I am almost 39 (gulp!) years old, and must have traveled on Rockfort express at least 40 times- an average of once a year. Never ever have I ever imagined that I would be sitting in a first class compartment, with my daughter and wife snoozing in nearby berths, typing my blog, and uploading it.
I could easily Google and find out who said that India is a land of contradictions. But I won't. It is indeed a place of spellbinding contradictions. One day, I am paying 8000 rupees for a hotel room in New Delhi, and waiters show me bottled water as if it were a bottle of wine! The next day, a barefoot coolie is lugging my extra baggage for a paltry 80 rupees. And here is the rub, he thought I would bargain him down. As we waited for the train doors to open, I struck up a nice conversation with the man. He looked all of 55 or so, and missed a full front row of teeth. He broke into english as we talked, I did a double take. I asked him where he was from, and he said from Andhra, and went to english and telugu medium schools there. He was learning tamil so people wouldn't make fun of him. He wore a nice looking clean dhoti, and walked barefoot in the rain. I guessed he might have been a man who had seen some prosperity, but who had fallen on hard times. Perhaps a wayward son had thrown him out on the street to fend for himself.
The ever-observant Maya watched him heft the suitcases up, and piped up her first series of questions:
Mays: "How is this mama so strong?"
Kala: "Because he eats all his vegetables. If you did too, you too can be strong like him and appa."
Maya:"Where are his shoes?"
Kala: "He left them at home honey. What do you want to do?"
Maya: "I can give him my shoes. Will he take my pink shoes?"
Kala: "I think they will be too small for him Maya. Can we buy him red shoes? Red will match his shirt also?"
Maya: "Okay, but you need to buy them. I don't have any money...
I was talking to the man, and couldn't help smile as I overheard the conversation between mother and daughter.These days, I find myself talking to people who work in the service industry here. So many stories come out, waiting to be told. One was a security guard in a now-defunct lock factory in Chandni Chowk, another was a maid with this family for the past 35 years, another is a 15 year old girl who works to support her family, another is a single mom working as a maid in 3 houses to help her daughter married off, and put her son through college. Another is a waiter who was working 2-3 shifts back to back, while nervously awaiting his pregnant wife's phone call that labor pains had started. It is easy to sit in a car and lose out on interactions, too easy in fact. the 1 foot distance between the driver and the passenger might as well be 12 miles long.
Now here I am, 4 feet from a smelly lavatory with a broken door, typing in my last words before I turn it in.
