Rude Awakenings - Forest Sangha Publications

^0 P I L G R I M S 06like temples. However, since the Raj dissolved, railways, like every othercultural influence, have gloriously mutated to fit India. Now they bearthe signs of their contradictory inheritance. Signs, timetables, and manualssay one thing, the actual system works another way. This contrarinessis so accepted as to pass without comment; Westerners getting irateabout the discrepancy are regarded with the bemused patience that onewould reserve for the antics of the mentally retarded.Our business-like trip to the railway station was an introduction towhat becomes a major theme for the traveller in India. Following themain stream of people up the steps into the ticket hall, a tiny sign, danglingfrom the roof about fifteen feet up, modestly stated “No Entry”without a hope of carrying out this prohibition, or any indication of areason why entry to the ticket hall should be forbidden. Never mind. Apatient queue in the Foreigners’ Ticket Reservation Office eventuallyrewarded us with an interview with a woman whose body, propped onone elbow on the desk, and laconic remarks suggested an utter indifferenceto the matter of our going anywhere. The shrug of one shoulderactivated a few words: “All trains to Gorakhpur are cancelled.” Nick’squestions produced a few more shrugs. Perhaps we were supposed torot into the soil here like all those before us. We moved to the back ofthe office to review the situation.We decided that the trains must have been cancelled because of therioting in Ayodhya—which lay in the direction of Gorakhpur. TheAyodhya business had been a bone of contention between Muslimsand Hindus for about five hundred years, ever since the Mughalemperor Babur decided to build a mosque on a spot that devout Hindusbelieve to be the birthplace of Rama, the hero of the religious epicRamayana. Simmering over the sacrilege committed to Rama’s holyplace for centuries, Ayodhya had erupted in the last couple of months,with Hindus threatening to tear down the mosque. Outbursts of impassionedfighting between them and the Muslim community had takenplace in the city and in other parts of Uttar Pradesh (U.P.), and the1 5