On the Rails

India Rail is the second largest employer in the world, it shuffles more people around daily than any other country's inhabitants, it has about 7000 odd stations and daily accidents from children playing near the track or wandering cows mean that it is also India's largest killer after road transport with 1400 deaths daily. The figures seem impossible to believe but it gives an idea of the size of the place.

We decided to go from Karnataka to Kerala by train as it was the ost direct route, you could move around in it and we wouldn't be squashed.How wrong were we?

It took 26 hours in a mixture in different classes.The British in their legacy divided the train carriages into classes, just as the people were divided into castes, that way nobody got above their station in life or above their class of carriage. It still holds somewhat today with the more expensive carriages only afforded by Westerners or those with money. They range from 2 tier bunks with air condition curtains and meals to sleeper class where the masses pile on and there's a srcum for seats with burly men usually always winning.

We hopped a local bus first from Gokarna to the nearest track and realised we had to go north one hour in a local train to catch the express trains going south so that we did.

We then hopped onto a local train that didn't have any air conditioned options. It was only a short ride but that didn't stop the wall of wet heat feeling as if we'd just come out of the shower. The sleeper class of the train had families were spread out everywhere enjoying a dinner which was prepacked earlier of 'thali', a vegetarian delight of rice, paratha, dhal(beans) and aloo(potatoes). The great smells lingered in the air and as many families were eating the aroma lasted a long time.

Waiting for trains can be gruesome if you've no books, no games, no people watching skills or the air is thick with humidity even at 9 o'clock at night but we passed our time quietly contemplating sleep in the overhead bunks of our first a/c sleeper.

Finally the train arrived 2 hours late which is pretty good by Indian standards and we were ushered in by the railguard after the requisite ticket check. All was black except for the deafening snores of sleepers and the occasional russle. We locked our belongings to the supplied chains and went to 'neverneverland'. Oh, I forgot....we're already in 'neverneverland' as Heidi keeps informing me that we will never, never come back here to this beautiful sleeping giant of a country.

We're awoken at 1am , 2am, 3am or something like that as other passengers get on and off at various stations, so our tranquil repose is severely interrupted throughout the night.

The next day is spent lapping up the air conditioned carriage and speaking formal English with locals. The language hasn't evolved much since the British left in 1947. We descend at Aluva station as the express train finishes at Cochin and we wait a further 3 hours for the next express through to Trivindurum and this time there are no a/c carriages just a free for all.

It didn't look positive when the train rolled up, as it looked like all 40 carriages had people hanging out of every door adn arms straying out of the metal grilled windows showing that it was indeed fullt to choking, but by the time some passengers had descended, and the one's standing sat in their places, there was some space beside the frequently used bathrooms and sink. We shuffled around for the next 6 hours making way for 'chai wallahs' or teaboys and coffee sellers to penetrate the seeming impossible fully stocked carriages. Ceiling fans did little or no good to circulate the air but due to the lack of windows and the grilles used instead, breezes did occur when the train was in motion.

The land was dotted with paddy fields, coconut,cardomom crops and banana trees showing the dense tropical landscape all around. We spliced the backwaters of Kerala going over countless bridges and passing an ornithologist's heaven with cranes stalking in the marshy waters and hawks surveying snakes and field mice from their vantage points in the updraughts of air.

We got into Trivindrium for 7pm and the only other hurdle was to negotiate the meandering crowds as thousands of people at once were offloading onto the platforms and the exits. People clambered down onto the many tracks through other stationary trains rather than take the overhead bridges that joined all the platforms. This sea of humanity was only one station of 7000 were this occurred daily and even the over-persistent rickshaw drivers and the near impossible task of finding a hotel couldn't dampen our spirits after such an epic trip...what a full day! Just lovin' it!