Indian trains

19 Ganeshs, 4 Toy trains, a dozen of Buddhas, several chinese cats waving their paws, numerous Indian gods, 1 Jesus on the cross and a portrait of Mother Theresa. The booking agency where we purchased our train tickets doesn't know the meaning of "too much". The agent is as his room, with huge rings at each fingers and an over-comforting speech. He promises us all the tickets to everywhere, as he "will not make a lady cry".

But travels in India can always keep some bad surprises on the way. And when you go by train, prepare for the worst. To reach Varanasi we need to take two trains. From NJP (Siliguri train station, downhill from Darjeeling) to Patna, we drive by night in a sleeper train. For this first train experience we decided to go for 1st class but somehow we got in second class, which was as nice but less private. In the evening we are joined by an old Indian man looking like a wizard with his two colored beard. His "collegue" (but apparently his servant/bodyguard) follows him with his gorilla's shoulders and his unexpressive face. We share dinner and stories, before sleeping.

We reached Patna in the early morning. We are already accustomed with the chaos of Indian train stations and decide to be patient and wait our train to appear on the screen. On the screen, the other trains show delays : some 20 minutes, some 3 hours, some 12 hours. After a while our train is announced with 14 hours delay! In the waiting room loudspeakers shout announcements in hindi and english continuously, while we have to accept that we'll probably spend the night in this place. But soon the voice announce our train is cancelled. The agent might have been right about ladies crying and so was the time for the gent to move some tables and get things right...

I went first to the office of the station manager, who sent me to another office, which sent me back to the first one, where I was sent again to the second. I happen by accident to smash a door while opening, so I decided to keep the following talk at the same level and started shouting at the manager until he followed me to the other office. I continued argueing until the director of the station came to ask what is going on here. In the end I got refunded and we got 100 ruppies tickets with which we could take any train we want from Patna to Varanasi.

We jumped aboard the first train, doors open. Other passengers were helpful, even if some didn't quite understand why we couldn't speak hindi. The real India was in this train. From the banch in front of us, as well as from the shelf for luggages where some men were sleeping, faces were looking at us, with teeth used by the chewing tobacco. A cockroach crawls on the ground where men took of their shoes. Young men comes in at every stations to sell chai and snacks. After few hours in the smell of chickpeas, toilet and tobacco, we reached the holy city...