December 30, 2013
My train leaves today for Jaipur at 4.15 in the afternoon, an overnight trip of 16 hours. I packed and said good byes to Punkaj and Meena at their office.
The Qasab office is a busy place, full of bell makers, lacquer artists and appliqué designers. Two village girls sit in the corner in their native costumes with bracelets all the way up their arms and they are embroidering and finishing quilts. Everybody is eating the See’s candy I brought and drinking chai tea.
I had a Gujerati lunch at the hotel. My rickshaw driver picked me up and loaded me on the train. As I watch the countryside slip by through the train window at sunset, I think of all that I have seen and done so far and the hospitality of the Indian people I have encountered ( I think that I am the only foreigner on the train). What a trip.