Peculiar

 **For this post, I have a song request:  Iris, Goo Goo Dools ♫

You all have read on my post about “When I met Aamir Khan” how excited and overwhelmed I was. What you don’t know is what I had to do to get to that meeting. And because I believe that it is very important for you to understand the circumstances which I had to go under to achieve such extraordinary moment. Behind the curtains there is not always a rainbow… 

I am doing volunteer work in a farm in Jaipur. On the 21st, I sent an email to Aamir’s assistant, Shariva, with whom I was in contact for almost 5 months, thanking her for all the help, but because I was leaving in 4 days, I would not be able to meet him. She answers me immediately saying that, if I manage to get to Mumbai tomorrow or the day after, she can get me a meeting with him. In tears, I write to her that, unfortunately, I cannot make it. But then 5 minutes later, I check the train connections. There is one train departing from Jaipur to Mumbai at 5.30 p.m. the same afternoon; I have to change trains in another city, with a window of only 15 minutes; and there is only one train I can catch, from Mumbai to Calcuta, to arrive in time for my flight, and it departs tomorrow, on the 22nd at 9 p.m. (it is 33 hours travel to Calcuta from Mumbai). It is now 2 p.m., and I still must pack, eat some lunch, and it takes 1 hour to reach the train station, plus I must hitchhike there. But there is a chance, and that is all I need! I know I would never forgive myself if I didn’t try. But I also know that, if I miss any of these trains, I will not make it to my flight in time. I say, “let’s do this!”. But I have no tickets to neither of the trains. I have no cash at all! 

I call Shariva and ask her if she can get me a meeting tomorrow, my only chance. She tells me that he is inviting me for lunch, tomorrow at 1 p.m., and she sends me his home address. I am so nervous and happy that, when I am entering my room, I hit the doorframe so forcefully, that I get a deep 2 cm cut on my waist / hips (which I will only see hours later). My host offers to drive me to the highway. In between all the goodbyes and photographs, I leave the farm after 4 p.m. But my host drops me off to a bus stop and, putting me on a bus to Jaipur, gives me some extra Rupees (something around 2.5 Dollars), so I can get a tuk-tuk from the last stop to the train station and still have enough left to buy some food for the trip. What an angel! 

On the bus, talking with a young man, I get to know two things: 1) we will be late because there is lots of traffic; 2) the train is delayed 15 minutes. After the boy leaves the bus, I don’t ask anyone about what time it is. I only see the sun going down and wonder if I am too late… I get to a very slow tuk-tuk (the first and only I have ever taken and paid for it in India, after 5 months travelling here), and get to the train station almost without breath. When I am about to board the train, I look to a clock: it shows 5.44. After I board the train, it departs.  

I don’t know if you ever heard anything about Indian trains but it is a pickle! Well, at least the general class is. It is always overcrowded, people sitting and lying on the floor, occupying every single space available. There are no ACs, only some fans and open windows. Lots of people travel without ticket. There is a ticket control but sometimes it comes, sometimes it doesn’t. I have travelled by train, without a ticket, 3 times in India before. In 2 of them the ticket guy came: in one he didn’t ask me for my ticket, only to the other people sitting in the same compartment as I; in the other, well… I told him I had lost my ticket and got out in the next station, which was only 2 hours before my destination. In these 2 times the journey was almost 20 hours long. The one in which nobody came, it was a 1-day journey. 

The first train will take 4 hours to the next station. The ticket guy comes, and I run to the toilet, staying there for 20 minutes. When I am coming back, I pass by him, but he doesn’t ask me my ticket. He already passed my role. On the next station, I am running to change platforms (now, remember that I have my backpacks with me) and there is this Indian guy running with me, not to catch his train but to help me to find the right platform, because he can hear and understand the announcements made on the speakers. A lot of stairs and ramps later, I get to the platform, and he continues his journey. When the train arrives, another problem: this train does not have a general class, only AC classes, which are known to be strict about ticket checking, because they are 3 times more expensive than general class. Damn! What to do? I don’t even think and just get in the train. It departs. I freeze by the compartment door though. Luckily, it is a “seats” wagon and not a sleeper. I am standing there, not knowing what to do. Immediately, two Indian men ask me what’s wrong. In 30 seconds or so, I explain everything to them. They tell me: “Don’t worry, just put your luggage down and take a seat. Nobody will come and check on you. And if they come, just tell them that you lost your ticket”. I am so nervous but there is no other way. They share some food with me later, and I try to catch some sleep. It is a 12 hour journey. Nobody comes to check the tickets. 

When I arrive in Mumbai, I am dirty and disgusting. I ask in a Hotel if I can use their bathroom to get clean and change for a meeting. They are lovely and let me do so. I am so nervous that I forget my toothbrush, toothpaste and some other things in the bathroom. Luckily, after I used them. And I am starving! I ask for one banana to some shop keeper, and a really nice man, out of nowhere, offers to help me (which is very common in India) to find the location and buys me a traditional vegetarian “breakfast snack”, called Vada Pav, which consists of a small bun, with a delicious potato patty inside, and a delicious sweet chilly masala sauce. I loved it! 

After my delightful meeting with Aamir Khan, I manage to exchange an old paper Pound note I had with me for 2 years, by a complete miracle! (They stopped circulating September last year, and now you can only exchange them in the Bank of England, in London, but because I was not using cash at all, I didn’t know that and missed the deadline). They gave me a worse rate than usual, but at least I got 35 Dollars (for a 50 Pounds note), so I could by a general class ticket for the train to Calcuta. 

The next obstacle was that, for the first time in an Indian train travel, I found some very unfriendly people in the wagon I caught. It was extremely full, way more than I have ever seen, and I couldn’t get a free space for my backpack anywhere, so I had to keep with me in the hall. Because of that also, people got angry that I was taking “too much space” and ask me to go somewhere else. After over one hour of this situation, I decide to move. 

I don’t get much farther though, because the train is fully packed! I stay another hour in between the toilets, but at least here, there are some nice guys, who try to help me. But I cannot stay here for the 32 hours left for the trip, so I tell them I will try the AC wagon in the next “long stop”, which is about 10 minutes long. 

When I get to the AC compartment everything changes. It is a sleeper this time, and when I first meet the man responsible for changing the bedding, I tell him what happened with me in the general class, and even without asking to see my ticket, he tells me he will help me. For the next 35 hours of my journey (yeah, the train got delayed) which I spend in this train, I keep moving from one bed to another, whenever some gets available. I receive so much help of the people in the train, the police officers responsible for security, the ticket guy, the train keeper, and mostly a young man, who also has no tickets, but it is travelling with his parents and aunt. I manage to sleep a few hours each night, here and there, and everybody helps me with some food, snacks and chai. 

After 38 hours from the beginning of the trip, I finally arrive in Calcuta, only to start a new journey of walking another hour, getting in a local train (extremely full, as usual), just to get near to the airport, another hour walking and finally the airport. 

If it worth it? Every second! I would do everything and go over every single detail of this journey again, three times, if necessary, even if I knew that I would get to be with Aamir for only 5 minutes. I would deny eternity to be able to just look him in the eyes.