from christians to cricket to call centres

I waited until the last minute to buy a late night train ticket from Delhi to Agra and I will never make that mistake again. Delhi was fantastic, and I was feeling lazy watching the cricket match (India won!) on Sunday, learning the basics of the game, and I just couldn't bring myself to begin this crazy two week tour from Agra through Rajasthan. I finally made it to the train station late at night, and was promptly overwhelmed. Out of the 500 or so people I passed by at the station, there were maybe 10 women in all. After speaking broken Hindi and loud English, I found my way to the "ladies reservation counter" which was surrounded by men. They pushed me up front, and right as I was about to yell Agra, two women who came up to my waist pushed me out of the way and got their tickets. Two more women were behind me, pushing their way past me, and though it pains me to think about it now, I had to push these older women out of the way so they wouldn't cut in front of me in the midst of the dozens of people fighting to buy a ticket. Heard a number, threw some money at the counter, and crawled out of the crowd with a crumpled ticket in hand. Realized the ticket didn't have a train number or a platform, so I searched around until a young kid (who I thought was 12, but was actually a taxi driver) led me to the platform and told me to wait. I waited and talked to the people around me using the 4 things I know in Hindi, and tried to seem relaxed even though everybody was staring and I had no idea when the train was coming. The porters kept telling me the train was coming soon, and assured me I could get on the ladies car if I stayed put. Finally the train came and I strapped on my backpack and started following a porter. He glanced at my ticket and in horror he started laughing. "Ladies car not possible in general boarding... No reservation?" I wasn't sure what this meant, but I realize that I had booked a ticket in the cars where there are no reserved seats, and it's literally a free for all. People are pouring out of the sides of the cars, sitting on the floor, hanging from the luggage compartments, for hours on end. The train was slowing down, I had no choice... A man in a turban yelled at me to follow him, and he tried to get me into the car, but with my pack, it was difficult. Small women were creeping under my arms and pushing me out of the way, and everyone was shoving like a rugby scrum... A porter from outside the swarm yelled at me to follow him and he shoved me into a car and yelled at people to let me sit. We were squeezed into a tiny berth with feet dangling down from above me, people sitting in the aisles, and everybody looking at me with a look of puzzlement and amusement. I was so disheveled and it was so cramped that all I could do was laugh. I laughed and I began to take out some of my homemade sweets that my last two hosts have given me, so that I could at least share them with the people around me, and make some friends. But about 10 minutes later, two conductors came and yelled at me from the door that I was to follow them. I resisted at first, but they kept yelling, and so I got up and dragged my stuff off the train. They took me to sleeper class, which is the lowest class you can make a reservation, but after the last car, this seemed beyond luxurious. They told me to sit, and they let me buy a new ticket. I was still in a car with all men, and they stared for no end, but it wasn't too bad. In fact, I spent the 4 hour ride chatting with the conductors and two small kids who kept coming up to me and shaking my hand. All the conductors carry guns, so it was a little strange to surrounded by four men carrying large weapons, but they were good-natured and they laughed a lot, so overall it was a good ride.

I arrived in Agra and was met by Kirthi, a couchsurfer who is pretty astonishing in all that he's done in 23 years. Kirthi took me on his bike to a really nice (and cheap!) guest house, and we chatted for a few hours until I passed out from the exhausting day. Today Kirthi picked me up and took me to a meeting between his company and the owners of the property they're renting for an office call centre. Kirthi is starting his own call centre for a us mortgage company and has been giving me an amazing lesson on Indian call centres and outsourcing. For the meeting, he told me that if anyone asks to tell them I'm the American client. So this young hippie girl wearing a long flowing dress, looking utterly confused, I'm sure, sat in the meeting drinking tea, and looking as professional as she could. Kirthi has offered me the opportunity to help train new call centre employees to speak American english. It would be a paid job, and I think I may take it for a couple of weeks in April. What better experience for an anthropology student like myself, to see this outsourcing/call centre culture up close? I never thought I'd be in business meetings and job hunting in the city of the Taj Mahal, but that's the best part of travelling I suppose.

Speaking of settling, I met with an organization in Delhi called Family Vision, who works in the Tihar prison. The group is Christian based, which made me initially resistant, because I'm of the Jew-Bu persuasion, but they do incredible work and they were some of the kindest people I've met so far in my travels. I think I may spend a month or three weeks working with them, learning about Indian prison, helping out with programs, and perhaps visiting the prison itself. I like Delhi, and think it could be a good city for me for a few weeks. I've met some really great folks, and the opportunity to learn about Indian prisons and do some meaningful work seems too good to pass up. This trip has taken some interesting turns in the past couple of weeks, can't wait to see what else happens!