Side Upper and Lower

We arrived in Bikaner city on the evening of 8th October, 2005 after a long journey of more than 48 hours. Our routing was Hyderabad-Mumbai-Bikaner. We left home for Mumbai late evening on 6th October. S and I always make it a point to book side upper and side lower seats in any train. It gives a certain sense of privacy. One can recline any time one wants and also gives good protection to our luggage.

The holiday began once we baorded the train though it took some time to unwind from the various work schedules. I was silent and withdrawn when we boarded the tain to Mumbai as I was tense and keyed up. Everytime I begin my jouney I have this premonition that I will fall sick. In my case my premonitions about my health are always true. However, despite my sickness I travel alomst once in six months to the corners of this wonderful country. I should confess that the excitement of travel has been an important part of my bonding with S.

Unfortunately for us our seats (though side upper and lower) were adjacent to the toilet. Whenever the train stopped or someone left the toilet door open, one would be assaulted by the odours. We could do nothing about it. I became an expert at clenching and unclenching my nose through the journey. S had as usual packed his bottle of lime and vodka which he was sipping calmly, sitting by the window as the train rushed into the darkness of various towns and villages. We were occasionally delving into our 'food bag' for tid bits. Our dinner was rotis and brinjal curry plus the various goodies of our food bag. A word about our food bag. Whenever we are making these long journey we have a separate bag allocated for food stuffs and medicines which will contain nuts, dry rotis, pickles, sweets, digestives and so on and so forth weighing atleast a couple of kilos.

We reached Mumbai at half past twelve. By now the holiday mood had set in. I felt light and good. We had a three hour halt at Mumbai. We decided to inaugurate our holiday formally by splurging at a good resturant with some chilled beer. Found a small Chinese restuarant and parked ourselves for the next two hours. Shared a bottle of beer and a plate of noodles. Since the price tag was heavy decided to limit our beer and food. Since I was holding the purse strings I made a note not to enter into expensive hotels. Yeah...The other thing was that I would handle the expenses of the trip. So I was paying for everything. S would have only have about ten rupees in his pocket, enough to buy some cigarettes or a bottle of water. This was a reflection of my new found status of the being the breadwinner for the family.

Following this minor splurge we reached bustling Bandra station and boarded the hot and stuffy Ranakpur Express to Bikaner. Our tickets were confirmed only at the last minute. To our horror we again found our Side upper and lower berths adjacent to to the toilets. Between the two us us I am the snob, being sensitive to ammonic odours. S is cool about stuff like this. I got reconciled to ammonia and told myslef that this will not spoil the fun. Our compartment was packed to the brim with not only the regular passengers but also wait listed passengers. Marwadi men, women and children, beggars, bearers serving coffee, cool drinks, tea, tiffins jostled with each other in that tiny compartment. Very soon the marwadi tiffin carriers were opened and the endless tream of serving food began. S and myself were perched at our window seats trying to be oblivious of all the high voices around us, at the same time trying to catch snippets of conversations, curious to know their subjects of conversation.

For me it was a new route. The train was chugging through Gujarat. So we encountered Ahemedabad, Surat, Anand, Vadodra and many other important towns of Gujarat. In all this melee we forgot to buy our dinner and were left only with dry chappatis and pickle which was also fun. It is strange how one feels hungry by 9pm and then sleeps by 10pm on the train. Even S who is used to eating and sleeping late turned in by 10pm. The lights are switched off and one cant even read. So the only alternative is to sleep. And promptly sleep catches up. Our marital practice is that I take the uuper berth while he takes the lower. I feel safe on the upper berth and tos ome extent not be an object of voyeuristic pleasure. I woke up occasionally to the strong odours of ammonia and promptly pulled the sheet all over my face. As if that would be any preventive. It was a cold night. We were forced to pull out our sleeping bags to stay warm. Since I was sleeping on the upper berth I woke up S to pull out the sleeping bags and jackets. With the sleeping bag under me, I felt so warm that I went off for another bout of good sleep.

The next day dawned quite early with the tea wallahs making their rounds since 5.30 in the morning. We refused to wake up. Finally we had to wake up by 8am as the noise levels around was so deafeningly high tthat there was no way one could sleep.We woke up to the station of Pali Marwad which arrived at about 8.30 am in the morning. Many passengers were getting off these stations. Our compartment, much to our relief was geeting empty. By 10.30 am we reached Jodhpur. The ticket collector informed us to get some food at Jodhpur itself as otherwise we would not get any food on the way after Jodhpur. He further advised us that we should go outside the railway station to buy food. S was deputed to look after the luggage while I marched out to get the food. Jodhpur station was deserted and the sun was fierce. The train would halt there for about 30 minutes. There were many dhabas outside the railway station. I selected one dhaba and ordered jeera rice, dal and bhendi curry. I was already craving for rice. Within no time the food was ready and I rushed back with the parcel of food to the train. We loaded ourselves with food and water as we were warned that we will get neither ont he way. Bikaner was toa rrive at 4.30 in the evening. The train pulled out of Jodhpur and then began the best part of the journey. Since the food was hot we decided to have a brunch and gobbled the rice and dal as if we were starving for the last few days. The time was just 11am. The blue and pink buildings of Jodhpur rolled by. Jodhpur is considered to be the first halt ont he desert circuit of Rajasthan. The desert part of Rajasthan had begun. A certain excitement was building.