Inês Marques Fotografia: maio 2015

Trains in India, everybody heard about them right? We were going to experience that and I must say that we had a little bit of concern mixed with excitement.
In our hands we had 2 tickets only - we were 3 persons - because there weren’t more tickets available and we were going to share one bed. We were travelling in Sleeper Class that is a carriage full of beds, one per person, and we paid 715 rupees that were approximately 10 euros for a 2000km trip.

We arrived at our place and in the beginning, we thought that we will be alone, but a few minutes later a group of students arrived and we started to talk with them. They really made us felt welcome in this wonderful country and we immediately started to talk about their culture, traditions, language and religions. They were so warm and pure with us, we can see the happiness in their eyes and we can feel how grateful they were to be there with us. As we were very different, with occidental look, the people on the train stared at us, especially me being a girl. Sometimes was uncomfortable, but I understood their side (way of thinking) and they looked without malice. We were new for them and different from what they are used to, so they just observed us.
The tiredness started to hit us and as we prepared to sleep, we understood that was impossible two people slept comfortable in that bed, “- It will be a long night”, I said joking. Luckily the ticket man arrived and gave us another bed because someone gave up. In my bed I realized the dimension of this trip, falling asleep was a little bit difficult and even the fatigue was not winning. At that time I was crossing the country and starting an amazing experience. Incredulous, Incredible, My dream, India.

We woke up the next morning with a smile on our faces; everybody was awake and full of energy, our friends were singing together, showing the different foods and teaching us how to speak Hindi (“Main tumsé pyar karti hun” that means “I love you”). A lot of things were going on at the same time, in the same place, not to mention the sellers screaming with a strong voice as they pass by selling different things like food, shoes, bags, tobacco, toothpaste, bijouterie’s and blankets.
It was in the train that we taste and start discovering the Indian food. It was difficult, a little bit harder I could say. My first meal was so spicy that I started literally to burn from inside, but, luckily I had cookies, my salvation! The next meals I asked without spicy, but of course it was spicy, at least, less than normal and eatable. Besides this, the worst thing on this trip and very chocking for us was about the trash. We knew that India had a lot of pollution and trash, but not in that scale where half of the landscapes were plastics, aluminum, etc.… Every single time that they ate or drunk something they throw it in the window. It was so sad and unbelievable, I started to think about how many people was inside that enormous train and how many kilos were produced in one day. They also told us to do the same thing, but we were unable to do that, it was against our principals so we made our own trash hanging in the fan. They have to change their mentality and attitudes; they have to had environmental education and awareness, and start quickly to solve this big problem.

That evening we were sleeping and suddenly we felt someone touching our feet very hard and clapping the hands, but we didn’t care and didn’t understand what was happening. The next day the same thing happened, we were at the door of the train seeing the landscapes, when one travesty touches our shoulder and start clapping the hands while saying something in Hindi. He/She had a colorful sari, a lot of makeup and strong man’s voice. Our friend immediately offers money for us as we stood there without understanding what was happening, but his expression was of fright and respect for that “lady”. He/She went away and our friend explained that if this travesty touch you and clap the hands you have to give them money otherwise she will put a spell on you. It was very strange to see how many people believe in that and how much money they earn to do that in all the trains... Indian beliefs.

It was already 31^st of December, the last day of 2014, and we were very anxious to arrive in Assam but the train was very slow due to the fog and it was getting late. We thought that we will arrive at dinner time, but that didn’t happen. It was already midnight, we can hear fire places and people screaming inside and out of the train while the train slowly passes by villages.
New Year’s Eve, inside one Indian train with Indian friends to start this 2015 with the right foot.

3 DAYS AFTER… 1 YEAR LATER… WE ARRIVED!