - slept. Yes people, Lori slept through it all.  Not so much sleep more a coma I say.

Then, just as we were about to leave the train in the morning a eunuch in a pink sari gave us a 'blessing', although in truth we gave him 20 rupees not to curse us. What a night.