Traveling to Varanasi

Tuesday,  May 24, 2011

Sitting in a train station in Tundla.  Ben, sitting next to me has just exclaimed, "I feel sweat dripping down my legs...". We are in the Upper Class waiting  room having arrived at 4:00 pm  for a train we were told would arrive at 5:30.  We were brought to the waiting room after thirty minutes on the platform and the assistance of several 'Porters' with minimal English deciphered we had arrived far too early.

"How do they do it?" Ben has now exclaimed rhetorically, referring again to the truly impressive heat. As we wallow, red-faced and sweaty,  Indians perch serenely around us.  In the middle of the room, a woman of middle age draped in a brilliant blue sari is perched on a backless stool. Her warm greeting ushered us into this space,  " I am the boss"  she proudly declared, with a twinkle in her eye.  She is the first fluent English speaker we have met since arriving at the station.  She confidently assures us that our train does indeed arrive at eight.  A mere four hours to wait here with the heat and flies and patient fellow travelers sitting mutely in metal chairs which ring this 20' by 40' room.

"I feel like my butt is literally cooking"  Ben mutters.
David wagers it  is well  past one hundred outside. So this space is judged to be in the balmy nineties.

We arrived in Tundla after an hour van ride from Agra, our location for the past twenty - four hours.  In Agra we basked in India's most famous site . . the Taj Mahal.  It is a marvelous thing to arrive at a site so excessively praised, and have it exceed your expectations.  No more I can say about that...

"I think I would kill a cow in the middle of Delhi in order to take my shirt off in here " David wistfully states, having joined Ben's  heat induced conversation.

A young boy scoots  into  the waiting  room through the screen door and bee lines to us with an outstretched hand. Boss jumps up with her arm raised to give him a swat, and he scoots back out.   The constant attention of beggers is one of India's most daunting realities.  We have struggled with the appropriate response.  Mostly we train our eyes to stay steely and straight ahead. Jonathan,however, is the worst at this.  Jonathan is Dr. Jonathan Kramer, an NCSU music department faculty member and world music specialist.  Jonathan's multiple prior trips to India, his tremendous knowledge, and infectious enthusiasm and generosity of spirit made him the perfect person to bring on this trip.  It is that final quality that makes ignoring the beggars, particularly the children, an impossibility for Jonathan.  Consequently, they swarm about him like small flies.

 "Hell is  surely a lot hotter," someone jests, and Bassil hangs his head contritely,  "then it  is time for me to start living a more righteous life."

The wit, adaptability and smart  irony of this group of travelers is what makes them the perfect company for traveling.  That, and the fact that they are serious about the business of making meaning of this complicated experience.   The Religions of India is what we identified months ago  as  the theme of this trip, so as we go we are attuning ourselves to the multitude of religious structures and practices which abound in this country, as much as in any place in the world. 

 Amid quips about the heats, folks are enjoying time with their books.  Next to  me Bassil's reading is consistent with our travel theme and his own personal passion- interfaith understanding.  A quote he shares with me speaks to our shared longing on this journey,

My heart has grown capable of taking on all forms
It is a pasture for gazelles
A table for the Torah
A convent for Christians
Ka'bah for the Pilgrim
Whichever the way love's caravan shall lead
That shall be the way of my faith.
IBN ARABI