It’s in the dead center of India. Our Lonely Planet guide book describes Nagpur as “hopelessly devoid of sites.” Perfect. We randomly found a hotel to crash while we figured out how to get further north. The adult son of the hotel owner spoke good english and straight away offered to help us get our tickets. He called an agent. Settled everything. We had two 3rd class sleeper tickets to Jaipur, leaving in two days. The son was so kind and such a life saver. Who knew the trains would be so complex!
Worn out from our train, and by suggestion of our hotel staff, we ordered delivery—aloo gobi, mushroom marsala, and naan. The son and another young employee took turns talking to the delivery driver on Annika’s phone. Finally he found the hotel and Annika went out to meet him. A second later she poked her head back in the door and started explaining something to me in german…
I looked back at her with an Uh-oh-shit look on my face…“Hmm? What, darling Annika?” She realized then she was talking to me in German and we both started cracking up, it’d been a long 24 hours. We got our delivery and set up a floor picnic. Through mouth fulls of curry and naan, we talked about the rat in our train ceiling, the downpour in Chennai, and what Nagpur held in store for us!
That night we went to a cinema. Diwali string lights covered the sides of buildings, giving the streets a gleeful holiday feel. The only local movie that looked fun was in Hindi…“Two tickets please!” We got popcorn, ice cream bars, marsala chai and called it dinner—so fun to be a grownup. The movie was called Badhaai Ho, a comedy about “a 25-year-old man tries to suppress his embarrassment when his mother announces that she is pregnant.” We didn’t understand the details, but the over arching message was clear—choose family and love over status and social norms. And how delightful to hear a theater full of Nagpurians cracking up!
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| Dinner at the Movies |
Our second day in Nagpur, we woke up late and walked out into the heat, looking for breakfast. Just walking around an Indian city is loud and stressful. The stink, the horns, trash and commotion filling every frame. Its a lot to face before breakfast.
We found a small restaurant, and as we were thinking about what and how to order (it was all in Hindi), the waiter brought us two metal plates. Three fresh chapatis, and little bowls of dhal, aloo gobi, marsala, and a curd with a thick layer of sugar. I guess that took off the pressure to order the right thing! Turned out it was an all-you-can-eat situation! Different men kept coming over with fresh stacks of chapatis, pales of soup, refilling our plates. It was spicy, delish, and 140 IND ($1.92).
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| Best Barista |
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| Idlis! Our favorite south Indian breakfast |
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| Trying to get the power back on in the Science Center |
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| The floor piano with no keys |
The silver lining of getting stuck in Nagpur was that it had a planetarium—Annika and I found out we share a deep love for planetariums. Raman Science Center gave us a combo ticket for a 3-D show, entrance to the science center, and—most importantly—the planetarium! Walking in we found a mirror maze, a piano floor which didn’t have any keys but made sounds at random places you stepped. A few minutes before the planetarium show was scheduled to start, an employee came over to tell us that we were the only ones who’d bought tickets, and they had a ten person maximum to run the show. No! This was the worst. Tickets were around 20 rupees (20 cents), so I asked if we each bought five more tickets would they run it for us? Please? “Sorry, it is not possible.” So we walked around, took some selfies with most of the other museum goers, the power went out, we realized how sleepy we were (hadn’t been able to find coffee or chai), security got the power back on. Annika is an optimist and kept saying “Maybe if we just wait a little longer, they’ll have enough people…” On our way out of the center we asked one last time, “Any more planetarium shows today.” Surprisingly, yes! In five minutes! This was the best! We started chatting with a man and his small child, waiting for the doors to open. He said his little boy loved the stars. We said, “Oh man, us too! We love planetariums!” We went in, got cozy, and the show started, only in Hindi, but still the planets and stars, super! But in the dark with the nice reclining seats I got so sleepy. Before I knew it I was woken up by the lights coming back on, shows over folks! I was just starting to feel guilty about having passed out when Annika leaned over and said, “Oh man I fell asleep…”
Well shoot…
The man, Sid, and his son asked if we’d enjoyed the show…Ummm well, we love planetariums! We all talked for a while, then they gave us a ride back downtown to a nice spot to get coffee. He gave us his number and texted us detailed lists of cool spots to go up north. Really helpful cause its such huge country with so much to see! Such kindness. Him and his family live in Mumbai, he said we are welcome anytime.
The next day we caught our train to Jaipur. 22 hours. Too late to back out now…
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| Sid and his son <3 |
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