On Friday, I went to the front desk of my hotel to complain that the remote control wasn't working. A man tried to fix it on the spot, but had to take it to work on it some more. A few hours later a little guy bust through my door carrying a TV. He replaced the original TV with the new one and handed me the same remote. I guess in that hotel when the remote doesn't work, they switch TVs instead.
My train to Margao, Goa was scheduled for 12:10pm according to my ticket that I bought 10 days ago. I checked online, 12:10pm. I got to the station, they told me 2:40pm. Then it took 7 hours instead of 6. Not a big deal, but all day I had only munched on snacks until I arrived here in Margao and had dinner.
Before the train ride, in the waiting room, there were tons of cute little children. It made me wish I had a child. Then one very small kid threw up some milk chunks. That's it for having kids for a while. A British girl also saw the kid throwing up and we laughed about it. I saw her and her friends again when we boarded the train. They were going to sit near me, but it turned out their tickets were for a sleeper car (I travel in style). So the girl and I said bye to each other for the second time. Later the ticket guy came up to me and asked if I had friends that I wanted to sit with a couple of cars over. "No." Like all Great men, I prefer comfort and crushing loneliness to companionship. Just kidding.
The train ride brought a cast of characters. There was Steve an old Indian guy from Goa. His ticket had been canceled and in the mad dash to get another one, someone stole his two bags which had 8,000 rupees worth of clothes for him and his relatives. Even so, he was only guaranteed a seat half way. I asked him about the recent local election in Goa. He was very upset at the corruption taking place in the government, both in local governments and in the national government. He traced it's origins back to a few bad apples in the wake of independence. That initial corruption was never checked and it has continued to snowball. He also blamed the leaders at the top for knowing what was going on and not having the courage to stop the corruption.
Steve was quite the bitter man. But I cheered him up after he told me the story of his recent plight. He said, "I must have done something really bad to deserve this." I replied, "Maybe you're in store for something really good in the future." That seemed to make his day. Steve left and the next guy I talked to is working on a tsunami warning system. We talked about politics as well. We agreed on Bush's brash foreign policy and how it has hurt America's perception around the world. We talked about the Kashmir situation. I think he wants it divided 60% for India and 40% for Pakistan and different from the current LOC. He said that even that would force Pakistan to change their budget and would be a real headache for them. I think it's a "headache" they're willing to deal with. I asked him about the Kashmiris who want independence. This seemed to be news to him and he gave some rather unconvincing excuse, for a man of his intellect, for why that wasn't a reasonable option. Then he left.
Next was a couple of families (the area became crowded). One couple was Malayali and had a 2 year old girl who took a little time to warm up to me, but eventually did. We had a lot of fun and like most females I meet, she slapped me in the face. The other couple had a little baby, who kept smiling every time she looked at me. We played too. The father of the Malayali girl was particularly nice.
When I got Margao, I tried to find a way over the train tracks. I accidently stepped on something and heard a squeek and the air being let out of something. I thought it was a water bottle. I looked down and it was a giant rat! Welcome to Goa.
India's been nice, but I'm looking forward to heading back to the good ole USA and seeing my favorite people of all... short Jews.
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