Iconoblog

Trains, planes and automobiles

I am now sitting in the carriage of the overnight train from Hyderabad heading toward Vijaywada. We left the city at about 10.50pm from the main rail station.

The station itself was like something out of "Passage to India", with people - untouchables - lying in the station and on the platforms all huddled together wrapped in rags and thin blankets. They were everywhere - tiny, filthy children, elderly and frail men and women, many of them terribly thin and looking for all the world like they are the utter outcasts from society. There are so many beggars who crowd around you here. I feel ashamed to be a Westerner with so much when I have to step over people who will live and die in hopeless poverty. The stench of human waste is overpowering - hardly surprising when you consider that as we were waiting for the train, I saw at least two people jump down onto the lines, drop their trousers and empty bladder and bowels against the tracks in full view of everybody. There seems to be no sense of privacy, dignity or shame here.

Hyderabad was still bustling and alive when we left. All of the roadside stalls and shops were trading still, drums and music pulsed constantly, and the chaos was indescribable. It seemed to my Western mind to be a 21st century glimpse into the culture of the Judges back in the Old Testament, where everybody does what is right in his own eyes because there is no king. I know that the UK is a godless place, but we forget, I think, the preserving and purifying influence that the gospel has had and even still has. Perhaps I am just a displaced Brit, but Hyderabad has a feeling of disorder and confusion that is absent from major UK cities. The non-Christian worldview and the blend of religious diversity must contribute to that disparity.

The train is quiet now, save for the snores of sleeping travellers, the click of the tracks under the carriage, and the quiet conversation of people several seats away. The blackness and silence outside is only interrupted by the occasional stop at tiny stations where sellers of chai (hot, sweet, Indian tea) climb on board shouting their wares. Mervyn is asleep (again!) so I am using this time to catch up on my Scripture reading and prayer for God's people back home. We have pledged as a family to read through God's word at a rate of 5 chapters a day along with one of the other families at church. It is a good discipline to maintain that.

Tomorrow is Saturday, and we have a long rest planned. We arrive at about 7am, and have no meetings until 7pm that night - I may not sleep much now, but hope to get a few hours when we arrive. We've been warned that sleeping on overnight trains can be a bit dicey due to the thefts and other crimes that take place. Certainly the station had all sorts of posters to warn of dangerous people, with bi-lingual warnings about not accepting drinks or food from other passengers because they may well be drugged. Crime and abductions are widespread, and India is so huge and overpopulated that you could go missing here and never, ever be seen again.

This story is ample evidence of that.

I think I might just stay awake tonight...