Trains are the lifeblood of the Indian society. Air travel being still beyond the reach of most common folks, while roads and traffic not being user-friendly for long-distance driving, trains remain as popular as ever. Families routinely take 40-50-hr train rides to visit relatives on the other side of the country.
The pic attached is the express train schedule at Ernakulam Town station, a major stop outside Cochin. When I first looked at table, it was confusing and unnecessarily complicated (but then that's what Indians are famous for - making simple things complicated!) - 3 scripts were used, English, Hindi, Malayalam.
We decided to take train #2617, impressively named the 'Mangala-Lakshadweep Express', departing at 12.45pm (seen a third of the way down the table), for our 15-hr trip to Goa up north. We later found out the train went all the way to a place called Nizamuddin, a major station in New Delhi. Total traveling time to Delhi: 60 hours! :-)
Buying the train tickets is another lengthy process in itself, but I'll leave that for the next time.
