17th August 2011 (Wednesday)

We woke up early (I swear, I have never seen 5 or 6 am, so many times in 1 week, except when I went to Bangalore for a conference). We had to catch a train to the next site, and so off we went. Nothing really interesting happened during the day, I spent the day at the site because we were not staying in that city for the night, and so had to sit in the air conditioning all day, and ended up with a cold. Yuck! We had our lunch, which was chicken byirani with raita :-) Then returned and finished up the work, and took a train to Bishnupur.

Well, we arrived just in time, as we got on the platform the train started to pull away like 2 seconds later and so I grabbed onto the 2 handles by the door and jumped up, and then grabbed the heavy suitcase from DH so he could jump on. 3 of our party had gotten on the car, and 1 had gotten on the in front of us, and yeah, it reminded me of a scene from Jab We Met, where the girl is jumping on the train. It was amazing to me that I had jumped on to the train and even more so that I had grabbed the heavy suitcase from DH with no problems! :-)

Then we checked into our hotel, where the cook asked us what we wanted for dinner, and we were able to tell him exactly what we wanted and how we wanted it. We had rice, daal, egg curry and something else I can't remember, then we slept because we were going to be playing tourist the next day.

16th August 2011 (Tuesday)

Last night we didn't sleep. There was too much work to be fit into the night, we were cleaning up our room and packing. As well, as making sure we had everything one could possibly need for 5 days of traveling.

Our train was at 6 a.m. And we left our house at about 510am, and were on our way. After arriving at the train station we waited for the rest of our party before boarding the train that would take us to Purulia. It's a long distance local train, so thankfully we had our tickets booked and confirmed earlier so we had seats. There were a few (who didn't have confirmed seating) who were just sitting in the seats hoping and praying that the person with that assigned seat didn't show up.

The train left at around 6am, and our journey began. We were just in the chair class, after one of our group asking DH if I would be ok in a non-AC chair car, and off we went. It was amazing, there were so many wallah's (good sellers) coming through the compartment. They were selling all sorts of food, toys (including games, key chains, flashlights and fingernail clippers) and other sorts of goodies.

We managed to fall asleep, however, I kept getting woken up by the calling of the wallah's at first. Our first stop was , where we had breakfast of luchi and alu torkuri (luchi and potato curry) which wasn't bad at all. Then we re-boarded the train and kept on our journey.

We arrived in Purulia about 1130 or 12, where we then checked into our hotel, and freshened up and ate our lunch which consisted of rice, fish, alu posto (potato with poppy seed paste), daal and some fried potatoes. After lunch the rest of the party went over to the work site, whereas I opted to stay back and rest since there would be really no need for me to go. I slept most of the day and watched tv. Later DH and the rest returned, and we had our dinner. Dinner consisted of 4 roti, some chicken, and daal fry. Then we went to bed, so we could wake up and be on our way.

15th August 2011 (Monday)

Yesterday and today I have been running around like a chicken with my head cut off. DH and I are leaving in 2 days (16^th) for a work trip for 5 days, which also just happens to include a day off where we will go to Bishnupur and see some of the terra cotta temples and Jhapan. This is the whole reason I'm going on the trip, and I can't wait to actually get going!!

Yesterday I spent the day at New Market buying leggings and other odds and ends. I was running to numerous pharmacies to find Zeoline, a chemical that will purify water in 5 minutes. I went to one pharmacy on my way to South City Mall, and after asking “zeoline achhe?” (Do you have Zeoline?) and “Regular Eno achhe?” (Do you have regular Eno?) I am paying for the Eno, and the guy looks and me and with a serious face asked me, “Are you a foreigner?” I kept a straight face and said, Yes, and went on my way.

I was laughing about that for some time and it keeps me entertained. :-) Tomorrow we travel! :-)