Feb. 24th
The trip to Delhi is coming to a close, one more exporter to check out before a 13 hour train ride back to Varanasi. It was a good company to visit, actually the younger brother of Varun from Kashmir Arts. The quality was not quite up to his brother’s production h however the selection was entirely different at a better price so I spent my last 90 minutes in Delhi going through his stock. From there we head through traffic hang ups towards the train station. The past two days the shipping industry, I think, has been on strike. Yesterday 30,000 were walking the streets tying up traffic more than usual. We get to our train without the frantic run of Agra and settle in for our long journey.
The day’s story should end there as not a lot happens while traveling with a 60 year old on a train—this is not Before Sunrise or Sunset for that matter. We did accidentally sit in a first class cabin which eerily makes me feel like I am in a 3rd class cabin on the Titanic—just the ambiance right now; a rickety rocking bunk-bed filled cabin. It all feels from an age long before my time: the paint, fans, even the reading light I currently write by to the displeasure of the other occupants. I cannot and do not want to sleep right now it is around 11:30 and I have been on this train since before 1 with 2+ hours left. If I sleep I may screw up my sleep pattern again.
Back to the end of the story, we had setup in the empty first class cabin thinking we were in the proper place and only realizing the mistake when the ticket man came by. He gave Hamid two choices either we move or give him a bribe—you know which option we chose. So that is today’s story; where I am at listening to music writing and rocking back and forth on a train somewhere closer to Varanasi then Delhi. I still have much traveling to do, 12 days of work, three cities and multiple villages to visit.
Namaste
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