Wednesday, December 24, 2008

The unchanged india..


Had been to Chennai for a day for my wife's US visa interview. Traveling by train offers an excellent opportunity to see the people around.. refreshing. Airports are always mundane and drab in that regard.

Train journey always bring a fairy tale touch to the trip. When I was a kid, I vividly remember the trip to Delhi. It was a grand 3 day trip in train, I had religiously noted down the station names in the trip. I still have it in the old diaries I have kept. The total number had come upto 52 or so..

People rushing around.. old men trying to hide their brow lines when searching for trains, kids moving around excited, parents trying to seem calm as they vent their ire, porters trying to shepard past the crowds.. the beautiful old train stations (and their ugly more modern extensions), the loud announcement, the ever increasing sea of people, the buzz around as a train approaches. Actually..... nothing seems to have changed in the past decade ... may be nothing has changed since we got independence...

May be this is the unchanged India which people talk about..

Ciao till next time...Harsha