Episode 4 India Trip: Going to Amritsar (Part 1)

...Continued.

On day 7 of the trip, my mum and I set off to go to Amritsar. We arrived at Jallandhar train station and I went to the ticket office to buy the tickets. For those people who complain about 'customer service' living in the West, you would have a shock of a life time when you see the normal customer service in India!

I got to the ticket counter and said, "Excuse me." The lady sitting at the counter was having a good chin-wag (gap-shap) with her friend sitting next to her about something random. I said, "Excuse me" again and then the lady said, "Wait karo." She finished her conversation and then faced me and said, "What you want" like if I was a beggar asking her for roti or something. I was bit taken aback by the lady's rudeness and how she was laid back like she was sitting at home watching a movie or something. Rab Raakhaa!

I said to the lady, "Hi, I would like 2 tickets to Amritsar please." The lady (in a "can't be bothered" tone) mumbled "60 rupees". Because I couldn't hear her mumbling clearly I said, "Can you repeat that." She then looked really frustrated and said, "60 rupees". Sat Naam, Waheguru.

I gave the lady 60 Rupees, got the tickets and headed towards the platform. If you have been to a train station in a city in India you will know that that it gets really busy! The train arrived and people (in typical India style) were pushing and shoving trying to get on (and I thought the London tube was bad!). My mum and I tried to find the clearest space on the platform so that we could get on in time. We found one place which fewer people than the other places, so we got on to the train from there.

We found some free space to sit going further into the carriage. There was a Sardaar (turbanned man) sitting there with his wife, so I thought it would be a suitable place to sit (as I thought sitting next to a Sardaar will more likely to be a safer place to sit). When we sat down the man and his wife looked at me and then carried on talking amongst themselves. I felt bit cautious of saying hello or starting a conversation with the man because he looked like a typical police officer type of guy from his appearance (old man but with jet black coloured cut beard, red fifty, blue pagh and wearing huge dark sunglasses).

I think my mum went to sleep and I decided to listen to some Keertan on my MP3 player and relax. (I could see the man looking at me and being shocked that I had headphones coming out of my ears and yet from my appearance I looked like a Giani). All was going well, until we got near Amritsar train station.


To be continued...