6/2 Part 1: 4 Rats, 3 Police Escorts, 2 Little Rabbits, and 1 Fake Policeman

The 6th was our day for moving from Delhi to Jaipur. The trip was by train – the Shatabdi Express, leaving New Delhi station at 6am. Due to various factors this required us rising before 4am, with the train trip expected to take nearly 5 hours.

New Delhi train station at 5am in the morning is a dark and unsavoury place. We were dropped out front in the dirt carpark by our taxi. Despite being 5am there are a lot of people about, some of them of very dubious character. People insist on carrying your bags, which train are you catching, come with me - I know the way. There is no signage visible (i.e., what platform does my train leave from), and no visible authority figures or employees. Further, there are several entrances which lead to different tracks or part of the station. So we had several false starts.

Entering one part of the station, I had one fellow demand that I show him my ticket. When I asked for an explanation he said he was the police. When I asked for proof he continued to attempt to bluff and demand to see the ticket. No way. Eventually we found a ticket counter and upon asking discovered which track, and hence which entrance to use.

Getting to the platform there was still adventure in store for us. Immediately at the bottom of the stairs we found 4 gentlemen – two with weapons (full length double barrel shotguns seem to be favoured here by guards) and two chained together by manacles at the wrist by a 2-3 metre length chain. A moment’s thought showed that it was a criminal being escorted/extradited by three cops. Hmmm, lets move along the platform a bit more…

Eventually we worked out where our carriage would be on the platform and moved to there. That’s when we met our 4 rats – 2 of human kind and 2 of the furry kind. I noticed one, then a second, young boy (maybe 10-12), somewhat scruffy of appearance, hovering off/behind my right-hand shoulder about 5 metres away. I experimented a bit (turned towards, and away from them; moved away a bit), and it was clear they were focussed on us. At this time we also met the furry rats – one big rat scuttled up a stanchion nearby; then another rat ran across in front of me and into the lee of my bag sitting right in front of me. The 2 pickpockets realised we were “wise” to them – one came over and spoke to me [in Hindi] for about 30 seconds…maybe a last attempt to distract me? – before they wandered off behind us.

We were very glad when the train finally pulled in (though paranoid that we would be pickpocketed or something{what…I don’t really know}) in the bustle to get on. Still, there were no problems and with about 5 minutes’ work we were installed with our luggage firmly padlocked to the racks above our head.

Maria’s summary of the train is quite apt. The Shatabdi Express is one of the top trains on the India rail system – air condition seat coaches and fast…thank goodness we didn’t encounter a 3rd class crappy train! The interior was quite drab and dirty, and the ride turned out to be much longer (and eventually hotter) than expected. On the other hand we were served a hot breakfast (choice of veg, non-veg), a choice of the day’s papers [All this for the price of under 1,000 rupees for the pair of us].