Our train journey to Jabalpur from Bhopal was an adventure of six hours. The train was going to arrive at 11:30 pm from Indore and stop for only TWO minutes. I was sort of worried about getting on in just two minutes. OUr friends Shalabh and Kumud braved the cold weather and stayed with us till the train arrived and departed. It came a little late but the problem was that it had many Cabooses ( not sure if it is the right spelling, but i hope you know what i am talking about) and it was not clear where our reserved caboose ( ist class ac) will show up. We paced back and forth and fortunately Shalabh and Kumud figured out the exact location and we were able to board in less then two minutes. The First Class AC , I was told by many people was supposed to be really nice...so i was expecting something of a real nice compartment with sleeping area and service and nice toilet. Honestly it was a disappointment. It was clean and there were two berths for sleeping with clean sheets and pillows but was not something to right home about and definitely not the bathroom. ( may be this was just on older train) . In any case , it was middle of the night , so we were able to fall sleep quickly. I loved the sounds of the train and the rattle and shake and the click and clack over the bridge and so on. I love the train journey and i was looking forward to it , it is just that i was imagining something nicer.
In any case , the real problem was that there was no one to tell us when our station was coming, there were no announcements and no signs on the platforms that we could see at 5 am in the morning in the dark and fog. We were worried enough and were disturbing the fellow cabin mates ( there four four in this tiny space) that finally both of them said, " Auntie do not worry we will tell you when your station comes...:) Question was what if they do not wake up??? Well we managed and made it to Jabalpur in one piece.
One more helpful hint about India is : Looking old is a big benefit. Auntieji gets lots of help generally. Shalabh's servant asked me , Auntiji where were you born? I was surprised and said in India of course. He said but your hair is white like the foreigners :) I told him that is because all other Auntiji's dye their hair and I do not :)
Something about Jabalpur : Bhopal was nicer than Indore and Jablapur is nicer than Bhopal. We were told , " there is nothing in Jablapur, it is like a village". I think , I like the village better than the city. There are bicycles and bicycle Rickshaws in Jabalpur and many streets that have very little or no traffic at all. Jagdish's friend came over and gave us a private guided tour of the city before the marriage party arrived from Indore ( they drove all night, got lost and so on..) Jabalpur is home of MPEB ( like PG and E) and also an army cantonment. This means there are many open areas with homes and bunglows built in the times when there were less people and more land and it managed to stay that way. It is in the foothills of Satpura mountain range so has interesting rocks and boulders scattered around. It is also the home of famous Bhera Ghat and other natural beauties formed by the hold river Narmada flowing through the mountain ranges.
More about the wedding now: It is an arranged marriage but our Neelima ( Jagdish's brother's daughter) is marrying a south Indian person. The bottom line is that both sides are Brahmins and the boy and girl's horoscopes matched, language or the food or other stuff does not matter much. It turns out the boy's family is really nice and south Indians have much simpler marriage rituals. There are differences but basically follow the same vedic rituals chanted more in Sanskrit than in Hindi.
Today, was the pre wedding day. There was Pooja as well as the Barat. The boys side came with fireworks, bands , and lot of lights and dancing. There were almost 500 people and dinner was served for all of them. Peelima had ot change her outfit three times in four hours. First for the Barat receiving and vermala then for the Pooja and then again into the sari her in laws brought.
The real wedding is tomorrow at 5:30am. I should try to sleep a little and send this next day.
So, here it is ...i wrote it yesterday but mailing it now before i write the todays blog. ..Good night, saroj
No comments:
Post a Comment