Last Train to Hyderabad - India 3

The next day I took the last, and only, train to Hyderabad from Victoria Station. For $27 I had an overnight 2nd class AC bunk, in a compartment shared with a navy officer and his wife (posted to the command post in Hyderabad) and a tech worker Ashish. For the most part the accommodations were acceptable, similar to overnight trains in Europe, only having salespeople hawking their wares at regularly intervals.

In addition to the standard lunch and dinner offers, there was a tea purveyor (mostly sugar and milk), a soup salesman (Dixie cup full of spiced tomato soup), a water salesman, a softdrink guy and a candy vendor (mostly varieties of nut brittles). Furthermore, a magazine salesmen, a book salesmen, and two kids with children's books also came through. After the first two hours of 10 minute solicitations, we closed the curtains to our cabin. This, surprisingly, stopped all solicitation. I had come to believe that Indians were more persistent.

Ashish, 23, was happy to talk with me in English. Among other things, he indicated that most people working in Mumbai would prefer to work in another city. This is due to the overcrowding of the Mumbai area. The geography is very similar to San Francisco, only it lacks bay bridges. Ashish was leaving Mumbai for a couple of months to work on the far side of Hyderabad in a coastal beach/port town.

Because much of India's growth is through knowledge service, there isn't much need to concentrate people in Mumbai. Aside from Mumbai's high concentration of intellectuals, there is little to recommend working there. Mumbai has no more technology than most other cities, so hopefully the lower cost will fuel growth in other cities. Although, even slower growth won't help Mumbai's overcrowding.

Ashish indicated a few other things to me. Much of his generation enjoyed American news: NYTimes and Washington Post. Due to high competition the typical India works 6 days a week (Ashish worked 7, although not by choice). Due to India's overpopulation students commonly work 12 hour days. Ouch.