Train to Haridwar

(Lauren)

We spent our last night in Bodh Gaya with Siddhartha and the orphans. Siddhartha played the sitar and gave Steve a set of Tablas and a kirtan (ritual chanting with call and response) ensued. It was a perfect evening. The stars were huge and the kids were singing as if their lives depended on it. So loud and full of passion. We shared dinner and promised to return to visit them when we are able (I imagine it will be a few years).

Ahhh, woke up the following morning at 3:30am to get to Gaya for our train to Haridwar. Our train was late, surprise surprise, and we sat at the Gaya train station between 4:30 and 6:30 am. To describe Gaya would be to describe my vision of purgatory filled with voyeurs. Not pleasant in anyway, except actually for the amazing chai I had from a random chai wallah.

Our 26-hour ride began. We first met a group of students attending Benares Hindu University. They really wanted to get to know us and crowded up in our compartment. I was still sleepy from getting up so early so was not into it, but Steve made a good friend in one of the guys. After they got off in Varanasi, we had much more room to spread out and rest. Eventually a kid came on who spent the first hour just staring at us and smiling shyly when we turned to look at him. He started asking us questions and turned out to be quite a smart little guy and apparently quite wealthy too. I discussed the poverty in India with him and was amazed that he didn’t seem affected by it at all. I realized to grow up in India surrounded by such widespread poverty one needs to form this kind of attitude to deal with the harsh surroundings. It does seem somewhat strange though when you have so much and everyone else has so little.

Steve is very restless at this point, we slept as best we could, and then woke up to the last leg of the trip. Of course the train was late which meant several more hours on it. We were bouncing with joy when we finally arrived in Haridwar, immediately hired a taxi to take us to Rishikesh. We were both stunned at how lovely Haridwar was. It looks like Varanasi, only clean and the Ganges here is emerald! There was an amazingly large Shiva statue that we passed leaving town.