train madness

The Penguin Inn is pretty nice. There are no descriptions for anything on the menu, so I asked the waiter what like six things were, and then of course by the time he told me, I had forgotten which was which, so I just chose one at random. It was called Aloo something or other, and it was potatoes and peas in a red sauce. I also had "cheese butter naan". It was a pretty good meal.
After dinner, we finished watching Erin Brokovich. I like it.
Today I slept in until about nine, then Trina and I got up to go into Khardah. We went back to the Chowringhee area, though a little North of where we've been going, to Park Street. Park Street is really nice, it has lots of restaraunts and its pretty clean (relatively speaking). We went to the Oxford Book Store, which has a huge selection of books and a little cafe' and reading area. The only thing that I didn't like about it is, as far as I can tell, their fiction section stops at P. I bought The Book Theif, which I've heard is pretty good. At some point I'll start buying Indian literature, but at this point, reading is like a little escape; refuge from teh intensity of being here. I was a little disappointed that they didn't sell any newspapers there. I thought that was my best bet for finding a New York Times. I can't find it anywhere...
After the book store, we went to a restaraunt that I had chosen out of the Lonely Planet because it had some European offerings. Trina go chicken cordon bleu, but I ended up choosing Vegetable Korma and garlic naan. It was absolutely delicious. This was a pretty high-end restaraunt; a place where in the States you might expect to pay upwards of twenty dollars for your meal. The exchange rate is a beautiful thing, and my lunch cost about five bucks.
After lunch, we walked around Park Street a little more and stopped in at a cafe' called Frosty's. We left the area early so we could beat the rush and get back to Khardah relatively unruffled.
No such luck.
We made it to Dum Dum on the metro no problem, but for some reason they changed what platform a train was coming on, and it came on the platform that usually has the trains that go to Khardah. We unkowingly got on. The fourth stop, which should have been Khardah, was quite obviously not Khardah. We got off and ended up waiting for at least 15 minutes to catch the train coming back in the other direction. It was a more rural, less hectic place. When we did get back on the train, a lady gave me a slice of guava, which was nice. She continually tried to speak to me in Bengali, even though I told her I didn't understand. Trina and I got off a stop early, at Dum Dum Something, instead of Dum Dum junction. We then had to wait another 15 minutes for the next train going South. When we finally made it to Dum Dum junction and had made sure that the train we would get on would take us to Khardah, we had not beaten the rush. It began pouring rain, another damper on our spirits. We huddled under a staircase as neither of us had an umbrella. The train arrived and we fought to get on. I was barely on, and Trina was behind me. Her body was hanging out of the train, I think. I pushed as HARD as I could, angering a few people, to get Trina more room to stand. I was unhappy with the situation, but I think she was really shaken up. I have never been as happy to see Khardah as I was when we got off that time. Its a shame that in order to get to a place where we can relax and have a good time, we have to go through such a high-stress situation. It defeats the purpose in a way, though I am definitely still willing to go through it. I just can't stay in Khardah for that long. Thats India, I guess. More people than you know how to deal with.
~m