In India, a Rich Food Culture Vanishes from the Train Tracks
npr.org
npr.org
I also remember a hearty Punjabi woman we met on another trip. She sighed at my mother's humble offering of idlis. "I can never make such soft idlis at home," she said, as I bit into her fragrant alu paratha (a flaky, potato-stuffed Indian bread), wondering why anyone who could eat such manna every day would ever want an idli.
These food exchanges would invariably extend into detailed introductions, exchange of family histories, discovery of common acquaintances, all culminating in a boisterous game of cards or round of antakshari (contest of Hindi movie songs) and a final promise to keep in touch.
There's something very beautiful about complete strangers interacting and engaging deeply with one another, free of any selfish desires besides that of companionship. There are many things I love about today's world, but that sense of camaraderie does seem diminished these days.
We got on the train around midnight, and I stumbled around looking for my berth. Everyone was asleep. An IR employee, who was genuinely happy that I was there, helped me find the spot. I was paranoid and alone in a train car filled with strangers.
The next morning, I felt like a fool for feeling that way. I awoke to find my 5 other cabin-mates sitting around the small central table, quietly talking so as not to disturb me. Suddenly we were all talking, even though I spoke almost no Hindi and they spoke almost no English, and they were all feeding me delicious home-cooked food that was unlike anything I had ever had. That experience was a demonstration of the power of technology to connect people in unexpected ways as well - we were showing each other maps of our home towns, pictures of my family and city, and translating hindi words on a smartphone as we made our way through rural India. One of my favorite experiences of the trip only happened because I couldn't get the ticket I wanted.
I think it's easy today to live in our own walled gardens, and being so connected means we don't need to move outside of them often - we'll just see our friends' posts, watch the stuff in our Netflix queues, and read the articles that we agree with. But, I still believe that sense of camaraderie with strangers is still there, based if nothing else on the fact that so many people crave it. We just have to move outside of our comfort zones and find it.
(Also see, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B27IBNotwpE)
I can only speak from my personal experience, but I would attribute it more to the former. The advice I generally heard was that you should stick to the heavily developed areas, near your hotel, etc. We were abroad for about 4 months, and I always felt safest outside of the touristy, "nice" areas. Especially in India, you'll find many scammers (sometimes entire organized teams of them!) in the areas where there are lots of tourists because that's where all of the money is. But, I found that by walking often just a few blocks away from these areas you would be alone as a foreigner, and there wouldn't be mysterious people with excellent English following you around and trying to "befriend" you. I was definitely noticed, but people would be smiling, or shouting "hello!", or waving. I never felt threatened.
I felt very fortunate that I learned this lesson; we also met many people in India who had barely left their hostels because they were so stressed and afraid of dealing with the scammers who waited at all hours of the day and night in those areas. When they made it out they didn't go far: they went to the tourist-friendly places that could be found on TripAdvisor, but these places were also teeming with scammers. I think a lot of people end up missing out on India because of this and not liking it.
We were very lucky and none of us dealt with crime the whole trip. Of the travelers we met who had had stuff stolen though, it was in touristed areas, especially on beaches while they weren't paying close attention to their stuff (and/or very drunk).
A Norwegian woman I worked with was in India as a kid because her parents worked for UN.
IIRC she told us how a woman, after staring at her for a while leaned over and pinched her face to check if a kid could really be that pale or if it was some kind of paint or something.
She also remembered being pulled in the hair because people wanted to know if it was real.
That said, this was something like 30 years ago and today after reading this discussion I wonder if she was just really unlucky or what.
I'm black; I remember (white) people being amazed at how my hair felt before I kept it really short. A black woman I knew who lived in a wealthy Detroit suburb where they were the only black family related to me (while laughing) how the neighborhood kids were so fascinated that the color on her children's hands didn't wipe off.
This is all in the last 30 years or so in the US. People meeting different people is a good thing, don't take it negatively.
I was fortunate to have lived in a fairly diverse community (military town, lots of different people, although the city is very much almost majority-hispanic), and one of our family friends was a tall black police officer. To a toddler exposed to many different people, I never gave it much thought--except the hands, of course, when he'd pick me up to show me the lights and siren on his motorbike. (It's maddening how stupidly enjoyable children find certain loud noises.) The young me was oddly fascinated with the lighter color of the palms of those of African descent, and how similar--yet different--they were to my own.
