Flashback to Jaipur, India, 2010... Three friends and I caught the night train from Jodhpur to Jaipur one chilly December night. Do to a mess-up, the first-class tickets we had reserved were non-existent, for reasons we never figured out. It was either Unreserved General Class (below second class) or wait for morning and try to sort it out.
We decided to go Unreserved General Class, which is usually taken by workers and poorer folk traveling from city to city. We were a motley crew: one of us was tall and thin with red hair, another plumper with long, curly blond hair, one with darker short hair, and me, who at the time had short brown hair and was the oldest.
We ran down the platform and boarded the train just in time. No one was in the first compartment except these six guys, who were whooping it up and at first didn't see us. Suddenly, one of them saw us, and the shocked expression on his face made the others turn in our direction. We smiled, and settled ourselves down in one open compartment with very hard wooden benches which would be our beds for that night. All six came and sat just across, commenting in their language I can only imagine what, and still grinning sweetly ear-to-ear. One friend had some sweets and they gladly accepted.
Then I pulled out my camera, which brought more comments. Like most Indians, they seemed to want their photo taken for nothing more than just seeing themselves on the screen. Of course I obliged, and they were thrilled.
What a sweet group they were.
See other Smiles on City Daily Photo Theme Day.
