Thanks to all you lovely people INDIA is happening! The producer journey planning begins.
This trip to meet the producers and tell the story of muka kids clothing journey from seed to kid, starts with a train journey (obviously it starts by flying a long way first from down the bottom of the world - arg the carbon), but really India ALWAYS starts with a train journey. This time between Kolkata and Bangalore (shortest travel time 29 hours). Why not fly you ask? Well to start I have a (not unhealthy I think) fear of Indian internal flights, but secondly India IS train travel. The real India. Trains in India are a microcosm of its society all packed into a single (sometime rickety) time travelling machine that moves across rural landscapes, through slums and wastelands, past ruined temples, evidence of its mighty and tumultuous past, in and out of nights and through days. There is no more perfect way to really see India and all her perfect imperfections.
For me (a woman of the do travel yourself age) any journey starts with going on Indian Railways website…. and suddenly bang! I am back, entrenched in the craziness. To Westerners it is like a world out of time, gone made with bureaucracy, inefficiently, inequality and backhanders. But this is India, and thing you HAVE to do is totally change your expectations. A 4 tiered system of booking requiring dummy mobile phone numbers, a scan of your passport, a 3 day email exchange, and two registration systems? This is not nuts, this is all just part of the ride.
While I was thinking of travelling first class this time (oh yes for the princely sum of $100 I can go top of the rung on Indian railway class system), as someone pointed out first class train travel in India is just less interesting. Last time I was there backpacking we did it sleeper class and I think the 5th of 8 different travel class systems (!!), so it was pretty interesting and gave some fairly raw insights into a country where a great gap has opened between the rich and poor.
So at this early stage the plan is to arrive in either Bangalore or Kolkata, visit my potential manufacturers and trace their supply chains back to the organic fairtrade cotton co-operatives, get on the train between the two cities, and in between all this spend some time with various trade based agencies and enterprises that work with women in poverty. I suppose I better get that passport renewed….
If anyone out there has got some insights on Indian train travel they want to share I would love you to pop over to our facebook page posting on this (https://www.facebook.com/mukakids/photos/a.521989241241029.1073741828.436101496496471/574985042608115/?type=1&theater) and start a chat!
