Half way through my booking of a seat on the Rajdhani Express to New Delhi for travel the next day, the clerk, said that he had to go to lunch and he would be back in 20 minutes and with that, he turned a little wooden board around, which said in gold lettering 'Kindly Wait'. Having waited in a queue for 50 minutes, I couldn't believe that I was near and yet so far ! As the line built up behind me, like Chinese Whispers, the message was passed along: 'he's gone for lunch'. Twenty minutes later, true to his word, he returned, brushing his mustache with a napkin !
The Rajdhani is a sleeper from Mumbai to Delhi and I found myself in a compartment with three men. We were provided with sheets, blankets, pillows and towels. Then a bottle of water arrived for each of us. We were a mixed bag - one man was a diamond cutter, returning to Seurat, home of the diamond industry in India, one was a business man going north and the other passenger was a Nigerian who plied between Mumbai and New Delhi buying clothing and exporting to Nigeria - the mix of languages, as everyone continued their business on mobile phones, was interesting and the habits of people, for instance, the diamond cutter found it necessary to apply underarm deodorant after his meal - admittedly it was hot work !
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