such a long journey

Day 2 - July 1, 2010

I am in "1st class AC" on a train from New Delhi station to Dehradun, feeling mildly frazzled. Being sort of scared, not wanting to look like a dumb foreigner, but being completely out of place, with a giant Canadian flag on my backpack (reminder to self: remove!), looking lostly/blankly at the very long train, wondering which car to board, and how, with all my luggage.

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Realizing 1st class is at the far end, and there is a list of passenger names taped to each car, I finally find mine. Feeling shaky, I accept a porter's offer of help, and make it to my seat, 41. No sooner do I sit down than a couple asks me to switch places with them so they have more space to put down their luggage, and hands trembling, I migrate. A man delivers a large bottle of water, and now that I'm breathing normally again, I stop to collect my thoughts from the morning.

Hani put me in a taxi at 5:40 am, with a silent driver who brought me to the train station along mostly empty roads. I declined any help from porters, made my way cross 2 passageways with rickshaws and cars hurtling through, and up the steps to the station. Signs clearly indicated platform 15 for the Dehradun Shatabdi train, though I was a tad unclear with my e-ticket if I would have to check in somewhere.

Oh, the throbbing flow of humanity I saw as I waited in a seat by the stairs to the platform. So many beautiful people - I'm particularly awed by the bright coloured saris and those with strikingly light eyes. I had my first encounter with a beggar - an older woman asking for money. She followed me through the crowd to where I sat down by the stairs to get my bearings and kept thrusting her hand toward me, and after many embarrassed and awkward 'no's, she went and came back and I began to feel selfish and rich and so I gave her a mango intsead of money. She kept touching her hand back and forth between my head and hers, almost davening, leaving with hands clasped in prayer position - Namaste. Men came around selling things - paperpaperpaper! paperpaperpaper! (newspaper) - and one carried a giant tea kettle, suggesting chai. I was so tempted, but didn't want to find myself spending money I could have given to the beggar woman, taking out money in such a public place, or having one more thing to hold, for that matter.

Goodness, the second time one does this train ride (hopefully with less luggage) should be so much less nerve-wracking!

I've now shown my ticket to the conductor and have been given a tray with a mug, a little carafe of hot water, 2 packages containing a teabag and a packet of suger in each, a spoon wrapped in a napkin, some biscuits, 2 chocolate candies and some dairy creamer. Oh, and a "Magicool Wet Tissues" pack: perfumed, refreshing wet tissues for all seasons and occasions. Feel Fresh 'n' Fine all the Time. (herbal contents) The only tissues blessed with long and wet life.

Outside the country rushes past me. Half-clad and sleepy men rise from their porches. Grafitti in script, litter and debris, desert-like terrain with the occasional shrub. Painted trucks. Man in nice shirt and pants crawling past in the train station. Yellow top, green bottom three-wheel rickshaws. Veg and non-veg. Cots on the side of the road with sleeping bodies. Tetley chai masala, cardamom chai. Common wealth games construction. Dyed orange hair - men only so far - Henna? Train ride - six hours, 900 rupees, meal included. Toothbrushing on the train platform, many unfinished red brick projects, cows, colours, many bicycles, motorcycles, what look like Tico sodas or Kenyan hotelis, sun outside but grey day. Did I just see a swastika painted on that door? Giant mango trees, tiny gecko disappearing down the shower drain, fine layer of dust over everything.

THIS IS INCREDIBLE!

Monkey sighting! Big, brown, on a rooftop. Mysterious brown mounds taller than a person that look somewhat like termite hills, only clay.

Oh, poverty. How I continually find myself staring you in the face, wondering why you exist, why I happened into a life without you on my back, why the whole world seems powerless (or disintersted) in getting rid of you.

Breakfast: bowl of what looks like cornflakes, packet of white sugar. Now they've come around and poured hot milk in. First thought: ew, soggy. Second thought: delicious, comforting.

This first rice paddy I've seen in real life just whizzed by. Farm country at last! Palm trees? Slightly scalded tongue.

More food. 2 slices of white bread in a plastic package with butter and jam, listing "class II preservatives" among the ingredients. Ketchup 'chatak matak' and 2 veg options. New kind of burning sensation.

Looks ominous outside - rain? Yes, rain.

More tea.

Fruit - banana/mango choice. I hope they stop bringing food now...

It occurs to me that I haven't seen many bugs yet. Only 1 giant ant.

Female peacock running through a field. Round dried/drying cow patties? along the rail track. No smells. I am experiencing a feast for the other sensations, but so far, no smells. Hmmm!

To forget how to dig the earth and tend the soil is to forget ourselves. - Mahatma Gandhi

The most important thing in life is to be at peace with yourself and to share that peace with other living beings. But in order to have peace you should be aware of each of your steps. Your step is your most important act. It decides everything. - Thich Nhat Hanh

--> these quotes are from the front of the Navdanya volunteer manual! Does this tell me I'm in the right place or what?

I've arrived now at Bija Vidyapeeth, Navdanya's biodiversity farm and conservation centre. I'm wiped! It was all I could do to keep my eyes open as we pulled into the station in Dehradun, but I got my bearings, heaved my suitcase down from the luggage rack and got off the train. From there it was a long walk down the platform to where the taxi stand was, and before I could get my bearings, a driver had asked me where I was going and taken my suitcase to his rickshaw. "I want to take a taxi," I said hesitantly. "I take you to Navdanya," he said, heaving the suitcase up onto the seat. "How much?" I asked. "500 rupees." More than half the cost of my train ride, he was definitely taking me on more than one kind of ride, but I was too tired to disagree and so I hopped in. It was thrilling, if I put aside the feeling that it was harrowing and probably dangerous, but ultimately quite a bit of fun! As he darted and swerved, honking loudly at everything in his path, he hummed a sweet melody, and asked me a few questions - From which country do you come? How do you call yourself? - and showed me (in fact, stopped to pick from) fields of green tea.

Some things I felt/saw:

- City of Dehradun is reminiscent of Nairobi’s outskirts

- Many bikes and motorcycles carried whole families on them

- Samosas were being sold on the side of the road

- Lots of shy stares at me as I passed

- I FEEL LIKE I’VE ARRIVED IN INDIA!

Landing at Bija Vidyapeeth’s registration office, I signed myself in and a woman named Sarotta from Banff (doing an MA in social work at U of C) took me immediately to the dining hall, where I caught the end of lunch – a roti, rice and beans (hehe, I am back in Costa Rica!), curried potato, and some fruits that resembled grapes but had a very bitter pit in the centre. I was introduced to various people, and understood from Sarotta that work here is very self-directed and so you need to engage yourself in projects. Excellent set-up for the rest of life, I think. In the meantime, I can pitch in with farm work, in the kitchen, etc. It should be an excellent time for me to write my internship report! Good things: it’s much cooler here than in Delhi. There’s a fan in the dorm room. I’ll probably be moved into a 2 person room when the second intern arrives this weekend. There is a western toilet. People all seem friendly. Boiled water is available outside the dining hall. Chai at 5pm. A bed by a window. Toilet paper! It’s the simple things. I feel like I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be.