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Strategies & Market Trends : India Coffee House -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JPR who wrote (5447)	8/4/1999 12:26:00 PM
From: Mohan Marette	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12475

BBC Online users narrates their experiences of travelling on Indian Railways. JPR: Here is an interesting link. ====================== Indian Railways - Your Experiences BBC News Online users tell their experiences of travelling on India's rail network and how safe they believe it to be. ========================= Few samples. Indian Railways provide the best value for money entertainment of any travel experience available in the world. They do deliver you to some of the most amazing places as well, for ridiculously cheap fares at that. Having spent 6 months travelling the length and breadth of India when I was 17, I can honestly say that the sheer freedom that the vast Indian Railway network provides far outweighs the potential (and considerable!) risks which exist. One thing is for sure, it certainly beats travelling on the Underground (especially this summer). Rob Fowkes, UK ============================== I once got stuck on a third-class night train, without a reservation, and I'm sure it was the least comfortable 12 hours of my life. Imagine the most crowded Underground train you've ever been in, and now imagine it with a good 30 or 40% more people still. Now picture it's 38 degrees and you're rolling slowly down the Ganges plains. I crouched in a foetal position for 11 hours, literally packed in between a woman with babies on each arms, and various stray men and families. Given how easy it would be to rob a clueless westerner with a backpack, all of the lower caste Indians I met were remarkably friendly and hospitable, explaining in broken English why we were delayed, offering tea, etc. I don't think Westerners really understand the scale of poverty in the subcontinent, or the pivotal role that this nearly-free service plays in binding India together. F Toro, England ================= I once travelled in India through rail and unfortunately I found it very bad. Syed Shafiq, Pakistan ================== I can run faster than those banger trains!!! Pati Singh, India ===================== From the age of four to the age of 15 I travelled to school on the Indian Railways system. It was a 2 day trek from Pune to Coimbatore undertaken four times a year, and provided some of the best memories of my life. Staring out through the barred windows, blinking grit and soot out of your eyes and watching the world go about its business. The ineffectual overhead fans, the relief of fresh chai at the stations, the interminable stops in the middle of nowhere for no apparent reason... There's nothing like a trip on an Indian train to really see the country. News of the crash this week leaves me feeling very sad. I think of the families waiting for news, and the families mourning those they love. When the numbers of dead are this big, it is easy to forget that every one of the victims is an individual with a reason for taking the train, Liz Main, UK ==================== My first experience on the Indian railway was first in a crowded compartment- where if someone took the seat you paid for you were outta luck. I was young and didn't enjoy that part of it too much, but the other parts - seeing the countryside change as we went across the country was awesome to say the least. The food available at the local stations was also great. The second time that I went on it, my family and I had our own compartment and it was a great experience. The food we got was great,and at night the noise of the train going over the tracks was soothing (takes away the fear of an accident). The only bad experience was when the police harassed a man for a bribe and he just got off the train instead. Nelson, USA ================= news.bbc.co.uk