From Ahmedabad to Goa

Above is a photo I snapped inside the Ahmedabad train station. India has the largest, most utilized train system in the world. Millions and millions ride the trains on a daily basis. Consequently, they also have the most rail accidents in the world. Just the other day a train crushed a herd of 30 cows passing through a narrow gorge. Last night, a train derailed outside Calcutta killing over a dozen and injuring hundreds. Still, train travel is safer than automobile travel.

Anyhow, I had to wait in line for nearly three hours to get my tickets. India ought to make online ticket reservations more widely available, but to do such a thing would eliminate thousands of jobs in the national rail service. India hates automation. Most Indians seem to view automation, and even efficiency, in unfavorable terms because they eliminate jobs. Why have another bus when 20 auto rickshaw wallahs will do the work for 20 times the cost? Why spend two days digging the ditch for a new sidewalk with a machine when 50 laborers can do it in two months? This seems to be the logic of India. It is Bastiat's broken window parable througout the country. It can be quite maddening. More still, among the 20 ticket counters at the train station, one window was designated for handing out the paper reservation slips. Why? The obvious consequence was that all of the people from the 19 other lines had to queue up at this one window simply to have a man hand us a worthless piece of paper. Why is this man not replaced by a stack of paper? Why was I once asked to pay for one train ticket in rupees and another in dollars, simply because I am a foreign tourist? And yet, despite the madness of its streets and trains, its religions and its massive population, India marches on.

A final, curious thing about getting train tickets is the line for foreign tourists is usually designated "Foreign tourists and freedom fighters." Somehow, the line always appears full of neither.

Tonight I will take a sleeper train to Mumbai. I'll spend tomorrow afternoon hanging out in Mumbai before taking another sleeper train to Goa. I'm trying to work my way over to Hampi.