to madurai we go

as my last post left off, we were just getting ready to walk to the train station... a group of about twenty interns and RAs (research assistants) made our way to the chennai train station, which was just around the corner. we entered the through construction and droves of people and finally reached platform 4, where our train was waiting. i have to say that i was pretty nervous about 3rd class A/C, as it did not sound all that enticing. The only trains I have taken at home are local commuter trains and there was no such thing as third class. i later found out that 3rd class a/c could not have been nearly as bad as 8th class, which is how many there were on this particular train!

we got onto the train and it wasn't that bad at all. since we had such a large group, we fumbled around until everyone found a seat. the ticketing system in 3rd class isn't the greatest... you have a reserved spot, but you can't get an entire cabin area to yourself, so you will have 4 seats, and the other 3 or 4 might belong to complete strangers. it was funnier because we were a big group of foreigners... loud foreigners...

i ended up leaving the area where my backpack was parked and moved over to where more friends were and chatted with them for quite a while. at some point during the ride, we got shushed by the conductor and looked around to realize that most people around us had laid out their sheets and pillows and were ready for bed. indian trains do provide sheets, pillows and blankets for all of the a/c sleeper classes from what i understand.

for more information on the indian train system see this site: http://travelindependent.info/india_trains.htm (thanks jude!)

since none of us was interested in sleeping, we moved out into the cramped hallway where the bathrooms and sinks were located to chat. we carried on like this for almost a half hour. finally, the train staff got frustrated and asked us to move. we moved further into the train "hallway" until we found the repository for sheets and pillows. We sat by an open door chatting and watching the late night Tamil Nadu country side pass by. Eventually, the train staff tired of our presence in this area as well, and we all dispersed to go to bed. I made up the bottom row of the bunk with a sheet, threw on a sweatshirt and socks and laid down on with my hand bag just beyond my below. I was rather uncomfortable as the pillow I requested turned out to be a folded sheet in a small pillowcase. I'm not sure what it was, the steady hum of the train, the constant jostling of the train car, but I fell asleep. I woke up a few times to bravely defend my bag, but no one seemed interested in stealing my copy of freakonomics and set of energel pens.

I woke up around 6:30 the next morning to lots of activity. Some people were brushing their teeth, others were grabbing a coffee, while others were packing up items that they had used for their journey. I was afraid to use the train bathroom so many hours after I had boarded, but it was surprisingly clean. (My suggestion is to stick to the Indian toilet, much more sanitary and lower instance of germs.) Either way, travelers should make sure to take anti-bacterial hand gel or spray, because soap is not always available in public toilets.


I stood by the open doors and looked out at the Tamil Nadu country side, as we approached Madurai with 30 minutes to go. The scene was spectacular: palm trees, mountains in the distance, rice paddy fields all glistening under a golden warm sun. We finally pulled into Madurai train station at around 7:30 am.

The entire group walked to Hotel Supreme, located on a somewhat busy street in what I guess could be considered downtown Madurai. I met up with other interns and had a breakfast of poori masala, toast and jam, black tea and a fresh mango juice. (I got my 100 rupees worth on this on-call buffet!)

Once breakfast was over, we boarded two mini-buses and headed to our first visit at Mahasemam Trust.