A sunset - a recovery

Dear Sam,

It was already 1 o'clock when I arrived Ellora and I was supposed to be back to Aurangabad by 4:30 pm for the bus. So I had about 2 and a half hour for the caves... enough and yet not enough. I actually planned to go to Ellora very early in the morning (this time I did wake up very early). I calculated 60 rs for the return bus ticket, 10 rs entry fee and 10 rs even for a chai. By noon I'd be back to Aurangabad, find a Western Union for the money dear Lulu sent me, have my lunch and head to Gujarat. That would've been a perfect way to manage an almost unmanageable day - a "studentic" way, a Bengali way. Well, I went German instead. I played it "safe" -.-.

I woke up at 7 o'clock just to wait in an internet cafe until 10 for the (apparently) only Western Union in Aurangabad. I had the bad luck of meeting the most incompetent bankers in a most unprofessional site for a bank! I checked out from that Youth Hostel (just fyi: Lonely Planet has even taken them down from the recent edition) as soon as I could. The manager also was not the friendliest person I've met. Or may be he had a bad day/night like me too.

I actually got a bit insecure about the bus fare and the entry fee. May be the bus fare's 40 rs and not 30 rs! How would I come back then? And for the entry fee - foreigners pay 250 rs (though it's 10 rs for Indians). But as a SAARCian I've been paying just as much as the Indians everywhere, every time! I always take a chance. I don't know why I didn't do that today.

Anywho, then I was there at Ellora. I was saved. I had my money. Guess how much the bus fare was! Yes, 30 rs. Guess how much the entry fee was! Yes, 10 rs. You know the feeling when you knew from the very beginning that your plan AT the very beginning would work, but then you chicken out and change your plans just to find out it was not a clever idea to change the plan after all? Exactly! I hate Murphy's law too :-P.

I travelled around 1900 km, spent 35 hours in sleeper and passenger classes and dingy stations, crossed 3 states, halfslept for 3 hours with the fear of the worst nightmare that can happen to a girl ... just to spend 10 hours in Aurangabad and 2.5 hours of it in Ellora! At least if I had followed my initial plan, I could have had twice as much time for the spendiferous caves! And just like the little red cherry on the top of the whipped cream of a Schwarzwald-Kirsch-Torte, I found a Western Union at the private bus station on Adalat road when I came back from Ellora. By the look of that place (very busy and touristy), I bet it would've taken the usual 10 minutes to get the money instead of the 45 minutes I had to waste this morning.

Fail! Epic fail! Maha fail in Maharashstra! But... I had a good time in the caves. In fact, a great time. It was like going back to childhood, exploring every dark corner with the faint hope of seeing a lurking snake. I started at the southest (Buddhist) point from cave 1 and hiked till the last Hindu cave to the north and then cheated by taking an auto-rickshaw to the Jain ones :-P. The Buddhist caves were... well, Buddhist! Beaming with peace - calm and quiet. Only a few people were there (the crowd was mainly at the Kailash Temple, which I kept aside for a perfect conclusion). I even saw a headless preaching Buddha, either in the Do Thal or in the Tin Thal, I think. Did you see that one?

The Hindu caves were architecturally less boring. I mean, they looked like a lot's going on. I think I saw Shiva doing a Tae-Kwon-Do move at his Nataraja form in the Das Avatara cave (the cave with Nandi, his bull). I was positively surprised that no kids were riding on Nandi! They never miss a chance of playing the Rodeo on the first inanimate animal they meet in front of any Hallway. But one simply does not ride on a bull, specially if the name is Nandi :-D.

They closed the narrow passage between the last two Hindu caves (with the waterfall with no water in between) because of a small avalanche or so. I didn't know that. No signs warned me and when one did, it was too late. I was already there and I had no time to go back. All the people from the last Hindu cave helplessly watched me passing the partly fence-less narrow passage, jumping over the very small avalanche-boulders. Terrific. LOL. One small girl even asked me, "Didi, aap ko darr nahi laga"? I said, "Nahi" ;-).

