First Train Ride (by Randy)

Early Saturday morning - we've been on the train all night. This is train riding like I never experienced as a child – we are booked into first class. We always traveled third class in those days - more like cattle class. There it was every man for himself. If you are lucky you hired someone who would actually go out and get on the train before it arrived in the station to stake out seats for you. Of course this only worked when you were starting from the beginning of the line (which Bombay always was). Otherwise it was simply this mad scramble into the train as soon as it hit the station platform. If the windows were not barred people and bags would go in that way. I can remember trips where the seats were all full AND the aisles were all full of people and bags. One trip I sat on my suitcase in the aisle just inside the compartment doorway. The good news about that was the air flow and the ease of hopping out at each station to stretch and buy a cup of tea. We saw a little bit of the mad scrambling last night as the train rolled into the station. The first few cars were unreserved, and before we had walked past them they already appeared to be crammed. On the other hand we actually had to wait on the platform until the reservation sheet arrived detailing which private sleeper compartment we were booked in. It would have been hard for us not to book first class when thinking in dollars – our overnight 765 Km journey only cost us Rs 1800 each which is Cnd$ 45 (US$36). But that is a fortune when compared to the unreserved chair ticket of Rs 147 (US$ 3) – which also explains why we traveled that way with as missionary kids. Our compartment sleeps 4 and could seat 6 or even 8 when the bunks are put away. We were each supplied with a pillow and a couple sheets for the night, and the porter took our breakfast order before we retired – omelets for Merv and myself and a south Indian dish for Phil & James. The compartment even has a couple plug-ins so the laptop and cell phone recharged while we slept. We are currently running over an hour late, but we should be in Goa by noon. This will be new territory of all of us – neither Phil or I ever made it to Goa in all the years we lived in India.