Come tomorrow

I'm back in Delhi. And (surprise, surprise) it's hot.Shamsher, PJ chach and I drove down from Kasauli yesterday, and it did not take us all that long to get here (6 hours with a 45 minute pit stop for food), which was great because I hate sitting in cars.

As far as Kasauli is concerned, after my last, incredibly crabby post, things got a lot better. Partly because I began to tune out the annoying, extraneous noises (demands from my family, my sister's whining, the annoying pitter-patter of pine needles on the tin roof of the Kasauli cottages, Angober's (sometimes) shitty music) and partly because the rest of my cousins arrived so my family stopped pushing me around because there were a bunch of other kids to push around instead!

Friday was really interesting, because I FINALLY took my first official project train ride. I woke up at 6:30 and we drove down to Dharampur station so that I could catch the 7:30 train to Shimla. Dharampur station is really cute- it's a small station in the middle of a hill town. When I got to the station, the booking window was closed, and the station master was nowhere in site and I was the only person in the station, except for the man who was selling chips. So I waited for 10 paniced minutes (it was 7:15 when I got to the station) until it finally occured to me to knock on the station master's door. Which is, apparently, what I should've done earlier because the station master was in there, sleeping.

I eventually bought my ticket (it was Rs. 14 which should've told me what kind of train I was getting onto), and waited on the platform.

At this point, I think I should mention that my family had led me to expect a proper, long distance train to arrive at the platform. In fact, the train that has traditionally gone from Kalka to Shimla is called the Himalayan Queen, and it is FAMOUS for it's "old world charm".

So of course, the train that showed up on the Dharampur platform at 7:55 that morning was not the Himalayan Queen, but a local train. Which is fine, except that there was NO space on the train for me. The ladies compartment, which was the nice short length of 7 feet, was crowded to the extent that there wasn't even a square inch of space (women were scattered all over the seats, all over the floor and were even hanging out of the door). I pleaded and pleaded with the ladies in the compartment, and all of them refused to move, which was just great because the TT had blown his whistle twice by then. Eventually, when the train whistle blew, I ran along the platform in a panic, looking for any bogey with any space, and finally climbed onto a random one toward the front of the train. Of course, there was no place to stand in that one either, so I ended up being one of the people who hung out of the door.

The whole hour long ride to Solan was really awkward, partly because I was the only woman in the compartment, and partly because I was dressed in jeans and a hoodie (all the other women in the train, above the age of 15, were wearing Indian clothing). But after the first stop, a lot of people got off and more space opened up on the train. So eventually, I was able to stand near the compartment door in peace and was able to take in the mountain scenery, which was incredible. I have a ton of pictures, but the reels are being developed right now, so I might put them up later.

Anyway. When I got off at Solan, and I can't lie but I was a little relieved. It was the first time I had traveled alone as the sole woman in a sea of men. And now that I've done it, it will definitely be easier to do next time. After Solan, we drove to Shimla (it took an hour and a half to drive to Shimla; if I had stayed on the train, it would've taken me an additional 3 hours to get there) and I took a bunch of pictures at the station there. And then headed back to Kasauli to enjoy the rest of the weekend with the family.

So at the end of it all, the last weekend turned out to be great. I won Rs. 500 at a tambola game at the Kasauli Club, lost Rs. 239 while playing rummy with my family, ate a shit load of great food, re-read The God of Small Things, and walked a hell of a lot everyday. Now I'm back, and getting ready to go to South India on Thursday.

So until next time, stay safe, and stay tuned.