The Jain caves after that were filled up with lots and lots of people...pushing each other as usual. The stairs were so steep and slippery that anything can happen anytime. And it did. A woman with a baby in her arms tripped...just before me (I did NOT push. I do NOT do such things. So stop smirking). Both were fine, when I left. I had no time but I checked. It's my civic duty to check (imagine me pulling up my chin sky high ... :-D)!

The best was, of course, the Kailash Temple! It was fascinating! 100 years of top-down-chiselling of 400,000 tons of rocks to build the world's largest monolithic monument! Ammayyyzing! Once again I was thinking how very little impressed I was when I saw the Taj Mahal for the very first time (the roof top view from the hotel was way better though). I was inside the complex and saw it and thought to myself, "Ah okay! That's the Taj Mahal. Nice. Now what else do we do! Let's make some funny pictures." And for the Kailash Temple, I went inside the complex and saw it and ... looked at it again ... and again and again. I just couldn't stop looking at this marvel! 

And now I'm in the bus heading to Ahmedabad, Little Rann of Kutch. precisely. The AC upper berth is just what I needed after my Backpacker's moral breakdown (you know what I mean). I never knew such buses existed. But still, was it really worth it? This trip? I feel exhausted. Physically. Mentally. And since our last silent telepathic fight, also emotionally. I quit. I'm going back.

That's what I thought until I saw the most beautiful and dangerous scene ever in my life just some moments ago.

We are crossing a very narrow road - definitely not eligible for two-way traffic - around the mountains (with traces of broken fence and car parts). I can see the 5 cm distance between life and death. And I can see the majestic Deccan Plateau with the patchwork valley down there at this heavenly red sunset.

I'm not going back.

<3 - TZ

13.05.13

Self realization kann mich mal

Dear Sam,

No more, no more, no more. Just no more! No more journeys in the sleeper class or worse, passenger class, no more waiting with strangers on a semi-dark platform in a strange city, no more getting unwillingly extremely cozy with Indians in a train, no more feeling cheated by the auto-rickshaw driver for the umpteenth time, no more swallowing the urine-stink every time I breathe, no more ... just no more. No more India! I've had it all! I don't know any more why I'm doing this or what was the reason that changed my mind and I took off for this blistering bullsh** backpacking instead of taking off directly to Munich! Self realization? Adventure? Knowing the unknown?

It's 3 o'clock in the morning and I'm in a very dubious dormitory (it says ladies) with 8 other empty beds (I've taken 2) and I'm just sooo scared! There's an attached bathroom which can be opened from the other side and THAT door can't be closed!

And the really odd caretaker who let me in at 12 o'clock at night (yes 12 o'clock, I usually don't "plan" such late arrivals; thank you Indian Railway), took the money for the night (120 rs) almost forcefully... without giving me any receipt for that. He kept saying, "You take receipt tomorrow from manager" and I kept saying, "You take money tomorrow from me"... but in vain! That creep was sliding alarmingly nearer while sitting beside me explaining how to fill up the check-in form. I had done that loads of time by now -.-, "it" always asks the same usual cowdung. I got really rude to him the moment I felt uncomfortable.

I'm scared, have got only 80 rs in my pocket and haven't eaten anything except the snacks that the Andhra Pradesh family (coming from Shirdi's Sai Baba's) shared with me, my throat is as dry as an unused toilet paper and I'm confused and I'm scared :-(. I'll just go find a Western Union first thing in the morning, collect the money, flash through Ellora, head to Ahmedabad (since the ticket's already on my mobile phone), cancel the 2 idiotically worthless tickets and take the first train back to Chennai.

I'm even dreading the sleeper coach journey later this evening! Harry and his friends were travelling by a sleeper coach when the accident happened. What if I die? What if I never see my family again? What if I never see YOU again?

I'll go read Tom Sawyer if I want Adventure. I'll go finish the whole Wikipedia alphabetically if I want to know the unknown. Self realization kann mich mal. I wanna go home :-(.

