Nalanda Train Station

2-2-2011

Everyday is a new adventure for me. I walked over to the NNM resident's colony to meet up with Deepak and the film crew for breakfast. Unfortunately, the film crew got in late the night before and weren't up and Deepak was getting ready to leave for Patna. After chatting with Deepak, he left for the train station. I stayed back and chatted with Dr. Shrikant briefly and then decided that I'd try to find the train station.

Deepak had left the complex and turned to the left, so I followed. I couldn't see him in sight and he had mentioned that the train station was only about 1km away. So, I walked down the road a bit trying to look past the houses on my right side. (Last summer the monks had pointed in that general direction and I had heard the train whistles!) I couldn't see past the houses and businesses, though.

I thought I'd try some Hindi and ask someone where the train station was. Since it was about 8:15 in the morning everyone was heading to school or work. There were lots of young boys and men, but although some of them said "Good morning" or "Hello" to me, I just didn't feel right about engaging them in a conversation. Instead, I thought I'd ask a girl. In front of me a teenaged girl rode up to her school. When she got off of her bicycle I greeted her and asked, "Train Station, kahan hai?" She just ignored me, which I've found happens with girls around here. Strike one! Since I had already walked quite a ways, I decided to do a little sleuthing on my own! I turned around and headed back toward the Nalanda gate.

Now, looking towards my left, I saw a man on a bicycle zip between two buildings. It looked like a private drive (if there are such things here in India), but on closer inspection, it looked more like a little dirt street. I followed and saw more businesses on my left and right. One was open for business while the others were still closed. The road went past a huge gated house on the right and big tank (water reservoir?) on the left. There were some teenaged boys walking to school ahead of me and I just pleasantly walked by them. I looked ahead and thought I saw the train station.

Moving closer to the structure that I thought was the train station, I could clearly see that it wasn't. It was just a house-like structure, but now I was to the main road. I knew that Nalanda was to the right and Bihar Sharif was to the left. Some more school boys crossed the road and followed another little pathway. I figured that the film crew was still sleeping, so I decided to continue on and see where the path led. Walking next to a wall with electrical poles on the other side, I looked ahead and could see a crowd of people. Just past them I could clearly see a train.

Continuing on the dirt path, I could see the train building up ahead. Off to the right, though, were paths past little huts and houses that went right up to the tracks. Since most of the people I was following took the paths up to the tracks, I decided to do the same. When I reached the tracks, I took out my camera and started taking pictures as people stared at me. At the station platform, I met up again with Deepak! Walking around the station with him until the train arrived, I saw him off and then walked back to Nalanda.