Asia 2006: Random Bozo goes to Tamil Nadu via Karnataka

Prologue

All this week the following lyrics from Amused to Death had been rattling through my head. Perhaps I should have realised this was an omen.

PERFECT SENSE
And the Germans killed the Jews
And the Jews killed the Arabs
And the Arabs killed the hostages
And that is the news
And is it any wonder
That the monkey's confused
He said Mama Mama
The President's a fool
Why do I have to keep reading
These technical manuals
And the joint chiefs of staff
And the brokers on Wall Street said
Don't make us laugh
You're a smart kid
Time is linear
Memory's a stranger
History's for fools
Man is a tool in the hands
Of the great God Almighty
And they gave him command
Of a nuclear submarine
And sent him back in search of
The Garden of Eden

Can't you see
It all makes perfect sense?

Original diary entry

I can't remember much about this journey. I know we (I, Laxmi, Rajesh, Suriya, Bobby, Goutami and Dhanush) took trains from Margao to Mangalore (i.e. south along the west coast of India from Goa to southern Karnataka) and thence to Salem in Tamil Nadu. The first train officially departed Margao at 1.35pm. (In reality, it was an hour late, leading me to worry that we'd not make our connection.) Just before we left, Bobby announced that she and her children would leave the second train at Coimbatore in west Tamil Nadu: Ravi had changed job, which necessitated them moving house, so she had to attend to that and would probably miss the wedding. I was quite saddened by this - I'd been utterly smitten by Dhanush and Gautami.

Suriya and Bobby had spent a lot of time making food for the journey: lemon rice, chapattis and mango chutney, all of which were delicious. Reserved seats in the AC (air-conditioned) coach were wonderful - no overcrowding, no insane fights to get through the doors, space for luggage, fold-down tables, the works!

We made our connection at Mangalore in plenty of time and I was introduced to the delights of three-tier sleepers. The carriages are divided into booths (not compartments: there are no doors). In each booth, the seats (which are perpendicular to the carriage sides) double as bottom bunks. The seat-backs swing up to become the second tiers and the third tiers are at about head-hight. Across the aisle from the ends of the three tiers, parallel to the carriage sides and perpendicular to the three-tier bunks, are two more bunks: one at seat height and one at head-height. There's no luggage racks but there are chains under the lowest bunks to which you can lock your bags. The bunks have some padding and are covered in vinyl - just what you need in this climate!(It turned out we had the least expensive, non-AC, berths. AC3 and AC2 have the same basic layout but have air conditioning and AC2 only has 2 layers of bunks, so more head-room.)

I don't know how we wangled getting a complete booth to ourselves: the numbers on the beds didn't quite tally with the numbers on our ticket. Bobby and Dhanush* were on a bottom bunk, with Gautami above them and Rajesh on the top bunk. Suriya was on the bottom bunk across the booth from Bobby and Dhanush, Laxmi was above her and I had the top bunk. There's absolutely no privacy: not even curtains separate the bunks in a booth from each other and there's only a wire mesh divider between booths at top-bunk level. Indian Rail doesn't provide bedding** so most folk slept in their clothes. I had a sheet sleeping bag so I crawled into it, changed into lycra shorts and bedded down: I think I even got 5 hours' sleep.
*under-5s don't need tickets and so don't get have their own seats or bunks
**Well, it may do in AC2 class sleepers.

One high spot of the journey was eating banana bhajis (slices of banana coated in gram-flour batter, then lightly fried) bought from a vendor at one of the stations. The bananas here are short, thick and not as sweet as 'UK' bananas but very filling. By the way, a banana tree isn't a tree at all, it's an annual grass. So don't tell them your guilty secrets.