Around India in 80 Trains Quotes

“To understand India you have to see it, hear it, breathe it and feel it. Living through the good, the bad and the ugly is the only way to know where you fit in and where India fits into you.”
― Monisha Rajesh, Around India in 80 Trains

“A country’s greatness cannot be measured by its size, but by the standard of living of every individual.”
― Monisha Rajesh, Around India in 80 Trains

“surnames give away caste and social standing; jobs indicate earnings and therefore power, as does revealing where you live. Once they have all the answers, they can assign people to categories and gauge how useful the acquaintance will be in the future.”
― Monisha Rajesh, Around India in 80 Trains

“I knew that asking my father’s name was a disguised attempt at finding out my caste, which I could not help them with. I had never known it, nor did I care. But in India it is important to establish certain facets early on in a conversation, as it sets the dynamics for the ensuing relationship. To most visitors to India, this is just the Indian way of making conversation, in the way that the English cannot resist discussing the weather, or Americans discussing themselves.”
― Monisha Rajesh, Around India in 80 Trains

“No matter how much time you spend in India or your immunity builds against the dirt, poverty and squalor, some things will always catch you off guard.”
― Monisha Rajesh, Around India in 80 Trains

“A new buoyancy took over, the buoyancy of arrival. It brings with it a renewed sense of being that blossoms just before the end of a journey. No matter how long or tiring the journey, the bothersome bits are shelved and forgotten in those final minutes. Impending arrival shifts the traveller’s mindset into hopeful optimism that a new and unexplored phase is about to begin.”
― Monisha Rajesh, Around India in 80 Trains

“To their credit, Indians are extremely quick thinkers, but rather than admit to a lack of knowledge, they have a tendency simply to make things up on the spot.”
― Monisha Rajesh, Around India in 80 Trains

“Indians are racist. They will not admit it, but paradoxically they are proud of it. While North Indians are classified as brash, undignified and vulgar with wealth, Southerners are deemed bookish, backward and black – wholly undesirable in a country where Clarins White Plus face cream is advertised as ‘the magic wand you have been waiting for’.”
― Monisha Rajesh, Around India in 80 Trains

“Queuing is a rarity in India but if you are the next in line, you do not stand behind the person being served. You stand next to him. If possible, you stand next to him with one elbow lightly touching his ribs, so that when he moves you are guaranteed your spot.”
― Monisha Rajesh, Around India in 80 Trains

“designed for 1800 standing passengers can often carry up to 7000,”
― Monisha Rajesh, Around India in 80 Trains

“Delhi was teeming and vast, but its pockets of green offered space to breathe and time to stroll. Mumbai raged unharnessed: if you strolled you would be trampled, or at least knocked over by a cyclist. Even the tendency towards idling was noticeably absent. In Mumbai, everyone meant business and the feeling was addictive.”
― Monisha Rajesh, Around India in 80 Trains

“Indians are also the only ones to go out of their way to make each other’s lives as difficult as possible,”
― Monisha Rajesh, Around India in 80 Trains

“One in six people in the world is an Indian,”
― Monisha Rajesh, Around India in 80 Trains

“India is not shining—at least, not yet. The notion is an image, a façade built up by the powerful elite, who hope that if they shout it loudly and long enough it will drown out everything else, grab enough headlines and start to be true. A country’s greatness cannot be measured by its size, but by the standard of living of every individual. Pockets of the country are aglow, bathed in the light of gated mansions, malls and Mercedes headlamps, but like the passengers on the Lifeline Express, hundreds of millions still stand in the shadows, waiting for the clouds to part.”
― Monisha Rajesh, Around India in 80 Trains

“He munched”
― Monisha Rajesh, Around India in 80 Trains

“Between Jhansi and Bina, the sun and I became embroiled in a game of peek-a-boo. It darted over rooftops and ducked behind trees, hiding behind rogue clouds. But it soon became tired of the game, turning pink from exhaustion and slid down behind the hills, winking on its way out.”
― Monisha Rajesh, Around India in 80 Trains

“Let’s say the number is 88432, that means the carriage was built in 1988. Then look at the last three digits. If they lie between 401 and 600 you have a general 2nd-class coach. Subtract 401 from 432. This means that it was the 31st coach built that year. Any carriage whose last three digits lie between 201and 400 is a sleeper-class carriage.”
― Monisha Rajesh, Around India in 80 Trains

“a squash rally of accusations,”
― Monisha Rajesh, Around India in 80 Trains

“During her younger years, the Deccan Queen had been decked out in regal splendour. Her first-class restaurant car was finished in silver oak with zebrawood panelling and glass-topped tables. The second-class dining car was panelled in maple with walnut mouldings. Third-class passengers were not allowed on board.”
― Monisha Rajesh, Around India in 80 Trains

“Harbouring a constant sense of incredulity made every day in India a new adventure.”
― Monisha Rajesh, Around India in 80 Trains

“wore glittering bindis and Pushkar passports – threads around their wrists. Touts and fake priests often pounce on tourists new to the holy town, offering flowers and blessings in exchange for a few thousand rupees. In return, a sacred thread is tied around the wrist, representing a vaccination against further hassle. Pious passport-wearers preserved the thread for months after they had arrived home in Fulham, and wore it until it smelt, rotted and fell off in the shower. This was definitely the right way to the tourist bureau.”
― Monisha Rajesh, Around India in 80 Trains

“It was like travelling in a luxury Tardis.”
― Monisha Rajesh, Around India in 80 Trains

“India Version 2.0 was now up and running. Indians championed their nation as a global superpower, expounding its potential to overtake everyone as the fastest-growing economy. Yet for all its advances and progression, this was still a country where, in a village in Orissa, a 2-year-old boy could be married off to a dog called Jyoti to ward off evil spirits and ease the bad omen of his rotting tooth.”
― Monisha Rajesh, Around India in 80 Trains

“Returning to Madras was like being reunited with an ex-lover. On the surface we were friends, but while wounds may heal, their scars run deep. We had seen little of each other since 1993 and in that time Madras had adopted a new name, expanded its waistline and grown into a monster of a metropolis that I barely recognised. But like an ex-lover, it still smelt the same.”
― Monisha Rajesh, Around India in 80 Trains

“India is not a country that lends itself well to organisation and punctuality, so to try to incorporate any system to the contrary is like trying to force a square peg into a round hole and will only result in frustration or an arterial embolism.”
― Monisha Rajesh, Around India in 80 Trains