Destination known and looking for jobs!: The Mewar Express

The Mewar Express pulled out of the Udiapur City station. Jeff and I watch the country side roll by from our barred window until the sun set and it was too dark to see anything. I read my book and Jeff was listening to his music. The train makes a few stops, a few people get on or off, and the train rolls along. The chai guy and the tomato soup guy make their rounds, although we didn’t get any. There would be plenty of time to buy tea or soup if we wanted it. Jeff decided to move to the upper bunk so he could stretch out. The family with the little girl with the broken leg dozes on and off until their stop comes up.

Their bags are shuffled towards the door and dad carries the little girl closer to the door. I make room for him to sit down with her on my bunk since its closest. As the train pulls into Chittorgarh, I peer out the window and see hundreds of people rushing for the train. The train hasn’t even begun to slow down and people are grabbing onto doorways pulling themselves on. As the train slows, more and more people are trying to shove their way onto the train. More and more people swarm the train, outside people are stacked twenty deep trying to push themselves forward. People are sitting on my bunk, some are climbing up on Jeff’s bunk, and the dad with the little is trying to shove his way off. The poor little girl was screaming from fright or pain or both. Someone starts banging on my window, and I see one of little girl’s other family members trying to get back onto the train to help get the two off. I open the window and see a couple of soldiers just standing by watching this chaos happen. I start to yell at them, telling them a little girl with a broken leg is trying to get off the train but can’t because of the crowd. Once the soldiers understood what I was saying, they took out their bamboo canes and started hitting people to get them to clear away from the door so the little girl could get off.

Once every space on the train was full, the chaos calmed a little bit. Six to eight people were sitting on a bunk, people were standing in the aisles and sitting on the floors. The chai guy was stuck on seat across the aisle; his rounds were done for the night. Our peaceful passenger car had been turned into a cattle car. I didn’t even know that many people fit in such little space.

It was hard to understand why so many people were on the train. Someone said it was a protest, someone else said everyone was just going home, but that just be the way this popular sleeper class is. The train pulls away from the station and Jeff switches places with a guy who was sitting next to me. We were so squished on in our space that I was sitting on one butt cheek and I don’t think Jeff had that much more room either.

We start to approach Bundi. Jeff and I start to figure out how we are going to make the ten feet to the door to get off the train. The train was due in around 22:30 and it was getting close to 23:30. One thing we have learned that as the trains start to run later, the stop times seem to be shorter. The people who are wanting to get off in Bundi start pushing towards the door ten to twenty minutes before the stop. The train slows and I’m pushing forward trying to get through. Jeff is right behind me and we make it off the train. We drop all our bags on the platform, just relived to have made it off.