These wonderful ladies took me under their wings on my first Indian train trip from the unberably hot and disgusting Kolkata to Darjeeling, a veritable paradise by comparison. They offered me food, and laughed when I asked them if the language they were speaking was Hindi (It was Bengali, duh). Once the lights were turned off and people got into bed, they and one other woman began what I can only imagine was a joke telling competition that lasted until 3:30 am. I did not arrive in Darjeeling well rested, but it did prepare me for the rest of my time in India, where ‘Quiet’ and ‘consideration’ are do not exist in any of the many languages spoken there.
