Traveled to Tiruppur and back. One of India's fastest growing cities. If they'd only fix the roads before it became a nightmare like Bangalore.
Caught the early morning train. Instead of a chair car that could accommodate 75 people or so, there was a three tier sleeper that could fit 65. Needless to say there were a bunch of unhappy people. One man asked in a very frustrated tone, "Is there a way I can get back to Railway and screw someone's happiness?" I thought the tall TTC, aided by some cancellations did as best a job as he could.
Two Americans were traveling in the next bay. From my side berth vantage point, I could see a man, from kerala, talking to them. They were munching a lot of goodies and were constantly giving him whatever they were eating. Pringles, chocolates, some kind of nuts. 'Smell it', one American insisted. They were getting quite chummy, smiling, laughing, learning tamil words and of course eating.
After about a couple of hours, out came the huge book - The holy Bible. I couldn't quite hear what was being said, but could easily make out what the pitch was. The Keralite got very unhappy and tensed, I could see from his face.
The American was turning pages pointing to verses from Mathew and Luke and the Indian was answering in very animated gestures. "I am M.Sc Physics", "Do you know who Krishna is?", "I am not afraid of being in Misery" were words that floated towards me escaping the drowning train noise. After a while the conversation ceased with both parties retreating back further into their seats. The American's smile was gone. Neither of them met my eyes after that. [They were smiling at me before]
What I was curious about was were the snacks part of the script or natural Christian charity?
An interesting footnote is the other American started talking to another Indian in the same coach couple of bays away within a few minutes.
Caught the early morning train. Instead of a chair car that could accommodate 75 people or so, there was a three tier sleeper that could fit 65. Needless to say there were a bunch of unhappy people. One man asked in a very frustrated tone, "Is there a way I can get back to Railway and screw someone's happiness?" I thought the tall TTC, aided by some cancellations did as best a job as he could.
Two Americans were traveling in the next bay. From my side berth vantage point, I could see a man, from kerala, talking to them. They were munching a lot of goodies and were constantly giving him whatever they were eating. Pringles, chocolates, some kind of nuts. 'Smell it', one American insisted. They were getting quite chummy, smiling, laughing, learning tamil words and of course eating.
After about a couple of hours, out came the huge book - The holy Bible. I couldn't quite hear what was being said, but could easily make out what the pitch was. The Keralite got very unhappy and tensed, I could see from his face.
The American was turning pages pointing to verses from Mathew and Luke and the Indian was answering in very animated gestures. "I am M.Sc Physics", "Do you know who Krishna is?", "I am not afraid of being in Misery" were words that floated towards me escaping the drowning train noise. After a while the conversation ceased with both parties retreating back further into their seats. The American's smile was gone. Neither of them met my eyes after that. [They were smiling at me before]
What I was curious about was were the snacks part of the script or natural Christian charity?
An interesting footnote is the other American started talking to another Indian in the same coach couple of bays away within a few minutes.
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