Yesterday I traveled to Pune. Pune is nothing like I thought it would be. The girls here on campus are correct in saying that we should go to Pune when we want to shop, because that is what you do in Pune. You shop. All the foreigners in our SBS went on the local train. Four guys and four girls. The way there was pretty okay. It wasn't too crowded at first, but by the time we arrived in Pune people were packed into this train. If you are sitting you have 4 or 5 to a bench that fits only 3 comfortably. Then, there are people standing in the aisles and even in the aisles without handles to hold on to. It's really hot too and all those bodies don't help. There are all these beggars that come onto the train to beg for money or food while the train is stopped and they are mostly small children, like 5 or 6 or 7 years old and they come up to you and hit you and will not leave you alone. You have to just ignore them mostly. We gave away a lot of food this day to child beggars. Then we have the transvestites. They mostly beg to the men and I've heard some interesting stories from the guys of their first experiences with transvestite beggars on the train. Oh man. It's so sad to see all these small children begging and selling small things for money. They are so persistent and it makes me wonder if they have time to just be a kid. If they know life outside of begging or selling maps or books. Right now India and I have a love/hate relationship. Once we got there we ate some Indian food in the train station on the platform. I was excited to have Naan, but they don't have it until the evening, so I had to wait quite a few hours to eat it.
Our first stop was a nice semi-authentic Indian gift shop. It is a good place to buy gifts for friends and family back home, but not authentically made by Indian people. It was called Either Or. After that we went to a nice coffee shop called Barista. It is always good to have coffee here. I miss having coffee all the time at home. Be grateful for what you have coffee drinkers! After coffee we went to a mall. I didn't have too much fun there. I'd much rather go to markets and bazaars than a mall. Especially when the mall has stores you can find in America and when the prices are similar to America. No thank you! I was able to pick up a nice punjabi dress and am looking forward to wearing it tomorrow in some underground place. India is so cool. You can go to most small shops and pick out a fabric pattern you like, then bring it to a tailor and have them make you a Sari or Punjabi dress. All for you, fitted for you. Just for you! I didn't do that, but I got a really cool punjabi dress and got a good deal on it too! The small shop we went into was awesome. The man there spoke very good English and when I tried on the top with these really long leggings I came out and he wanted to take a picture of me he loved it so much. Then I went back into the changing room and Russell (the leader of TITUS project and the first 3 weeks of our SBS) came into the shop, not knowing I was there, and he was asking if they had pants for the other girls and the guy said that they did have pants and showed them the picture he had just taken of me in this punjabi dress and it was really funny to hear this later because Russell wasn't expecting to see a picture of Sarah in this tiny shop on some strange man's phone. Oh man. Good times.
After the mall we got into 3 rick-shaws and went back to the train station around 6:30 PM. We were going to catch the 7 o'clock train back to campus, but it was delayed one hour, so we just went back to that food cafe in the train station for coffee. After awhile we went back to the platform to wait for the train and there were so many people rushing to get on the train when it arrived, we were trying to push our way through the men and the guys we were with were behind us girls pushing and making sure we were safe. One man started grabbing two of the girls and then this fight broke out and we finally made it onto the train after that craziness. Once on the train a few of the Indian men who were sitting stood up for the girls so we could sit down, but that crazy man kept looking at me, but he was far away from me fortunately. Unfortunately, he kept moving through the crowded train closer and closer and finally he was standing right next to me and Lottie asked where he was because she previously told me to watch out for him 'cause he was the guy grabbing her outside the train. I told her he was standing right next to me and she stands up and yells at him "No!" "Get away!" and then all of a sudden all the men around us grabbed him and started hitting him and kind of kicked him out of the train. It was very scary for me. He didn't touch me thank goodness. After one more stop the guys we were with were able to move next to us girls and then I felt safe. We never saw that little man again for the rest of the train ride. Apparently there is a specific woman's car at night on the train. Next time we will definitely ride there, or else take a car and avoid the train altogether. Too much fright for one night!
By the time we finally made it back to campus I was so exhausted I took a shower and went straight to bed, falling asleep immediately. Next time I'm going with a local to Pune, a girl at that, and we're taking a car most likely. Or maybe take the train there, but a car back.
It's good to be back in a small town, and now this place doesn't seem so intimidating anymore.
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