So, this past weekend, Allison, Garrett and I travel to the beloved state of Goa, a hot, sandy, beachy tourist retreat state in south western India. We are so excited, the three of us, because we have been wanting to go to Goa for such a long time. So it begins with us boarding the train…its suppose to be a 12 hour train ride. So anyway, we get on the train, and sit down. This guy sitting across from us asks Garrett if he can stand up for a second so that he can put his luggage underneath our seat. So, Garrett stands, and the guy places his huge black suitcase underneath our seat, then sits down. A few minutes later, the guy leaves the train. The train begins to move slowly as we leave the platform. Suddenly, Allison notices that the guy isn’t on the train. We look out the window, and he is walking beside the train. “5 rupees this guy gets on” she says. Meanwhile, I’m thinking, well, of course he is going to get on. His luggage is here. We look out the window, and he is walking at the same pace while the train picks up speed. He smiles at us, but in a suspicious, sly kinda side smile that makes me uneasy. His friend walking beside him smiles too. Finally, we have left the platform, and I hear Allison say “Well, I guess I’m out 5 rupees”. We forget about it though, and talk about how much fun we are about to have, and what all we plan to do: the sunny, tropical destination of Goa awaits us shortly.
Yet, about an hour into the train ride, Garrett remembers that the luggage is still underneath us. I feel so uneasy. Maybe it’s a bomb, or explosives. I ask Allison “are there reported cases of train bombing in India?” and Allision, who hardly ever worries, says that yes, there are. We don’t know what to do at this point. Maybe the three of us are being paranoid. Yet, at the same time, I tell the others that there is a reason that this cargo is underneath us. The man didn’t leave it by accident..he didn’t forget that he put his luggage there, and all the while, the memory of him and his friend smiling at us from the platform is starting to creep me out. Another hour passes. Time is ticking, and so might be this bomb planted right beneath our seat. We finally wake up a woman sleeping next to us who was there when the guy put the luggage underneath us. She doesn’t speak any English, so Allison tries to explain in Marathi that about the man and the luggage. The woman replies “captain”. And points to a guy dressed in a suit who comes over to sit with us. We try to explain the situation to him, but he doesn’t speak English either. Then, another guy comes over to sit with us, over hearing our conversation. This man actually does speak English, and we explain the luggage situation. “Oh” he replies “You are thinking it is a bomb or something? No, no bomb. Have faith in people. People are good. Your worldview is one that people are bad. Our world view says people are good” Then he hands us a broucher and explains his religion for about 20 minutes to Allison, who feigns interest. Its funny, because we never said that we thought it was a bomb, only that a man placed luggage underneath us and then left. Yet, he knew our concern even before we could express it. Once the guy leaves, Allision declares that she is officially worried. “I wasn’t so concerned before, but now, after that guy saying everyone is good, I’m worried” Meanwhile, I feel the reverse. If we were in danger, the other people around us would worry too, wouldn’t they? I mean, a bomb would blow them up just as well as us. Yet, the lady who was sleeping eventually gets off at another stop. Leaving us as the only witnesses. I imagined Allision, Garrett and I having our legs blown off, or dying in a massive explosion. Or getting our legs blown off and then dying in a massive explosion. Despite this, we come to the conclusion that its probably just illegal contraband sitting suggly beneath our seat. What kind of contraband? I dunno. Drugs, or guns maybe. No idea to be honest. But a train is a perfect way to smuggle illegal goods. The seats are numbered, as are the cars, so a transaction can be made easily by one person telling the other exactly what train, car and seat to pick up the goods. Anywho, eventually we all go to sleep, unphased.
At 2 in the morning, I’m awaken by the sound of someone making a noise by my bed. I open my eyes slightly. The compartment is dark, because its night time and people are sleeping. I can’t see very well either because my glasses are off. But I make out a man who is fumbling with something. He starts talking to the man sleeping below me. Then he pulls out a mat and rests on it. I keep tossing and turning, not even trying to appear asleep, because at the time I just thought he was a normal passenger. Yet, he keeps casting glances my way. That’s when I lay still and open my eyes just enough to see what’s happening. The man takes some luggage into the hallway and out of site. Then he comes back, and reaches below the mattress one below me, where we were sitting. He slids from underneath it the large black suitcase that had us all worried for hours. Then, exits the train. I’m so relieved that the luggage is off. I’m also happy to have witnessed a smuggling act of illegal contraband. You might ask how I know it is illegal. Well, maybe it wasn’t. But, not even a minute after the man exits the train, a police enters the compartment and stops by our mattresses. He has an old school riffle slung over his shoulder, and a huge, powerful, oversized flashlight which he shines in our direction. These smugglers were pros, narrowly escaping the police by a matter of seconds. And I’m wondering all the while what tip the police got to come to our compartment at the exact time he did. The police shines his flashlight underneath the mattress below me. And, if he had shone it on me, he would have seen a huge, joyful, I-Just-witness-the-coolest-underground-transaction grin that was on my face right then.
Stay tuned for the rest of Trip Goa! Coming up in the next blog entry…
No comments:
Post a Comment