As the years passed, I never really gave it much thought until a friend of mine from high school looked at my hands once when we reconnected some years later and asked me "Why do white people have such pink palms?"
He was teasing, of course, so I had to relate my own experiences. We shared a good chuckle.
Sometimes it's heartening to consider that our differences can be advantageous as a vehicle for bringing us together. It's rare (sadly), but it's also a very beautiful thing.
Thanks for reminding me of this, even if indirectly! Good memories.
She said that basically everyone in the village came over to touch her skin and hair, because they have never seen such a pale person(and blonde hair).
I did also have people touch my arms and look at me with big grins on their faces. If you're not from a place where touching a stranger is acceptable, this can understandably be quite shocking until you get used to it. There are so many people in India that you'll find people with a wide variety of different customs and social norms.
Though also for perspective, a few years ago the NYC-Boston intercity bus gray and legit markets briefly merged. Before Greyhound then used political and pr hardball to repartition them, which also resegregated them by class and race. Upon hearing I took these cross-over "Chinese buses", I heard a lot of "oh, they're not safe" (the pr campaign), and once, from a professionally-dressed black woman travelling Greyhound, a comment about "dirty Chinese".
I've found that Indian toilets are more hygienic while travelling India, because you don't touch the toilet at all. Just bring your own toilet paper.
Because the advisors get a cut of the train fares, most likely.
Why do you think this?
our professions and interests have diversified a lot over past couple of decades so the chances of running into a stranger who has similar interests to yours are lower.
This one is prbly just me, I am afraid of talking to women and be accused of sexual harassment which these days can be just spreading your legs too wide.
I am not saying ppl necessarily do this consciously at an individual level but talking about culture as whole.
I am not going to disagree with any of the other commenters. (After all, it has been said that everything you think is true about India - the exact opposite is also true somewhere in India)
The question of trust is an important one, maybe even more than the issue of an economy which is developing (and hence making people more insular) - people on HN may not be aware, but there was a time (admittedly quite a few years ago) when there would be literally a news article every single day about the "biscuit bandits"- people who offered drugged cookies, which are usually called biscuits in India, and made off with the victims' valuables.
I just searched online for "biscuit bandits" and found this ironic story - although I don't know if it is true.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/CBI-inspecto...
CBI is like the Indian FBI.
(edit: Changed funny to ironic. To answer webtechgal, I meant funny in an ironic sense. The problem had been going on for many years when this person who worked in law enforcement was victimized. If it is possible to dupe law enforcement in this way, one can only imagine how challenging it is for the regular folks)
No offense, but if you were at the receiving end of things, you probably won't find it funny. This (the 'biscuit bandit' thing - though I'm reading it described thus for the first time), has been a menace plaguing gullible travelers on India trains for many years now.
With millions of people traveling each day on thousands of routes across the length and breadth of the country, it is happy hunting grounds for the culprits. In some cases, people end up losing their life savings. Sad, shocking, but true all the same, even today.
Yes, websites that append their branding slugs to article titles are a bit of a pain. We've got a list of them that get removed automatically but I'm not sure if NPR's food blog rates an inclusion. Edit: once a year is often enough. Added.
https://hn.algolia.com/?query=npr%20salt&sort=byDate&dateRan...
Of course, I do not view the past with such rose-colored glasses that I cannot understand that these goods have a wider market than ever and are accessible (both in terms of affordability and physical access) to more people than ever. The businessperson in a small village somewhere sure isn't sad that their market has become effectively infinite.
After all, many lament the bygone day of air travel when seats were comfortable and service excellent without realizing that they, like me, would not have been able to afford to travel by air at all 50 years ago.
To bring it full circle, it sounds like the author is recognizing that, while that world of nostalgia is lost to her as she is now able to travel by air due to increasing wealth, so too a poorer generation of Indians is now able to afford to travel by train (home-cooked meals or not) when before they could not travel at all.
That's just a minor example, but it's representative of the allure that travel can still bring and what it ultimately brings - the chance to see and find things you didn't know about before. Souvenirs that aren't from shops labeled "Souvenir" still are usually much more unique and difficult to acquire without actually going to the source, and even the same activities just done with a different mindset or with a different cultural attitude can make all the difference.
