Sitting on the train after a long quick day of heat and a very bumpy rickshaw ride in Jaipur, and the amazing Amber Palace I was ready to be transported to another world.
Not that I wanted to leave India but rather needed to check out for a few… Your brain gets into overload after a while and with a four-hour train ride ahead, some personal quiet time was much desired.
On with the headphones and a scarf on my head and I attempted to have this moment of peace.. For around 30 minutes I did this, then found myself better — and then chatting with a lovely German couple across the aisle from me, Eve and Toby. Quite the lovely pair. He is a PhD and she a social worker. Three weeks holiday and we all agreed its never enough time when traveling.
On board is also a group of around 8-10 Korean men. Up and down they don’t sit still for a minute! At first a little annoyance as I’m next to the door and our cross aisle conversation continually interrupted by the men’s pacing from the car to the back area…but then as a little time passes, they start to interact with three young Indian children sitting in the row in front of me. The three share two seats, probably around 9, 6 and 2 years in age. Back and forth they smile, make faces and wave. Much to the kids delight who burst out in giggles at the men’s silly faces.
To see these Korean men and Indian children interact is a nice change of pace from non-stop honking vehicles, spitting and, well, men peeing all over the place (best day I counted around 8 men peeing. In the city). Next the Asian men are asking the parents if it’s OK to take photos of the kids and them with the kids – you can see they genuinely are enjoying this playful interaction that’s crossing generations and races, religions and beliefs.
It just makes me wish that everyone could be like these random train travelers. To not care where someone else is from, what color their skin is, or where they sleep at night. Why can’t it be that way? How often do generations ignore one another? And even more so, different races?
For me this was a great reminder in the equality of all. We are all the same. Woman man or child. And even more so, such a nice sight to witness when just wanting to check out for a bit, but discovering the world in front of me was more kind than I had imagined.
Namaste
you are the little train that could…