(As taken from the pages of my journal written on the train)
So, arrival at the train station early around 5:10 AM was like arriving in the midst of a Kipling novel. The names on the timetable boards are right out of the stories I read when I was younger. The booking station is very British colonial still today with long queues waiting to purchase fares.
Walking to the platform I see children who live in the station sleeping, the vendors sleeping beside or on top of their wares. On a crowded platform, a woman ask for change moving through the press of bodies with a tin cup. Even now, it is humid.
When our train eases into the platform, the crowd surges to the general boarding doors, banding on them to open to secure a seat for their trip. We have seats in the AC car, so not quite the frantic rush to board since the seats are reserved. The trains are electric and move pretty quick through the suburbs and then then the countryside. Very lush, wet, and green right now outside the window.
Pulling into another station, more people press on board the train cars. Vendors hawk newspapers, coffee, tea, chips, and various items for consumption and sampling.
Villages out the window are comprised of dirt roads, houses of bamboo poles, canvas sack walls, and concrete. Women gather water from wells while children are playing in the streets even this early in the morning. Just so happens the sun rises around 4:30 here, so early start if you get up with the sun. Sometimes, there is no platform and people wait on the side of the track to jump on the train or sell fruit to those on board through the windows.
On one platform I saw this sign:
The 4 Ways Test of the the things we think, say, or do:
1. IS it the TRUTH?
2. IS it FAIR to all concerned?
3. Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
4. Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?
Interesting philosophy and some food for thought. Perhaps my class rules next year?
So, arrival at the train station early around 5:10 AM was like arriving in the midst of a Kipling novel. The names on the timetable boards are right out of the stories I read when I was younger. The booking station is very British colonial still today with long queues waiting to purchase fares.
Walking to the platform I see children who live in the station sleeping, the vendors sleeping beside or on top of their wares. On a crowded platform, a woman ask for change moving through the press of bodies with a tin cup. Even now, it is humid.
When our train eases into the platform, the crowd surges to the general boarding doors, banding on them to open to secure a seat for their trip. We have seats in the AC car, so not quite the frantic rush to board since the seats are reserved. The trains are electric and move pretty quick through the suburbs and then then the countryside. Very lush, wet, and green right now outside the window.
Pulling into another station, more people press on board the train cars. Vendors hawk newspapers, coffee, tea, chips, and various items for consumption and sampling.
Villages out the window are comprised of dirt roads, houses of bamboo poles, canvas sack walls, and concrete. Women gather water from wells while children are playing in the streets even this early in the morning. Just so happens the sun rises around 4:30 here, so early start if you get up with the sun. Sometimes, there is no platform and people wait on the side of the track to jump on the train or sell fruit to those on board through the windows.
On one platform I saw this sign:
The 4 Ways Test of the the things we think, say, or do:
1. IS it the TRUTH?
2. IS it FAIR to all concerned?
3. Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
4. Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?
Interesting philosophy and some food for thought. Perhaps my class rules next year?
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