How it all started - Mumbai train

On the 9th of February 2006, I took the AF134 plane to Mumbai, Bombay, if you prefer. My 27kg-heavy luggage was not held back by Air France in Charles de Gaulle, they just loaded it into the plane. Actually you would be surprise how few this is! I arrived in Mumbai at around midnight, and Greg was expecting me, even if he not supposed to be there, as he was supposed to be working in Nashik at that time (at least on the day after). Great surprise! We spent the night in Mumbai and took a train on the next day for Nashik.

Nasik is located about 200km from Mumbai, to the North East. You can either take a plane, which can be cancelled anytime (there’s only one per day), drive by car, on bumpy and quite dangerous roads, or take a train, quite punctual (serious!) and cold (too much AC). So we took a train, happy enough that we could take it at a terminus station, where we knew exactly where our coach was. Indeed, it is a nightmare to take a train in a non terminus station here, as you have something like 2 minutes to get into the train with your big luggage but no indication on the platform about where you are supposed to wait for your coach. We experienced that a few weeks ago in Mumbai. Our platform was the same as many regional trains (like S Bahn, or RER), so there was constantly a train in front of you, and you had to ask yourself whether this train has a chance to be yours or not. Up to you! Well, one of the main hint is that if you see people literally rush into a train coming (while still moving), and still rush once the train is leaving the station again, then you know this is most probably not your train to Nashik. People just step on one another to get on board. So you would think women have no chance to get in, as they are in general weaker than men. But India organizes it in such a way that women have their own allocated coaches. So that women step over women, and men over men.

Another hint is the way people stand at the open door of the train whilst the train is driving at its highest pace. Quite a dangerous way of taking the train, but that’s just the way it is here. Too few space inside if the train, so you don’t have a choice but to stand and hang at the door, half your body outside of the train.
On that day we were lucky enough to find a guy talking English on the platform, able (unlike the Indian railways employees…) to tell us about where our coach would stop.
So anyway, back to my arrival in Mumbai and departure to Nasik, on that day we took this for 3 and half hours long train from Mumbai to Nasik. Actually you could think this is not a train, but supermarket. Just like Brazilian beaches, but this is not our topic today. Every 5 minutes a guy passes by to sell you things you think you know (like coffee, tea, tomato soup, crisps, etc…), as well as things you have never seen in your life and of which your wonder whether you should really eat them or not. Then if you are in a kind of a dormitory coach you will get bed sheets and a blanket, to have a nice nap. Ok, we took the train to Nasik, which is quite near to Mumbai. Some people take the same train to reach the other end of the country, traveling for sometimes, I don’t know, something like 24 hours!

The arrival in Nasik is of course an experience for you, especially if you have never seen the train station by day (by night is also not bad) of a “small” Indian city like Nasik (around 1,5 mio people), but it is also an experience for the local people who don’t see that many white and fair haired people every day. Of course we are not the only ones here, as there are many German people from not only Bosch, but also EPCOS, Thyssen Krupp, but still you can tell that you don’t look “normal” in the eyes of some of those people. A child once asked me which soap I am using to wash myself. I am so white!