My Indian Travels: The Day of Train Travel and the Sim Card
It’s been a interesting day! An early start we had. Got the 6.40am train from Moradabad to Delhi in the ‘seater class’ (their equivalent of the UK’s second class). It was like a massive orgy!! People everywhere, you got squashed and had to move all the time! When we stopped at a station, it was like a rugby scrum! Stuck between the people getting off and on, it was one of the must uncomfortable experiences I had in my life, but seems like the daily norm for so many!
Getting ready to join the scrum to get off the train.
When we got out of the station in Delhi, we tried to get an Indian sim card for the mobile phone. When we walked in the shop, the assistant asked where the phones were from and we told her UK, the country we are from. She said ok, went ahead and changed the sim but then told us the phones wouldn’t work because they were locked, suggesting new phones needed to be purchased from…you guessed it…her shop! We were annoyed she hadn’t told us this would happen in the first place so we refused to pay. She tried another tactic by threatening us saying she was going would call her boss, however, after acting it out the boss never came. We had an essential train to catch to Amritsar otherwise we would be stuck for hours! So we just left without paying. Dad stated he was fed up with all the scams and was going off India a bit. Which is kind of understandable, but unfortunately it really is a ‘Dog eat Dog’ mentality in order to survive in India, especially for the working class.
Strangely, I enjoy all the social interaction and bartering – I try and see it positively, like a fun challenge to see who can get the best deal – consumer or the trader. I do believe this goes on the western world in most cases a lot milder, but still can be just as nasty, the negative of pure capitalism.
As I write this, we are on our way to Amritsar to see the Golden Temple. We are travelling in AC class or 1st class (which is a bit like British First class in the 1950’s) which was a BIG improvement from this morning! Amazing, the difference!
Source and credit to: Trainman India
Click here to read about our next day in India: The day of the orange turbans or see about our previous day: The day of the train journey.
