The Train Ride

Prasad booked 1st Class AC tickets on the train to Hyderabad. Not sure why since if we dished out a bit more money, we could have booked flight tickets. Prasad looks forward to train rides, he has many fond memories of travelling by train with his family. I on the other hand dread train rides, awful bathrooms, cockroaches, need I say more? Since it was an overnight train ride, I was able to avoid the bathrooms but there were passengers going all the way to Delhi, imagine 2 days on a train!

He booked the tickets two months in advance but they seated each of us in a separate cabin! Prasad swapped cabins with another couple and we were all able to sit together. The first thing the couple said when they heard Sindhu speak was that if you're from the US, you will not like this train car. We were on the Rajdhani Express to Delhi and the first class cabins were old and tired. The 2nd class AC cars were much newer and nicer according to the kids. We chatted with the couple during dinner and they shared details about their daughter who lives in the US, how she did her master's, secured a job 6 months ago and that the US is such a horrible place to live so their daughter will definitely move back in a year. They are a well travelled couple, he just retired from the air force and has been abroad many times. Prasad and I were politely smiling when he said, that the life in the US is for the dogs, that Americans are so stupid and how the best place to live is in India. They were a lively couple and quite entertaining but it's interesting how every so often we'll meet a couple that is so passionately anti-US and so blatantly vocal about it :-)

So more drama ensued after that.

1) The train security brought in dogs to sniff out drugs and weapons, I screamed out so loud as I didn't expect a dog to enter our cabin.

2) Sindhu was mortified that there was a door to our cabin and with the possibility that we could get locked in. She spent pretty much the whole 10 hours on the train obsessing about the door and even woke up repeatedly at night begging us to keep the door open. We kept it open so we could get some sleep even though, I had gold jewelry and expensive saris and thought it would be safer if the door was closed. A couple of months ago, Sindhu got locked into the one of the bathrooms at the clubhouse and has since been nervous about getting locked into confined spaces. For a few weeks, she avoided the elevators and climbed up seven flights of stairs every day. The other day, she and her friend were stuck in the elevator for a minute when the power went out, Sindhu swore she wouldn't ever get into an elevator, fortunately, she has gotten over that.

3) Rushil insisted that he sleep on the top bunk. I was petrified he would fall off, another reason that I couldn't sleep.

I'm whining quite a bit here but the ride wasn't so bad. The staff on the train was wonderful and accomodating. We'll probably go to Hyderabad by train again but this time around, 2nd class AC for sure.