When the train is taking you…

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Travelling by train in India is like smoking or drinking alcohol. First you hate it. But there is something unexplainable that makes you taste it again. Finally you like it and you eventually become addict. This is obviously a general trend and I recognize that I identify myself in this tendency.

My first Indian journeys were absolutely horrible. They were so long. The longest I did was 28h, just before I moved on to a night in a bus and a day waiting for the train: a 50h trip in total to get from Hampi to Calcutta… And the conditions are the most exhausting, trains are dirty and crowed. Everytime I ended up so devastated that I needed one day or two to recover. I had to get psychologically prepared one week in advance when I knew I had to travel again.

During the lasts weeks of the trip, it was strangely the complete opposite. Somehow something had changed  and I was just looking forward the next train adventure. I cannot really explain why. In the end, human beings are probably able to get used easily to new environments and situations, the body gets more and more resistant, etc. Maybe this is also because you learn little by little all the tricks to make your journey more comfortable. For example, you always book a upper seat so you can sleep whenever you want or you divide your journey in various stops even though it makes loosing time and you are probably not interested to stop in the cities on the way.

You automatically end up talking with people because they will naturally come to speak to you. This was probably the trigger factor of my addiction. I met wonderful people in trains and thanks to them I had very good times in these never ending journeys. Nothing special to point out, what I liked was just the human exchange. Listening them talking about the Indian culture, sharing food or just observe what they were doing to spend the time (singing, playing and even praying!!)… This was the real magy of the train, what makes you love it.

Then I came back to France and I took a train. It was quiet, clean, fast but… something was missing. In a 2 hour trip I was more bored than in a 15h one in India. I fed back on these Indian moments and I realized how incredible and unique was the experience. I actually miss it.

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I was listening to Thom Yorke when I wrote this.