Often when I travel, I take note of things I like and wish to buy, but remind myself not to make an impulse purchase; I can always buy it once I get home, if I still want it -- and not have to carry it with me for the next 2 weeks!
I think perhaps that very thought process is the reason I began thinking of travel as less "special".
It remains to be seen whether this is reversible and we can still bring it back, whether we actually replaced it with something better (replacing few strong social bonds with many more weaker bonds), or even whether it's just artificial nostalgia that ignores the poverty, discrimination and segregation of the past.
[1] http://www.finelychopped.net/2015/11/why-breakfast-at-khar-s...
Oh how much I miss those days....
1. Indian culinary skills are something very rare. I have travelled around of the world and seen the culinary skills everywhere, nowhere I have seen such a great usage of spices and variety of dishes that can be produces with mixing different ingredients. You can have variety of Roti's or parathas(which are indian breads) by combining different ingredients with breads. Most people know the India has so many languages and the dialects change every 100 miles, but only few foreigners know that it is true for food as well. Each state has its own set of foods. The food habits in North, central, south, east & west are completely different. There is so much to explore when it comes to food. we not only have diversity in religion and languages but also in food.
2. The train journeys in India are most exotic. There is no where in this world(im talking about developed countries), where you can have open train cabins. Just take a long cross country train journey and you will feel more satisfied and contemplated in the end. You might feel a bit uneasy about so much crowd around you, but just forget everything and look outside the window and see the passing by mountain and the setting sun. You will feel satisfied and have the best sleep in your life in that train journey, if it happens to be an overnight journey. This is when you will realize there is peace in the midst of all the chaos.
The train shakes constantly and AC is too cold in first-class, I haven't slept great in trains.
China has 78,000 "route kilometers" and 154,600 "total kilometers" of track. (The US and Russia have more) India has "stagnated" at 63,000 route kilometers.[0]
China has 578,000 freight wagons, 44,000 coaches and 18,300 locomotives, whereas India has 22,5000 freight wagons, 45,000 passenger coaches and 8,300 locomotives.[0]
Indian's railways carry only ~22% of the freight carried by the China.[0]
In 2007 India moved 750 Million MT of freight while China moved 4.5x that (i.e 3,300 Million MT).[0]
India does move more people, but they count intra-Mumbai commuters as rail passengers, whereas China does not count subway commuters (which would probably be greater; since there are many large cities with subways).
[0] https://streamlinesupplychain.wordpress.com/2008/12/14/chine...
If one were to take ten random train trips longer than 6 to 8 hours each, I bet not one will turn out to be sans signs of the rich food culture. In all probability, it has reduced, but certainly not vanished.
I agree with you completely. Indians are quite guilty of giving really weird ideas of India to outsiders. I mean, the culture is vastly different from western culture, as it is, but adding a thick layer of nostalgia or romanticism will only make their expectations more fantastical.
[1] http://qz.com/578793/indias-middle-class-is-almost-impossibl...
As a child we were taught food is scared because people put efforts into it over years. In fact we uttered a prayer that meant "Food is God and consuming is worship." But I strongly disagree with that when people talk about food in train.
I travelled in the general/sleeper classes often and so many times people would generously offer food and then steal your belonging because the food was spiked. A lot of families would carry their gas stoves in the train and fucking cook food in the running train which is a fire hazard. It was as if these people would not eat outside food for one day.
People fought, got violent when confronted.
Today most trains have pantry cars and an amazing food culture of railway stations that changes every few 100 miles. I would say enjoy that.
Maybe it is cultural, maybe it is because I'm an only child, maybe it is genetic, or some combination of all of them (probably) but this article sounds like a nightmare to me.
I don't want to hear about your kids. I don't want to hear about your favorite sports team. I don't want to hear about your political views.
I used to take the Amtrak every day from Union Station in DC to Penn Station in Baltimore. Friday evening trains were always full of people who brought dinner onboard. The food smells were awful--there is a reason Amtrak's Cafe Car only sells bland food. Being in a train without air conditioning and the smell of curry permeating the air sounds like my own personal hell.
It sounds like you have a very sensitive sense of smell and you would not do well in India.
But for others - if the point of travel is to have new and novel experiences, and your senses being the primary entry point for experiences, India is the most intense sensory experience I've ever had - the smells, the sounds, and the sights all combine to overwhelm.
