HOW TO SURVIVE PUBLIC TRANSPORT IN INDIA

Inseparable from India, is the experience of public transport. To their credit the rates are incredibly low. For a distance of one and a half hours by train you just pay 0.20 cents. No, that's not a typo. Equally low are the rates for trips with rickshaws or taxis. In the beginning every time someone tried to explain to me how to get to a certain location while using the word rickshaw or taxi I got stomach cramps imagining how much it will cost, since I am used to taxi prices in Germany - which are ridiculously expensive. However relatively quickly I understood that things are different in India. 1 € for the ride from the trainstation to the airport - that´s something easily paid:)

There are two different kinds of rikschaws: a car and a manpower rickshaw (bicycle) which are both quite comfortable. If one does not take the rapid driving style into account which leaves you wonder if the man behind the wheel is suicidal or just doesn´t care about possible consequences of a traffic accident. Likewise one should not be too sensitive when it comes to sounds, because the Indians use their horns. Not just when they are in a hurry or in a bad mood. They do it all the time! In fact India should charge admission fees for entering the streets because they offer you a real horn-concert. It doesn´t make much sense to horn if the driver in front of you can not continue to drive because there are ten others ahead of him that are also waiting to continue their journey - but who cares. Perhaps the horning is also a kind of competition among the drivers to show which one has the most beautiful vehicle. No matter what the reason is they honk and they do it with an enviable stamina.

Just be happy if you get a seat in the rickshaw. Although often very concentrated with at least two others on the back seat. But at least you can sit and observe this fascinating world rushing by.

The situation is different when you are traveling by train. Here your worst nightmares come true. An adventure I honestly could live without, but at the same time it is an adventure, which is simply indispensable. Who has never traveled a distance with a public train in India missed the chance to really get to know this country. Because it is here where India reveals it´s true face. Yes it is true, the German railway is not necessarily the best institution. Very expensive, often too late, and sometimes you will even find dirty cars. But at least you will have so much space that you can SEE the dirt. In India, the train is so full that you barely have any space to breathe and most certainly can not move. Imagine the fullest train you ever took. Close your eyes and feel the compactness, the heat and the unpleasant odor of many people in one place. Multiply that by ten and you have a true Indian-Train-Travel-Experience. So many people do not fit in a car? Well, they do!! I would probably not believe it if I did not see it with my own eyes. In Germany people usually enter the train mannered and as soon someone is pushing a little bit he earns himself a severe look from the front. In India people already jump on the train while it´s still busy entering the station. There are no doors, or they are always open, even while driving. In the three compartments for woman violent crowd arises as soon as the train comes to a stop. This behavior can no longer be called a nudge. It is more a pushing and shoving. Before my first ride with the train someone advised me: „You have to push. Just push and hurry because the train will not wait.“. Ok, I thought, then I'm going to "push". Well, let´s put it that way: Pushing from my part was no longer necessary. I was just pushed into the train by the masses of shrieking women. Hematomas inevitable. Here everyone takes care of number one. In the train I looked around searching if there was a special offer for free designer clothes, since that would be the only explanation for the jostling among this woman, but instead I just saw more women who stood clustered in coexistence.

Hanging from the ceiling where metal handles that swung back and forth with the jerky movements of the train which reminded me very much of a slaughterhouse. A very fitting picture for the pile of people I found here. It had a little bit of a factory farm. Only when the cow leaves the crowded stall she can look forward to a cozy sleep. As a traveler of a train in India, however you can only look forward to the next crowded train experience. But before the next train ride you first have to survive this one which usually means, as in my case, to stand for one and a half hours. Believe me, aching feet after a whole day of shopping, are nothing compared to the anguish that you have when you can not move for one and a half hours. Sorry I have to correct myself you are moving, or better you are moved at any station exactly then when people try to squeeze in and out of the train - in that order, which doesn't make much sense either, but who cares. Whenever a foreigner thinks: "Wow, now this car is really full!" the Indians think: "Challenge accepted." and push twenty more woman into the car. And who doesn´t fit into the car just hangs half out the door. DURING the ride with a TRAIN!! Simply unbelievable!

If you want to leave the train you should better start clearing the way to the exit three stations in advance. Because you can be sure that nobody is gonna wait for you. You either make it or not. But as I said that´s all part of the big adventure.

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