Wobble

We’re safely in Jaipur after a long train journey.

For our last day in Mumbai we planned to sample the street food near Chowpatty beach but a torrential downpour crushed our plans. We trudged through the rain for an hour before giving up and taking shelter in a college nearby.

The cabs prices skyrocketed during the rain but eventually we were able to find a cab to take us towards Colaba using the meter. Near our hotel we had a phenomenal lunch of green curry chicken, fried chicken, and butter chicken. The butter chicken didn’t resemble the tame, pale yellow butter chicken served in the US. It was a rich red color and spicy as hell. One of the waiters at the restaurant laughed at my curry covered face before showing me where to rinse off.

Back at the hotel we paid 200 rupees to take a shower before packing our bags and cabbing to the train station. Our train didn’t leave for two hours, and we passed the time playing canesta on the floor in the station. Our game was a spectator sport, and gradually the crowd grew to around twenty people huddled around us observing the card game. A police man came over and angrily told us that card games were not allowed in the floor area of the station. However, there was an air conditioned waiting room we could use to play if we liked. We put away the cards. Although we didn’t check, I got the feeling we would’ve been welcomed into the waiting room while our spectators would not.

Boarding the train was a challenge as our ticket confirmation didn’t show our seat number. We dashed from cart to cart until a guy our age looked up our confirmation number on his phone and directed us to cart S-3, seats 51 & 53. Luckily the cart we were looking for was adjacent to where we were, and we settled into our seats with a couple minutes to spare.

Our section contained 8 beds in total, folded temporarily into three different benches. We scooted in alongside five other guys and settled in for the ride.

Since I arrived I’ve noticed that its commonplace for two male friends to walk down the street hand in hand or arm in arm. However, public displays of affection between men and women are rare. On the train the friends we shared the cart with spent the ride arm in arm, resting their feet across each other’s laps and laughing as they joked. They explained that they had traveled to Mumbai to take a standardized test to compete for government jobs.

Eventually I got the nerve to ask them what it means when Indian people wobble their head. They said the head wobble acts as an affirmative answer, but this video claims its slightly more complicated than that. Everywhere we go we’re greeted with wobbles.

The rain continued from earlier in the day and at 10 pm our train stopped for three hours to wait out the storm. I gave up on my podcast and walked outside the cart where groups of people were playing cards and socializing. Quickly I was identified as the outsider and a group of teenagers approached me. We spoke and laughed about the difficulties of learning another language, and they explained that they were traveling in a group of Jains (people who identify with the religion, Jainism). They described Jainism as a highly scientific religion revolving around values of peace and harmlessness. As part of an annual pilgrimage, a group from Mumbai was traveling near Jaipur to visit a temple of a snake god. The snake god is one of the 24 gods in Jainism, and each god has its respective temple.

At midnight we set up the beds in the cart with chains hanging from the ceiling and laid down to sleep. I was grateful for my ear plugs.

After eating almonds and leftover samosas for breakfast we passed the rest of the journey reading, speaking to our neighbors about India and speaking Tamil, and eventually (and inevitably) taking selfies together. It appears Indian people love selfies.