I'm Going to Koppal!

So all weekend long, my students have been scheming to figure out a way that I can go to Koppal with them. This was the one field visit that I had been planning on attending since the first day that I got here, but for some reason the travel agent missed my ticket.

The idea was to sneak me onto the train. We were going to be in sleeper cars, so I could just snuggle into someone’s berth behind some bags. Right? And if I got caught, we could just pay them off…this is India, isn’t it? The funny thing is, even their professor was talking about sneaking me on. So there I was, in a moral dilemma – I never, ever break rules. And here I am considering taking a 10 hour train ride without a ticket?!?

At lunch, I found myself sitting by Sham, who was also going to Koppal. He started talking about how it was really too bad that such a mistake happened because it would have been great if I could have gone. He didn’t understand what happened – whawt if I just got on the train with the other students and hid when the conductor came around? The professor and I looked at each other and looked back at Sham, asking, “Really?!?” because if Sham, who is one of the most integritious people I work with, was suggesting it, we would totally do it. “No,” he said, “because there could be some trouble. But I am going to call Anu to see what the problem was. Because that really shouldn’t have happened. And I am going to tell her that you are sitting here crying….” “Well Sham, I did cry. Just a little bit. Not only because of that – it was a really rough day – [that was when I had lice] but yes, there were some tears.”

And with that he was off.

Ten minutes later I ran into him again, and he said, “We figured it out – you are coming.”

The best part was when I told Roshen. He giggled. And then 15 minutes later he came back to where Sid and I were meeting (In the love hut, slapping mosquitos. He hates that I make us have meetings in the great outdoors. Roshen loves it.) and said, “You were serious! I thought you were joking.” I said, “Roshen are you happy?” And he said, “Nooooo” and walked away giggling.

I love my life. And as great of a blog post sneaking onto a train would have been, I am thankful that I ended up with a ticket J