Out the train window...

I’m on the day train from the closest city to the capitol- and thought I should document some of the things I can see from the window.
- women with piles of wood on their head- bringing it from the jungle to sell in the market
- children in barefeet roaming around on the train tracks- why wear sandles?
- a guy wakes up, and roams out onto his “front porch” – just 5 feet away from the train passing by- talk about a view
- A young boy squats down to you know what.
- Two old men squatting, but carrying on a conversation.
- The bikes, motocycles, trucks, jeeps, cars all waiting as the train crosses the road
- Various men on the train move their right hand towards their ears in a motion that signals we just passed a temple.
- Little villages here and there- separating by vast fields of green and golden crops growing.
- A farmer with his ox plowing a field.
- A tea walla (guy) comes through the train, “chai, chai.” Another guy comes through, “cold drinks, cold drinks.” Another one, “newspaper, magazine, newspaper, magazine.”
- A boy herding sheep.
- A girl with a metal bucket of water on her head- I don’t see any river, I wonder how far she had to go to get it.
- The looks of people as we pull through a station- I wonder if they come out every day to watch the train going to the ‘big city’ and imagine themselves riding it, and what that kind of life would be like. I bet none of them will ever know.
- A boy holds his goats by the ear for fear they might run onto the tracks.
- A father picks up some old plastic that he’ll use to repair his roof- but that piece of plastic is larger than the one he currently has for his roof.
- Women and girls dressed in what we would call rags, search around for scraps of anything useful. They’ve been doing this every morning, what could possible be new today that wasn’t there yesterday?
- A dog munches on something that might result in his death.
- A woman kneads dough for chapattis- again just 5-7 feet from the train tracks. I bet they have a slightly different taste than when Panna makes them.
- A daughter uses a plastic cup to throw water on herself. She has a light shirt on and trousers, as she bathes. This will serve as her bath for the week.
- The boy in the seat in front of me leaned back, and his mint in his mouth dropped out onto my pants!
- Women in saris with their heads covered work in the heat of the day to harvest their crops- will they even get to eat from their own fields, or will it all be sold?
- The mud and brick and cement houses look like they will fall down any minute- although they look more sturdy than the plastic tents nearby.
- What is that- a bike path? There is a skinny paved road next to the train tracks- a motorcycle and a bicycle are the only vehicles I have seen on it- it looks too small for big trucks or even cars…Interesting.
- A crew of farmers use shovels- two men per shovel (that’s what you do in a community-based society- don’t ever work alone!), shoveling the wheat, grain into a big truck.
- A man with a sickle chops grass
- Some houses are beautifully decorated with colored paint, but next to them are shanty towns.
- Monkeys swing from the trees.
- Boys, girls, goats all share the same path- some going to school, some going to the field.
- Buffalos rest and bathe in the green mucky water
- The brick wall running along side a road has advertisements in Hindi written in paint. – their billboards.