The Impermanence of Things.... (Dec 10)

We are catching our train to Pathenkot today on our way back to Dharamsala. It doesn't leave until 4 pm so we have plenty of time. We do our final pack/repack to make sure everything still fits and then head to Mukti's for one last breakfast. The porridge is dee-licious. We promise to send the photos we've taken of him and his family once we get home and then head down to the shopping area. We'd been looking at a few items and had decided that now was the time to buy. We noticed a very beautiful punjabi suit as we were headed back to the room and Brad bought it for me as my early birthday present.

We checked out at noon, loaded on the packs and walked down to the Welcome Centre. The Welcome Centre is down next to the river, away from the main road. It has a nice courtyard and seating area to chill out. It has almost every course you think you might ever want to take... cooking, reiki, transcendental meditation, yoga... and on and on. They also have a class utilizing a yoga swing. I thought it looked like a cross between a hammock and an ancient torture device. I entertained the idea of picking one up except I didn't want to have to try and squeeze it into the packs. The centre also has a little shop selling organic and wellness products. The place s run by a Dutch man and his Indian wife. We just chilled out for a few hours listening to music and talking and enjoying the great food. They even made a special order of pakoras for us - they weren't on the menu.

I climbed up over the levy and collected some of the sand from the beach in a small container. I thought about bringing water since a great many pilgrims come to collect the water from the Ganges in jugs and take it home to dying relatives but I thought sand might last longer.

At around 2:30 we walked back up to the road and caught a rickshaw to the train station. There are only two platforms at Rishikesh - since it's a small station. I guess we looked lost because people started directing us to the second platform right away. The train was in the station even though we were an hour early. We found our car and our seats and secured our large packs under the seats with our cables and locks.

I sat in the seats and chilled out while Brad went in search of snacks. Suddenly, the train started to move. We weren't due to leave for almost an hour. I didn't completely panic but I was a wee bit concerned. Brad was off the train somewhere, there was no one else on the train that I'd seen and as far as I knew, no one knew I was even on the train. I sat down and decided just to wait and see what happened. The train stopped just outside the station and Brad appeared. He had had a bit of a panic himself as he saw the train pulling away but he managed to chase it down. He said that there were people in other cars and no one seemed that concerned. I guess they were just maneuvering and adding cars because we moved a couple of more times before we pulled back into the station and the serious loading got underway. We left right on time.

India rail, we've learned, generally leaves on time from the originating station but its a crapshoot after that. Our first stop was back in Haridwar, just down the road. We went through a very long tunnel (not as long as the chunnel but it was really, really long) and pulled into the station. We were supposed to be here only 15 minutes but we ended up sitting on the platform for over an hour.

We were joined in our berth by a man and his son and were waiting patiently to depart. Some other people were loading and there was alot of general moving about. I noticed a couple of guys who seemed lost or something. One of them kept climbing up onto bunks and getting down and moving seats and just generally wandering around. Little did I know that my initial instincts were right but that I was ignoring them. He eventually left. I had put my purse and daypack on the bunk above me (which was where I would be sleeping) to get them out of the way. I went to get my purse to take a photo and it was gone.

Yep, the strange man who I'd been suspicious of had been so bold as to grab my bag while I was sitting directly below it... not only that... the man and his son were sitting with me as well! Brad and I went through the initial denial, looking everywhere... then we were on a search. The man in our berth was very upset and he and his son went up and down the cars looking for the men and telling everyone else in the car what had happened. He was quite incensed! I'm not exactly sure what he was saying since it was in Hindi but I could tell he was really not happy. Brad looked up and down and tried to find a conductor but with no luck. The bag was long gone. I figure he must just boarded, grabbed what he could, and taken off. They don't check tickets until you're underway so it's pretty easy to come and go. In fact, in the class we were in, they never did come and check the tickets so it seems like its pretty much a free for all.

We sat looking at each other as I mentally went through what was in the bag. I was a bit mad at myself for not following my instincts and Brad was mad at himself for not protecting me. As we sat there looking at each other and talking about it the anger wasn't really all that significant and it passed pretty quickly. We were almost peaceful really, each waiting for the other to freak out. No freak outs. We had pretty much accepted that the bag was gone, both note books (I had run out of space and started a new one), my camera with two months of photos, the little APS camera, my backup ID and credit cards, some cash and a couple of traveler cheques. Nothing irreplaceable. Nothing life shattering. We still had everything else and the pictures in Brad's camera and we were OK. Nothing had happened to us... just to the stuff we were carrying. We actually felt sorry for the person who took the bag that he had fallen to the point where he had to steal. We were so calm in fact that we wondered if there was something wrong with us? Shouldn't we be more upset? Storming up and down? Demanding justice?

We decided there was nothing wrong, we had just reached an epiphany of sorts. A different state of mind that neither of us would have predicted or even expected. We seemed to have passed through the stages of grief regarding the loss and hit acceptance pretty fast. In fact, we had to laugh about it as we both realized that the other was not, in fact, going to freak out and that we were really... just fine.

Our companion had told enough people that everyone on the train seemed concerned and to be watching out to ensure that there were no repeats. We are due to arrive in Pathenkot at 2:20 am but with our hour delay already, that seems unlikely. We climb up into our bunks and try to get some sleep. Since we are traveling sleeper class, there is no bedding this time. Other passengers have blankets that seem to materialize from no where... we use our daypacks as pillows and snuggle down into our fleecy tops...