We wanted to go from Siliguri to Bodhgaya - the village, where Buddha was sitting under the tree for 40 days and finally attained his enlightenment. Bodhgaya is a place in the state of Bihar, the poorest and most corrupted state of India.
To get there we needed first to take the train from Siliguri to Patna and from Patna go by bus to Gaya and from there by rickshaw to Bodhgaya.
some spicy stuff
For a foreigner, who uses trains not only between the most touristic places, it can be quite a hassle to get train tickets. Even though Indian trains are more than half kilometer long (seams like enough place to everybody), they are usually always sold out already months before the departure. If the train tickets are sold out, there are three options for the tourists:
1) try to buy tickets with tourist quota - positive side: no extra charges, negative side: possible only with the trains going to most touristic places.
2) buy ticket 48 hours before train departure with tatkal quota - positive side: if you are quick and first in line in the morning when the reservation office opens, there is quite a high chance you will get the ticket, negative side: extra charges 75 rupees per person.
3) add yourself to the waiting list - positive side: since Indian people are buying tickets months in advance, then things can change during those months and some of them have to cancel the ticket, negative side: most probably you will not go with the train, especially when your waiting list number is 261 ...
We chose the third option, since no tourist quota was possible on the train we wanted to go with and since we were still not acquainted with the Indian Railway system, so we did not know about the tatkal option.
Our waiting list numbers were luckily 63, 64, not bad, and after few hours of waiting in the train station, the station manager put up the list with all the people in waiting list and their results, if they managed to go through the selection or not.
We were happy to see that we had seats in the train.
little beggar behind the train window bar
In the train we were sharing the compartment with an Indian family that could have as well been a gypsy family from Slovakia - two men, many women and even more children, all shouting, no matter if it was day or night, throwing rubbish on the train floor and eventually bribing the conductor to get few more beds for the night, since they did not seam to have enough space for all of the family.
After a noisy night with gypsy family we woke up in the capital city of Bihar, called Patna. Since the moment we walked out of the train station, froze on the stairs and stared at the picture in front of us, the word PATNA will always bring up shivers in us.
We were so paralyzed in the train station area, that we even forgot to take pictures. There were loads and loads of beggars, sitting in groups in front of the train station in the smoke of burning rubbish and occupying the whole big area, so that it was even difficult to cross it. At the time we were looking for a rickshaw to take us to the bus station, the beggars become more excited and energetic to see white skin.
It is hard to imagine that the square in front of the train station is not only their "working place", but also "eating place", "sleeping place", "shitting and peeing place" and who knows what else...
Then we reached to bus station, witch looked as terrifying as train station.
bus station open-air restaurant's dish washing section (little after taking the picture, a cow came and started with its everyday job - cleaning dishes)
From Gaya bus station we took a shared rickshaw together with 3 buddhist monks from Darjeeling to reach to Bodhgaya.
Bodhgaya was a small touristic village, but like any other Bihar place, full of beggars and piles of rubbish.
outdoor barber
The village itself was nothing special, every once in a while we were targets of beggars, but the Buddhist place had a peaceful and very special atmosphere. It consisted of a tree, the most holy object of the area, under which Buddha attained enlightenment and formulated his philosophy of life, World Heritage temple, erected in 6th century AD, gardens full of praying Buddhists monks from many different countries and all this was surrounded by a double fence.
Due to the meditative mantras coming from each monk section, it was very easy to forget inside the complex, what kind of place is there outside of that area.
Mahabodhi temple
Bodhi tree - a holy tree for every Buddhist
praying Buddhists
ceremony
Bodhgaya is like a little version of Lumbini in Nepal. There are many other Buddhist places and temples all over the village. Each of them surrounded by a fence and the gateway of each of them full of beggars.
The poverty of Bihar is simply unbelievable. We have not seen the higher concentration of beggars anywhere else in India and especially so many crippled beggars.
Our way happened to cross with one Croatian guy as we were leaving Bodhgaya. He said he is coming to India every year and already since ten years, but for the first time he found enough courage to come to Bihar.
"Poverty is the worst form of violence"
/Mahatma Gandhi/
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