Indian Station Nightlife

“Continuing my fourth journey through Hindustan, passing through Delhi, Rajasthan, Mumbai, Bhopal, I will tell you about the means of transportation on Indian soil. As you know, I am not looking for easy ways, and when another trashy situation arises on the way, I don’t whine much. And Indian railways are a good mix of trash and romance,” says Petr Lovygin.

(Total 35 photos)

1. Romance in iron, especially if the train is not late, especially if it is South India, where it is warm in winter, especially when all the doors of its cars are wide open, and, leaning out at full speed, you see how the train on a slippery slope will suddenly bend with a terrible roll ...

2. The Indian train is also transvestites wandering around the reserved seat, it is endless and impossible food, more reminiscent of the game "edible - inedible", these are cockroaches, which by the end of the trip you get tired of giving names to distinguish (Vikenty, Afanasy, Anton Ignatych ...).

3. These are hundreds of bodies scattered across the vestibules from the lower class to the very top ... These are masala-chai merchants who rush along the car with samovars, these are cripples crawling at the half-station and turning the train into a mobile Kunstkamera ...

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5. But there are times when you are not just going, but waiting more. This is what happened in Agra. Agra with its fucking Taj Mahal is generally an enchanted place. I've been here twice, it was very cold, and each time I got stuck for several hours at the local train station.

6. The passing train, which was supposed to take us to Varanasi, was already 8 hours late for Agra, according to preliminary information. The reason for being late ... fog! Well, the fog is on the road - here it is somewhere delayed. The reasons for being late can be different each time - somewhere the cow lay down on the rails, somewhere the driver drank tea for an extra half an hour. And do nothing! Just sit and wait.

Arriving at the station at the time indicated on the tickets, they learned about the delay, of course, from taxi drivers, who, of course, offer to take you to your destination quickly and 10 times more expensive.

We preferred to wait. Now I will introduce you to the nightlife of the Indian station.

7. [21:00] All platforms and platforms are occupied by holy fathers, cows, dogs, tea sellers waiting for their trains. Varanasi is a popular tourist destination, and therefore two dozen foreigners from all over the world also turned out to be hostages of the station. The Japanese and Koreans predominated - for some reason they especially love Varanasi.

8. Toilet at the station. It is worth visiting only because of critical impatience. Taking a piss in India is not a problem at all. There are free toilets everywhere. Why a person is also assigned to this is incomprehensible.

9. Suspicious types peeped out of the nooks and crannies among the luggage, which the loaders drove from one end of the platform to the other. Apparently, they warmed up in this way.

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11. The floor of the common hall slowly begins to fill with people. Many of them do not wait for any trains, they simply do not have a home and they spend the night at the station. There are no doors at the station, by three o'clock in the morning it will already be wildly cold here.

12. Indians in terms of sleep are a very unpretentious nation. Night came - fell where necessary and fell asleep. Each of them always has a blanket with them, because you don’t know where the night will catch you. Oilcloth and paper bedding, well, for the “most squeamish”, you can buy right there, at the station.

13. Fog began to seep into the station building.

14. Station buffet.

15. The products offered at the bookstand were a game of "find the extra character."

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17. [22:00] We occupied some bales that were on the platform.

18. The next two hours, before the onset of quite a frost, it was possible to turn on them. It was proposed to turn on the laptop and arrange a movie show, and take 10 rupees per viewing from Indians who are interested in the russian movie. Somehow to kill some time. The earliest the train could arrive was 4 o'clock in the morning. This is not the latest information, the arrival time could be postponed even later.

19. Merchants of all kinds of edible garbage are counting the goods, preparing for the arrival of the last train for today. What's in the bucket may not look appetizing, but it will be sold. The guys learn new chants to attract passengers of the soon arriving train.

This whole operation is carried out in complete unsanitary conditions with hands that have just leaned on the platform in order to climb onto it from the railway tracks. The water must have come from the tap.

20. Trade went on briskly with howls and screechings in nasty voices of various rubbish of Indian commercial creativity. A lot of people who wanted to try cheburek with rat meat and gravy with maggots fell out of the train.

21. These voices cannot be conveyed verbally. I don't know in which Indian trading institutes they teach you to squeeze out nasal sounds so heart-rendingly.

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23. I caught such a handsome man from the train. Sleeveless - chic! How cold it is in such weather in shales - I don’t understand. Many people just go barefoot.

24. From the arriving train, a string of people stretched up the stairs to the crossing over the tracks. Women in saris, with luggage on their heads, their mustachioed husbands, children, cows, dogs.

25. [00:00] The train has left, the situation on the opposite platform has not changed. Only the holy fathers have gone somewhere. Well, they are saints.

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27. Station waiting room. It was a very wise idea to move here in time and take the free seats, because after an hour the entire floor was occupied by sleeping people here. Only rats kept active, scurrying out of the toilet to the street and along the perimeter of the room.

28. [03:00] Went outside to buy tea. Dubak stands simply unprecedented. I think it was near zero. And even lower. Tooth does not fit. December in North India. A small glass of masala chai did not help at all. Already with indifference he looked at how someone just slept on the street.

29. And indeed, fog. On the platform, a man wrapped in everything that is possible, wanders around. All of the foreigners who endured to the last, lying in sleeping bags on the street, moved to the waiting room. At least it has doors. The Koreans and the Japanese used their devices in a special program to track the current location of our train. There was a rumor that the arrival would be delayed by another 2.5 hours. I really want to sleep.

30. I took a selfie with my neighbor in the waiting room. All the time that he was sitting next to me, covered with a blanket, it seemed to me that he was breathing over potatoes there. Despite 10 hours of waiting, I did not lose my presence of mind. The arrival of the train became more and more likely. Although in India, I would not say anything to the end.

Suddenly, in the middle of the waiting room, one Indian rose from the sleeping ones, padded barefoot into the toilet, dispersing the rats. Soon there came the sounds of an impromptu shower, blowing your nose, singing songs. Under the icy water, he managed to wash his hair, wash himself completely, after which he shook his wet shorts for a long time over his neighbors who continued to sleep.

The train arrived at 6:30 am. From the moment we arrived at the station, 8.5 hours of waiting had passed. With shouts of "On the wagons!" we have split up. I was pulling by the leg of some grandfather in a turban who slept on our shelves. I no longer had respect.

Shaking in a smoky car, I became homeless and humble; shaking in a smoky car, I half cried, half slept.

The distance between Agra and Varanasi, equal to 360 km, this "express" (and it is really called "express" !!) will overcome the next 24 hours (that is, it was traveling at a speed of about 15 km / h) and solemnly enter Varanasi with a total late at… 5 p.m.!! 5 pm: instead of 10 am we arrived at 3 am! Phenomenal gouging!!

31. And in Varanasi, do you think the picture is different? All the same!

32. Buses also run around India. They start from such shabby and nondescript stations…

33. And for ten hours your body skillfully throws up on the top shelf on local roads. It takes off in such a way that getting injured by hitting the ceiling is like crazy to do! And suddenly in the middle of the night the driver will make a stop. Heart-to-heart conversations by the fire with a flock of Indians, a calf rubbing against your legs, a couple of glasses of masala ...

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35. ... and again in the sleeping bag on the top shelf - shake around Beautiful India further ...