Indian Railways are not only the world’s longest rail network of the world. Despite their lack of cleanliness and general maintenance, they also offer the cheapest and easiest way of transportation, for humans and cattle alike between any two Indian cities.

While planning my trip to the chaotic city of the Taj, I initially decided to take my own car. On after thoughts, since this trip was all about connecting with hotels in Agra and the general theme of travel and tourism, I  decided to travel on Taj Express, Delhi to Agra. Logging onto the Indian Railways website, with the tourist season in full swing and so many of you goras booking your seats like 5 years in advance, I was left with the only option of non-AC chair car.

For probably the first time in my life, I woke up at 5.50 AM on  a Sunday, hurried past my morning rituals (not the religious kinds:)) and took an autorickshaw to Nizamuddin Station. My autowallah was a gawky fellow chewing pan masala and singing Madhuri Dixit songs non stop. I had to virtually kick him to drive fast, I had a train to catch. Atlast, after some requests, some shouting, a lot of cursing and unfulfilled offers of extra tips, I finally arrived, just on time.

The train was right on time. Sitting on the window seat, I was all ready and geared up to brave the slums. If you haven’t traveled on an train from Delhi, you probably don’t know what I’m talking about. Delhi, like any big metropolitan in a developing world, is surrounded by kilometers of slums on its outskirts. In India, they particularly develop close to the railway tracks,  largely due to availability of free water, uninterrupted and absolutely free electricity supply courtesy stealing from Indian Railways and a close place to pee and shit without the requirement to clean afterward.

You are treated to the visual gushes of these little slum-villages as soon as the train leaves the station. Then there are intermittent garbage dumps the size of city blocks that open  your nose and send wafts of decaying matter  up it despite you clinching it shut as hard as you can. At 7ish in the morning, everybody is getting ready for the day. Most of them are shitting on the adjacent track as your train passes  and sends a  whirlwind down their open shirts . You can see bare bottoms hovering over mounds of digested onions, salt and chappatis. You look at their faces zooming across your window and immediate realize, it is not their fault, it is their majboori, they are shackled by poverty. In 15 minutes, you see why India is still a developing country.

The train ride wasn’t uneventful. To the brave-hearted traveler,

I would suggest traveling non-AC to see how Indian people actually behave, eat, drink, sleep, squat, talk, fight, shout, network, sing, squeal, cry, beat their children, ask for advice on their engagement menu, give unsolicited advice on weight loss, sell tea, drink tea, gargle with tea and the like. This wouldn’t be a very comfortable experience, but an eye opener for sure. You will have to hold onto your seat because there are people traveling without reservation ready to grab any inch of sitting space on offer. You will have to say no to aisle vendors selling spidermans, paper soaps, pens, pencils, nail cutters and other parenphillia (all priced at Rs.10) at least ten times every hour. You will hate the sound of words like ‘tea’, ‘coffee’, ‘veg cutlet’ and ‘bread-omlette’ because it will be shouted in your ear every five minutes throughout your journey. But you will have an unforgettable experience.