As would be expected with a developing country of over a billion people, not all sensory interactions are positive, but with the bad comes far more good, and a worthwhile distinct experience.
Sounds like something a westerner visiting India would say. For people from there (my family is from nearby Bangladesh), a train is just a way to get to a business meeting or to visit family. I don't imagine Indian commuters--in general--appreciate the food smells any more than American commuters do (it's always the vacationers who bring smelly food onto the Amtrak, not the regular commuters or business travelers).
In fact I'd wager that's why the "rich food culture" of the trains has "vanished." What the author sees as the lamentable loss of some cultural phenomenon, most Indians probably see as a laudable step toward modern comforts.
Spices - oh boy tons of spices. They mask lot of smells that you would otherwise find pungent - like garlic or onion. I have been stuck in Mumbai metro where someone was carrying a sack of peeled garlic - boy was that horrible.
So while I obviously can't speak for everyone - smell of food is last thing that will bother me while travelling in Indian railways. Sweat, dirty toilets etc though... they are something else.
Besides, "modern comforts" are there for the taking if one wants it. One can always travel first class in these trains, where you have multiple tiers to choose from ranging from air conditioned private cabins to A/C car coaches. Otherwise, you can travel the other classes and tiers where you get a chance to explore what is talked about in the article. To each his/her own.
Edit: I think the author is speaking about the experience in the cheapest 2 classes of Indian railways. Here are the fare class codes in Indian Railways [0]. There are at least 6-7 other tiers of fare classes above these.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Railways_coaching_stock...
I have fond memories of my aunts making dried fish curry (my dad is from a part of Bangladesh that makes this: http://bengalicuisine.net/2010/lotiya-shutki). It's delicious, but you can smell it cooking in an apartment building from outside.
> Its funny, the conviction that over a billion people of a different country/culture would see the world like you would.
I think there is a tendency for people, often westerners but also Indian elites (and the author of this article is definitely one of those), to romanticize aspects of life there that I don't think ordinary people will be sad to see go.
anyway, the fish dish that you mentioned ( i.e. "Shutki")is kinda on the extreme/fringe side of Bengali cuisine. its not adored by many people. heck even my own parents do not like it. although me & my siblings love it!
Not by a long shot. Reduced? Certainly. Vanished? Certainly not. I think the author of the OP is writing based on her limited experience, with the Mumbai chef also chiming in under a similar condition.
> most Indians probably see as a laudable step toward modern comforts.
I don't think so. Some? May be. Most? Doubtful.
I personally related to every bit of that article. Used to go from Ahmedabad in Gujarat, to Chennai - in Navjeevan express that takes 36 hours, every other summer. Thanks to this author, I just relived that memory :)
I can almost guarantee that if you're traveling in a non-AC compartment in India, the windows stay open. People only close them before sleeping at night, because when trains invariably stop at its scheduled stations, the passengers don't want to run the risk of thieves grabbing valuables through windows.
There are some smells of certain cuisines that I absolutely detest (fish curry, garlic, etc.) but I can't recall ever being bothered by the smell of food in these compartments. I can recall being bothered by the smell of diesel fumes if the car happened to be close to the front. What drove me quite mad was this, "all culminating in a boisterous game of cards or round of antakshari". Ear plugs don't help much.
Regardless, I suspect if you were in train packed full of people from various socioeconomic backgrounds on a hot day, the smell of food would be the LEAST offensive scent on offer.
If there is one thing I learned from moving to the American Midwest is "to each their own." Everybody has their own palate, tastes, wants, and dreams. Nobody is "wrong" and keeping an open mind is always the best policy.
I find the smell of certain things, like old cooked broccoli or kale, to make me want to vomit. But if a passenger on the train was eating it, I don't think it would disturb me nearly as much as endless music that interrupts my concentration. I don't see how these are in the same boat, even though the music is merely annoying and the smell of putrid greens makes me want to vomit.
Constantly feeling the urge to vomit doesn't disturb your concentration, but music does?
I'm confused how you can't see the commonalities between the two examples. In both cases, a person does something which disrupts many people in a shared space.
I don't know where you got your "most people" supposition from.
Anyway, good read.
Western and Indian trains without air conditioning aren't the same -- in the Indian ones (at least 2nd AC and below) the windows can be opened, and often are. The wind blows away everything but the faintest aroma of cooking food.