An Ode to the Indian Sleeper Train

For me, a train journey evokes a feeling of being in another age.

A time when slow travel was the only travel

An era when getting from here to there was its own adventure; and the journey was the destination.

Foggy sunrise over the Amritsar Train Station

I love trains!

The last time Carrie and I were in India, we took every chance possible to ride the rails.

I always could spend hours gazing out at the countryside and snapping photos, but my favorite experiences were the overnight sleepers.

On one such night, I even a poem about the journey.

Benches and sleeping berths in an empty Indian Sleeper Class train

A long exposure of passengers getting on and off a train at the Haridwar Train Station

A night in an Indian sleeper class train

“Ba bump. babump. babump. babump,”

A Sadhu sleeping in the doorway of a Indian Overnight Train, stopped in the Haridwar train station

the tracks repeat as I lay there dozing off to a symphony of the rails.

A train whistle covers the sound for a few seconds, sometimes more. Then back to the tracks.

“Ba bump. babump. babump. babump.”

Station Break.

The buzz of passengers getting on and off the train.

Silence.
The train is still.
Everyone settles in.
We wait.

Dreams often happen here.

Back to the journey.

“Ba bump. babump. babump. babump,”

softer. softer. softer. sleep.

“Chai, chai, chai,”

the wallas cry at three in the morning.

Who wants to be woken up for a tea?

People must, I presume, since the wallas continue to call.

Brightness passes into dreams

Sunlight bathes the lower berths.
Noise.
Movement.
Life.
Wake up, have a seat and watch it all go by.

Deradum to Amritsar express train in India

Sleeping in the Upper Berth of an Indian Train

Berth (n): an assigned fold-down bed on an Indian train. In Sleeper Class, they come in three levels: lower, middle and upper.

After a month of tranquility in Rishikesh, the time had finally come for my wife Carrie, Lauren, Tara and I to head out.

Our first stop was Amritsar and the Golden Temple, by way of an overnight train.

Carrie Lauren and I booked our Sleeper Class tickets together, while Tara treated herself to a first class cabin

Walking the aisles of an Indian sleeper class train in Amritsar

Our dreams of sneaking down to Tara’s first class cabin were dashed, however, when we realized that her section of the train wasn’t even attached to ours.

Literally; her cars were on the opposite track from ours. Once we left the station the two halves joined up, but there was no way to get across the train and say hi.

Meanwhile in Sleeper Class, we were fortunate to have three adjacent upper berths.

That meant a bit more privacy, a reprieve from the never-ending flow of people, and room for my 6’3” body’s legs to dangle above the aisle without being knocked into while I slept.

Our night on the sleeper class train was spent chatting, taking some obligatory photos in our beds and waiting for sleep to find us.

By 7am, our train had pulled into Amritsar station and it was time to figure out our next step.