Ahmedabad Trip - Day 1
This is a multi-part post about our trip to Ahmedabad for Reena's marriage. It all started out by about 8:30 in the morning when we all (me, Arul Mozhi and Sathya) reached Chennai Central. We decided to have a light (light, that was a big mistake) breakfast at Saravana Bhavan. After that we got into the train (Navajeevan Express) and it started off towards Ahmedabad. We got a second class ticket and that was another mistake.
Everything went on well till it came for lunch time. We ordered lunch from the pantry and were seeing what the others were doing. Surprising not many people ordered lunch. Everyone had their own lunch. There was an old couple in out bay who took out the vessel to have the lunch. On seeing that, I said "Woah, the train will reach in 2 days right? I suddenly have a feeling that it would take a week".
The day was pretty eventless except for the really bad food, beggars and eunuchs. There are two incidents which I would like to tell here.
When you see an eunuch, you shouldn't see a eunuch. Just ignore them as if they are invisible and almost 80% of the time they don't disturb you. That is what most of the people in the train were doing. But Sathya instead sat up from the seat (side upper) and suddenly was giving attention to them. This made them to ask for Rs.10. That idiot didn't have any money with him and asked me to give. I had to give the money, all because of this Sathya. But he reasons out that if not given the money, they would insult your very badly. I do agree with it, but its better to look at it as a SEP (Someone Else's Problem).
Beggars: India is full of them and they have interesting ways to ask for alms. One common type you can see in trains are small girls having a ring - which they use it to go into and out of. They bend their body so much that most people would give money. There was a girl like that and here is what happened. She came near our bay and was doing this thing with the iron ring. Sathya was seeing this (as usual side upper) and was asked by the girl for money. He asked me to give some money to her (as he doesn't like to give money to beggers) and I said that I too don't like to. That girl was standing near him for a minute or so and then went off to the next compartment. But Sathya wasn't satisfied and asked me whether the Biriyani guy from the pantry was here. I said that I didn't know and asked why? He said that he wanted to give that girl something to send her off. He atlast made me get a packet of biriyani and had it for the girl to come. After some 20 minutes she came by (just to get off the train) and he stops her and gives her that packet.
After that I asked him, what the hell is wrong with him? He said that he was very disturbed by the girl doing such things that he wanted to do something to get her off that place and since he doesn't like to give money he got her some food. I said "Whatever you did was uncalled for. As the girl wanted only money. Even if he gives her something to eat, she is is going to go and beg. It doesn't change her. It is the same as giving her money. The end result is 'you make people lazy'. Giving money won't solve anything".
Actually the same thing happened a few hours back (he got three samosas for a begging family) but I didnt make any comment on it. But this one was the last straw. He needs to learn when to help others and how.
When the dinner came in, I found out that the biriyani was awful and had to share Arul's meals. She was really considerate enough for me to finish my part before she could have the curd. The day ended with me having to give my berth to a pregnant lady (who got a upper berth) and I had to sleep early (10PM is early for me).
One fun thing that we did was, get some 7'up My Cans and drink it up and squeeze it up and crush it so that the height gets reduced to almost 1/3. Arul was very sad to see such a tall can being converted to something like her.
