We came through the dark archway into the dazzling light, intense heat and spectacular view of the Taj Mahal. Spectacular is such an inadequate word, we should pen a new one. Twenty five people diverse in almost every way but united in our response to the sight. Many of us had spent the previous evening walking through the crowded alley like streets of old Delhi on our way to Karim’s a kebab restaurant in this primarily vegetarian country. We had not yet lost Josh, gotten on the wrong train, had our guide threatened by police, been felled one by one by the stomach warriors of India or fallen in love with the women and especially children of the villages, but we were already fascinated and ready to begin our tour of two countries with our fearless leaders Professor Kevin Kolben and Harsh Dutia. We thank them for sharing this country with us and leading us on this journey to which they dedicated their time and their hearts. - Professor Judy Iskovitz (2010 Course)

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Train Ride – Back from Agra to Delhi

So talk about corruption, this was definitely an enlightening experience to see corruption first hand in our face. We were on our way back to Delhi after our visit to Agra, where we got to see the beautiful Taj Mahal. Our tour guide, lead us every where so we were dependent on him to lead us into the right direction, and also on to the right train. But I guess we were expecting too much, as we landed up on the wrong train.

The train was jam packed, and there were literally no seats (more like very few seats). We started looking for our seats and I was shocked to see that people were in our seats. We actually did not even have the tickets in our hand, and we looked back and we said our tour guide has the tickets. The conductor came and was not pleased to see twenty five people standing in the path between seats. The people serving dinner in the train were looking at us and seemed pissed since we were blocking the way. The police on the train were asking us where the tour guide was as they needed to talk to him.

There were four police officers and they looked at our tour guide and were trying to intimidate him. They pushed him around a little and then asked the tour guide for eight hundred dollars and if he did not give them the money they would arrest him and throw him in Jail. The tour guide was pretty scared; I think he was ready to pee in his pants. He said he did not have that kind of money. This was corruption we were seeing first hand!

A lot of the students actually found seats but me, Urvi, Amrita, Shiryl, Jacob, Darlene and Justin stood and watched as all this went on. It was an interesting experience to watch the tour guide get shake down for money; he was in jeopardy of both loosing his job and loosing money. Of course, he was in jeopardy of loosing his job because he took us on the wrong train. But the story does not end here; he finally negotiated the shake down price to a hundred dollars. I guess they were satisfied and let him go, I believe he called his parents and his parents knew someone who could help him get out of this sticky situation and that is how he actually negotiated the price down. A couple of us talked to him for a bit and he told us he was scared out of his mind. He was definitely scared that he would loose his job. We felt bad for him, he made an honest mistake. The names of the train number’s were pretty close I think our train was 11, and the train we took was 11A (Or something to that affect).

Anyway that was our train story, were me and a couple of people stood on the train for three and half hours and observed corruption in action so when you get on the wrong train in India be careful and carry at least a hundred dollars just incase you get on the wrong train.
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