Our Train

A.M.S…
India has the widest gauge railway in the world and hence, the carriages are wider. We had a bedroom with two lower berths, which measured about 9 to 10 feet square; the largest railway train bedroom we've ever seen, with a wash-stand in the cabin, but only cold water. The train, specially arranged for us by Thos. Cook's, was a deluxe air-conditioned affair with excellent service.

Each carriage had two showers and a toilet on each end; one for the ladies, the other for the gents. The showers which also only had one faucet, were nevertheless quite satisfactory and most welcome at the end of a hot day. The Dining cars, not air-conditioned, could only be boarded at station stops, so when you went for dinner you stayed there until the next stop.

Bring Your Own Mattress!

A.M.S…
We slept on the train every night from Thursday through Tuesday. Had to get up most mornings around 6am to meet the full schedule laid out for us. About half of our meals were taken on the train, the remainder at pretty good hotels. We, like many others, ate very little food except for rolls, jam and fruit we could peel, like bananas or oranges. Bottled water was supplied by the good ship Caronia.

Incidentally, if any readers of these notes should contemplate a train trip on a sleeper in India, kindly note that you are expected to bring your own linen - sheets, towels, including mattress! In our case, the Caronia supplied all of those.

Railway Platforms - A Place to Sleep

A.M.S…
The train provided a “feel” of India which we are sure could not have been achieved in such a large measure by another way. As we stopped at many stations, there were always people, people and more people. At night, as the train stopped, we'd pull up the blinds and always there were the masses of weary, dirty, unhappy looking characters, sitting, squatting or laying on the concrete platforms.

Sometimes they would get up and squeeze their faces against the glass window to look at, to them I'm sure, the queer looking folk inside the carriage. Now we know how monkeys in the Zoo feel.

Obviously, many of these people were waiting for trains themselves, because they had luggage (if it can be so called) with them, but many we are told simply sleep in railway stations or platforms because they have no other or better place to go.

A Lasting Memory

A.M.S…
We shall never forget one particular little boy, about 6 years old, sitting beside a bent old man, who probably could hardly see or walk - the boy like a seeing-eye dog, guarding and watching over his charge, who may have been his grandfather and for whom all hope in this world seemed gone.

The faithful eager little lad sitting there with obvious love and devotion, near midnight, on the cold concrete, amidst so many other equally poor, weary characters! That scene, burned in our minds, symbolised so much of the tragic hopelessness and the Hindu resignation to fate.

During daylight the next day, we passed many villages, very little cultivated land, much of it like big areas in our West. However, there were always cows and cow dung piled in stacks of round patty cakes: for fuel.

Arrival at Fatehpur sikri

A.M.S…
The second day at about 4pm we came to our first sightseeing spot: “Fatehpur sikri” which by long odds, to me, was the low spot of the trip so far. It is a combination red stone fortress, small city, palace and Temple, built by Emperor Akbar (no doubt one of the truly great men in India's past) about 1570 A.D.

Apparently because of lack of adequate water supply, this central “city” was used less than 15 years by its builder, or anybody else for that matter. So to me it had little significance of India's past and certainly none of its present.