At lunchtime the Vultures wheeled high above Katwa. BK 3 running through Katwa from Ahmadpur. 14th December 1992.
BK no.3, a Bagnall 0-6-4T of 1916 runs through Katwa's railway colony on its final kilometre into the narrow gauge terminus with a lunchtime arrival from Ahmadpur. Many people have already jumped off and more prepare to do so, common practice here.
In this poverty stricken part of West Bengal sanitary drinking water was not available, only small cups of tea or bottles of highly coloured, sickly sweet fizzy pop. With such a high sugar content it was not a good thing to drink too much of this so I remained thirsty. Until I had taken this that is.
I was approached by an off duty driver who had seen me about over the past days and he offered a drink. Why not? He led me to a hand pump and extracted a glass full from the ground below. Well it was too late to refuse now. But this is one of those turning moments, the water was cool, clear and tasted good, and it had no adverse affect. I figured it had come from quite deep down, you can get some idea by seeing how long you have to pump until the water flows.
I was to spend several weeks in the less developed areas of North India and after this always drank from the hand pumps. The risk of dehydration was greater than that of dysentery and as it turned out I never got sick.
December the 14th 1992.
At lunchtime the Vultures wheeled high above Katwa. BK 3 running through Katwa from Ahmadpur. 14th December 1992.
BK no.3, a Bagnall 0-6-4T of 1916 runs through Katwa's railway colony on its final kilometre into the narrow gauge terminus with a lunchtime arrival from Ahmadpur. Many people have already jumped off and more prepare to do so, common practice here.
In this poverty stricken part of West Bengal sanitary drinking water was not available, only small cups of tea or bottles of highly coloured, sickly sweet fizzy pop. With such a high sugar content it was not a good thing to drink too much of this so I remained thirsty. Until I had taken this that is.
I was approached by an off duty driver who had seen me about over the past days and he offered a drink. Why not? He led me to a hand pump and extracted a glass full from the ground below. Well it was too late to refuse now. But this is one of those turning moments, the water was cool, clear and tasted good, and it had no adverse affect. I figured it had come from quite deep down, you can get some idea by seeing how long you have to pump until the water flows.
I was to spend several weeks in the less developed areas of North India and after this always drank from the hand pumps. The risk of dehydration was greater than that of dysentery and as it turned out I never got sick.
December the 14th 1992.