We woke up at 3 this morning to catch a train ride to the Himalayas. I was so tired when I was packing for our trip to the Himalayas but I was looking forward to the train ride. We had briefly discussed that we would be having a train ride but I still didn’t know what to expect of the train or of the whole ride.
The train station reminded me of the subway in New York except on a larger scale than one subway station would be. There were many homeless people sleeping all over the place. I wasn’t as unprepared for that part because Vikas had warned us on the bus ride to the train station. This doesn’t mean that it wasn’t overwhelming because it still was. I can’t imagine having to stay and sleep at a train station but I understand because those homeless people have nowhere else to go.
The train ride was very long and I expected to sleep on the train. During the first 2 hours of the train ride I was able to see more of the slums as we left the urban area of Delhi. I was once again reminded of how massive the trash problem is in India. People who are struggling to get a daily meal don’t have the ability to think about throwing trash away in a trash can or recycle, I understand this and I’m aware of it – it was still disheartening to see people just throw their trash on the ground or on the railroad tracks. I saw mountains of trash that seemed to stretch on forever. This definitely isn’t something that can be handled quickly or within a year of time. I was surprised to hear that the trach problem was better than it was last year and that last year was better than the year before. I feel better because this means that there is some improvement. And any improvement is good in my opinion; especially since the trash problem is so widespread.
This train ride really made me reassess what I considered to be middle class. I was thinking of residential wealth in terms of the United States and largely from a western perspective. I had to modify my point of view and begin to change my perception of wealth to one that was compatible with India’s economy and per capita income. It is one thing to hear about statistics and facts in a classroom and then a completely different thing to see life breathed into such data. I appreciated that the train ride revealed parts of India that would not typically be seen by tourists. It was a chance to see a real part of India.
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