Perfect plan gone bad

I had a lazy morning after my hotel’s South Indian breakfast.  It was nice to have the internet again.  Having done all my “must dos” yesterday, I did some reading and generally surfing before checking out at 1145 before the 1200 cut-off.

It seemed like a perfect plan that my train departed only nearby at 1230 and would arrive at my destination for dinner.  But when I got to the station I saw that it had been delayed till 1400.  There wasn’t anywhere to sit so I stood nearly the whole time.  It was the perfect plan that had gone bad.

1400 came and the train was further delayed till 1500.  The train was there already but it took some time to clean and prepare.  We boarded around 1500 and didn’t actually get going till around 1530, three hours late.

The train was very slow at first.  Even afterwards, it stopped frequently as I guess the timing was now non-optimal for the signalling.  There was hardly any scenery as the sun set around 1630.  The 7h journey became 8h.  Time went quickly with a Tamil businessman who had worked in the USA as a metallurgist, and a military half-Assamese half-tribal gentleman.  We ate together (my prebooked meal didn’t come but it wasn’t prepaid), and we chatted lots.

I travel not just to see sights, eat yummy food but also to understand the various cultures in the world.  Often my travel brings up more questions than answers. But fortunately today these two gentlemen helped me answer some questions:

Q:  How do Indians know the caste of others, in order for discrimination to happen?
A:  In general, people use the surname of the person as an indicator.  However, being a large country surnames may be very different and it becomes less indicative away from one’s home territory.  While discrimination is not permitted by law, it still continues in rural settings.

Q:  I didn’t know Indians had surnames until later in my life.  I grew up largely with South Indians  Tamils who didn’t have surnames.  They use their father’s name as their last name (eg. Paul Henry means Paul son of Henry).  How does one tell with South Indians?
A:  Actually, Tamils did have surnames in the past which reflected their caste.  This was abolished and has contributed to a fairer society in the south.

Q:  How do people fit non-Hindus into the caste system?
A:  Some Hindus automatically fit Christians and Muslims into the lowest caste, assuming that they were of the lowest caste and converted.  This can be quite unfair as their families may have been Christians or Muslims for many generations.  Eg. Christianity arrived in India with St Thomas before it arrived in Europe.

Q:  Is kottu roti Tamil or Sri Lankan?  Likewise for hoppers? (directed at my Tamil cabin-mate)
A:  Kottu roti is definitely Sri Lankan.  But string hoppers are Tamil.  There are a lot in common between Sri Lankan  food an South Indian food.

Q:  Why do non-veg Hindus not typically eat pork?
A:  [Well, well, well, I couldn’t get a clear answer to this one.  It was more like they eat chicken, lamb and sometimes beef.  Touched on pigs being dirty.  Also pork is seen as cheap and unhealthy and often consumed by the untouchables.  But somehow no mention of the influence Mughal culture had on cuisine.]

NB:  Opinions expressed may not be representative or even correct.
They also expressed some unsolicited points of view:

India’s foreign policy has damaged its relationship with its neighbours to the extent that all of its neighbours (except Bhutan) have become chummy with China.  Eg. Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bangladesh, Nepal.  Of course, Pakistan has always been friendly with China.

India’s progress cannot catch up to China’s.  China is already streets ahead and their discipline and single-mindedness with progress and achievement cannot compare to India’s bureaucracy and the local style of democracy.

Rohingyas are illegal Bangladeshi immigrants to Myanmar and they deserve to be kicked out.  In the same way, ethnic Indian tribes in the lowlands of Nepal can deserve to be discriminated against by the new Nepali constituation.  [I didn’t want to argue with my hosts about how ethnicities often do cross national boundaries especially when boundaries were artificially defined after the presence of the people, or the people were brought there by colonial masters for whatever reason].

I arrived at New Jalpaiguri station at 2330 and took an auto-rickshaw to the Rajdarbar Hotel.  I paid half the opening rate which was still too much I think.  I got to my room at midnight.  I think the hot water wasn’t switched on for my room.  It would have taken time to heat up if I had rang reception.  So I resorted to a scoop bath before retiring.