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Sleeper Train & the Delhi Station
I visited India and Nepal for the first time on a Buddhist pilgrimage led by Shantum Seth in 2007. The following is from my 2008 trip to India, Nepal, and Tibet. After 2 weeks in Dharamshala, India, many of us returned to Delhi.
At 12:40, I woke while a guy — presumably a train conductor — pulled the curtain away from my feet, reached across me and turned the light on over me. This made me anxious, but within seconds the light was turned off and the curtain drawn again. It took me a long time to get back to sleep. A moment after that bizarre experience, I heard Rachel snap, “I’d like to get a good night’s sleep, if you don’t mind!”
I woke in the sleeper train at four in the morning, and around 5:35 we arrived at the Delhi station. On the platform in Delhi this morning, Rachel told me that some guy who worked for the train pulled aside my curtain four times and stared at me, until finally she yanked it shut again. He did the same thing to her, and he even invaded Paula’s bunk, getting on the other side of the curtain.
This happened to at least three people. Sure, we weren’t in the exact assigned benches, but that’s not a good enough excuse. The numbers had been messed up, so that Marsha and I had the same bunk number, so I went ahead and took a different numbered bunk that was available.