<3 - TZ

13.05.13

Ellora bound

Dear Sam,

The Mangala-Lakshadweep Express crawled up north along the Malabar coast the last 24 hours. Right now we are crossing Mumbai and I'm having one last glimpse of the gorgeous Kankan hills and listening to (believe it or not) White Christmas by Bing Crosbi. I again had a crazy idea of getting down at Thivim when I found out we would cross Madgaon, Thivim and Pernem. I really really had an urge to do that because Arambol is only a couple of hours away from Thivim. But luckily, the train crossed Goa in the dark when I was fast asleep without giving me any chance of being spontaneous :-P. So I'm heading to Aurangabad and I'l have to draw the Ellora caves with my paintbrushes. No Ajanta, coz no time!

Before getting into the train, I thought of buying the tickets from Ahmedabad to Amritsar (Kapil already booked the night coach from Aurangabad to Ahmedabad for me). You know how heavily these trains are booked. The thought of a train ticket can cost a great deal of mental peace you know! The guy in the inquiry counter told me there are seats available in tourist quota. First I have to take a sleeper class from Ahmedabad to New Delhi and then AC chair from New Delhi to Amritsar. This was THE best connection given the fact that I'm in a tight schedule and would love to journey by night and travel by day.

So, what do I do? I go to the counter next to the inquiry and ask for the two tickets and pay 1105 rs. Then head cheerfully to platform no. 1. My train leaves in 10 minutes. Made everything in time :-).

I found my lowerberth (SL9) in a very empty S5 compartment; took a look at my two newly bought tickets and ironically enough, I had to appreciate my mottoes "Trust no one" - Fox Mulder and "Constant vigilance" - Mad-eye Moody, once again in my life. There was no seat printed on the tickets. They said RLWL 265 and WL 153. That Raiway bi*** did not give me Foreign Tourist tickets. I paid fudging 1105 rs to be put into the waiting list. I mean WHO on earth would BUY or SELL a ticket with a 265th waiting list??? Now I'l have to pay some extra bucks ONLY AT Ahmedabad to get a confirmed ticket. That Rail way bi*** should be fed to Aragog's sons and daughters -.-. It's been one whole day that I've been trying to cool down. I'm still not over it.

The Indian Railway hast the most number of employees (almost one and a half million) in the whole world. Apparently not so apt with the computerized system and only one of such employee is good enough to rob you off your peace. Just because of these 2 useless tickets, I'm traveling with only 600 rs right now. First thing in Aurangabad: find a Western Union.

This is my 3rd time in sleeper class. The first time was to Goa with Jules in March and the second time was on the 4th towards Kanyakumari. Both journeys were nice and pleasant. But this time, traveling up north by sleeper!!! NEVER do that! Okay, may be once, just for the experience. But it's worse than your worst nightmare -.-. The word "chaotic" is not enough to describe the entropy here; it's just too high! Mothers beating their kids, pulling them by the ear or even hair. Bummers begging desperately as if they were in some sort of competition... who can display his/her misery the best (or the worst?) way. And even the local folks getting into the train are way rude. I witnessed how a nice-well-off looking man uprooted the kid sleeping beside me using really harsh words to the mother and made place for his daughter (or may be wife) and her 2 kids. He even demanded that I show him my ticket. I think he was wishing to get rid of me too. I just said, "Are you the TC?" We, he wasn't traveling. It was just his daughter or may be wife with her 2 kids and that woman is in no way of the pleasant kind either. We neither of the families had any confirm tickets. But you can always pay 200 rs to get a confirmed ticket on board (and you have to be a bit lucky too). Apparently, just from the look of it, the previous family can't afford that and the assholic one can.

Die Leute sind einfach so aufdringlich hier. Ja, die draengen sich in Indien ueberall auf. But in a north bound sleeper? I wouldn't even wish that to my enemy. And you'll just have to live with that pungent stink of Indian pee. Period.

But I'll have to tell you once again. At a certain point, none of these matters any more. Indifferenec. Meh. And then you look around and laugh at the silly things that are quite usual for Indians. Like buying FOUR cups of Chai out of the window at stations when the train is about to leave and the racing of the Cha-walah holding the window bars till he gets paid! India is incredible.

<3 - TZ

12.05.13