1st March - Pakoras for Breakfast

We have a train to catch just before 10 a.m. today so no pre dawn start today. Good job too as it is raining when we look out at the world. Most of the packing got done last night so we can take it easy this morning.  Breakfast is crispy fried mixed veg pakoras. D is told not to expect these first thing in the morning at home. Our liking for Mrs R's chai is not forgotten as one last cup is served up. Ramesh has ordered an auto to take us to the station.  When it arrives it is probably the smartest auto that we have ever seen, with pristine seat covers and not a dent or scratch to be seen. Before we depart the driver is pressed into service as a photographer. We thank Ramesh, his wife and their daughter,  who has done her share of looking after us during our stay. D promises to send some of the best bird photos and then it is time to go. 

By now the sun has come out but it is not yet so hot that we need the shade. By chance we park ourselves by the signal box, which D is now entitled to take a professional interest. The box is just a room on the platform with only five levers, surprising for quite a busy terminus station.  There is no sign of a signalman so D stays outside the open door.  We do some minor birdwatching from the platform as the train is shunted from the sidings into the platform. We are first onto our coach and quickly stow our bags on the overhead rack. We are travelling AC Chair class, not greatly dissimilar to Standard Class on a British train, but with 3+2 seating. This is not as bad as it sounds as Indian coaches are wider than ours. Our seats are a two, near the centre of the coach, and facing the direction of travel. The window is just about passable with a yellowish tint.

D gets off for photos and supplies. Chai vendors are in short supply but biscuits and water are procured as well as some photos of the loco. When D gets back to the coach it is filling up. A chap who had one of the berths in our bay on the way to Ramnagar is seated along the coach and asks R if we saw a tiger. A lot of people have serious luggage and the racks soon fill. When we depart, about 10 minutes behind time, the coach is at least 80% occupied.  While we have no real complaints about the accommodation in AC Chair, some of the other passengers are a different matter. A significant number are inconsiderate,  noisy and even downright rude at times. People in so called lower class trains are usually much nicer. In this instance the mood is not helped by a howling small boy in a seat nearby. His parents appear incapable of finding the volume switch. There is no doubt that a vote amongst the other passengers would have resulted in a victory for Scexit ( Small child exit) who campaigned for tossing the little so and so out of the nearest door. 

At the first stop the coach fills up and still more people get in. A man starts to take our luggage off the rack to make room for his until we protest vociferously.  R is hit on the head twice by other people's bags. It does not help that many people ignore the seat numbers shown by the doors and get on at the wrong end of the coach for their seats. The result is lots of pushing,  jostling and bad tempered exchanges. When the train moves off there are still people standing. This looks like a serious case of Social Evil and we are not even in UP* yet. The TTE manages to instill some sort of order, finding seats for most while some are banished to the Unreserved Coach behind, the padlocked roller shutter being opened just for this before being locked shut again.

Our second stop is at Moradabad, a major junction with connections to many parts of the country. We are almost back on time but have a 40 minute scheduled stop here as our train is combined with one from Kathgodam for the onward run to Delhi. D searches the platform for chai but can only find the small, sweet bananas that we both like. The vendor asks for Rs 25 and then gives D 12 change out of thirty. Our part of the train is then dragged backwards out of platform three before being propelled into P4 behind the Kathgodam section. During this manoeuvre we pass a coach marked as being "For Oscillation Trials". R wants to know if this is used to work out where to serve the onboard soup.

The approach to Delhi seems interminable, with slow running and unexplained halts. We sit on the Yamuna Bridge outside Old Delhi station for an age before finally pulling in to the platform. We fight our way through the crowds looking for the prepaid taxi stand that is promised on the Delhi Police website. A real, rather than virtual,  policeman tells us prepaid autos only, no taxis. There appears to be a rolling maul at the prepaid and the touts circle. The taxi wants 400, the auto guy 300. We get him down to 250 which turns out to be a decent price when the entertainment supplied is taken into account. We first get a demonstration of how the smart auto pilot deals with missing the right turn filter at the traffic lights. He turns hard left, head on into the waiting traffic, before doing a U turn ready to proceed, thus cutting the wait time by 50%. 

The traffic lights in Delhi cycle round incredibly slowly, causing big delays and prompting the development of a whole economic sector of traffic light queue vendors. At one set of lights we are offered bedspreads, hand towels, tea towels and coconut slices. We also get avoided by a Hijra collecting. At the next lights there are jigsaw puzzles, feather dusters, plastic guitars and a chap selling kiddies magic motion books. He starts by offering one for 100 rupees. By the time he gets to 5 for 100 we are all in stitches laughing - the vendor, the driver and both of us. We don't want one. What would we do with five! The lights change before the deal gets too good for D to refuse.

At Lutyens Bungalow we are wecomed as usual. Our room has a  newly refurbished bathroom and a sunny aspect. We take tea on the terrace and watch the parakeets,  as well as a pair of red naped ibis that appear to be residents in the garden. On top of one of the big trees are a pair of Yellow Footed Green Pigeons. Shukla Nath our host comes out to greet us and we chat for a while before retiring to wash away the grime from the train trip. We have opted to eat in tonight so after a beer we join the crowd at the communal table. Two English ladies, travelling separately,  a Dutchman and a French couple, visiting India for the first time, along with us. A few more beers flow and it is a convivial meal. Most people are leaving early tomorrow so the party breaks up but we are in no hurry. We hope to meet a friend from our very first trip to India tonight.  He is checking in late and leaving early but we owe him a beer as he recommended Lutyens Bungalow to us.

UP = Uttar Pradesh state in Northern India, considered by some to be one of the less law abiding parts of India.