Bho! Pal

Just got into a city again so treated myself to a proper hotel room so I could have my first shower in about a month. I have washed but usually with cold water in a bucket and you don't get the same experience it must be said.

Just had a great train journey from Sanchi to Bhopal with the usual mixture of experiences. Bundled my way on at the station into the general class cabin, where everyone and their dogs are sitting in every available corner. The sounds of an Indian train are the usually cocophony of chatter and movement, highlighted by the salesmen who come through the cabin every now and then shouting "Chai! Chai!" or selling anything from popcorn to fruit to peanuts. A small boy scuttles along the floor, sweeping all of the peanut shells and rubbish up from underneath your feet. Most people don't give him anything but he occasionally gets a rupee here and there. Men lean out of the window to spit out the gunk created by their betel nut or tobacco chewing. Others smoke their beedies out of the door to the chagrin of some of the ladies in the cabin. A young, bright-eyed child sitting with his brother asks for "pannee" (water), pointing to a man who he saw drinking some. I take a sip from my bottle too and he stares
at me longingly, so I offer him some. He goes to grab the massive bottle, but his father just cups his hand in from of the boy's mouth as I pour it in. "More? More?". The boy nods continuously. I think it's been a while since he had any. He has a newfound energy after that and looks positively refreshed.

Above me, two well dressed young student boys are sitting on the luggage rack. One is leaning on the other and he starts to give him a massage letting him lean back in his lap and continuing for about a half hour. Contact is natural here between friends, even between strangers...there's no choice. These two have only known each other for 15 days but are already the closest of friends. In england they'd be dismissed as gay, but here they're just friends looking after eachother, conscious of their needs.

Suddenly the train stops. The sun has been setting over the Madyha Pradesh vast countryside of epic fields of crops, palm trees, small villages, boys playing cricket...I think dusk is when India is at it's most beautiful. The colours in faces, nature and even in cities just seem to be at their peak at this time. We end up waiting as it becomes pitch black in the cabin. I'm chatting to the two students, who are asking me questions about England. About what I think India needs to do to improve things, about the state of the economy in England, about racism in London, about what I love and hate about India and many more thought provoking things.

We end up waiting in the dark 4 kms before Bhopal station for a couple of hours. Anywhere else I might feel a bit unnerved or uncomfortable, but I just continue chatting to people, including a young boy who is coming to Bhopal for his cousin's wedding. Some people have taken to the tracks and are walking the distance to town...(just saw a big rat scuttle down the stairs at this internet cafe). I wait and eventually we move at a snails pace and pull in to the busy station.

These moments are what makes this trip amazing. If you just sit in your hotel room or become too static, you miss these experiences.