Day 23 - Forgettable

Nagpur is the top contender for the most forgettable stop in this trip. There is literally no good reason for you, dear reader, to come here unless you absolutely have to. “Why are you there, then?” is the question that probably follows, and the answer to that is “Because the Kanha Tiger Reserve sucks at letting people know that they close during the Monsoon season, leading prospective visitors to book flights and trains before realising that is the case”. Not the most concise answer, but it will have to do.

The train journey here only confirmed what I suspected - we were entering a more industrial and less inspiring part of India. Upon our arrival, we were dying for two things - a shower and something to eat, both activities delayed by the fact that our hotel room stank of cigarettes as the manager, for some reason, thought we looked like smokers. With the showers out of the way, we headed to a cafe that had good ratings on all of the restaurant-rating app things. Despite the name (The Breakfast Story) I was pretty certain they would have options for us to have lunch instead, as it was 1pm. My sister was concerned that they would not. I was wrong. She was right.

The very late breakfast did end up being quite tasty, especially  as it was accompanied by a gallon of Masala Chai, and we returned to our hotel to rest up for a bit. At this point, and after googling the obvious words “things to do in Nagpur”, I had very low expectations for what the following six hours had to offer. Nevertheless, Nagpur still managed to disappoint.

While a Buddhist monument known as the Deekshabhoomi provided a decent foreground for our first and hopefully last Nagpur sunset ever, the “Zero Mile Point” that is supposed to mark what once was the geographic centre of British India was surrounded by construction. It appears that the council are not happy with the attractiveness of the city centre and are building a “Nagpur Heritage Walk”. Judging by the fact that we failed to notice we were in the city centre when the Uber driver tried to drop us off there, they are probably right.

Heading to a shopping mall for some dinner made us feel like the locals were not very used to foreigners. We are used to being stared at by now, and the number of people asking to take selfies with me (or simply taking selfies with me in the background without asking) increased dramatically once my blonde sister joined me, but the look in the faces of Nagpurians did not say “look, there goes a tourist!” but rather “what is that giant, pale-faced creature floating in front of my eyes?”. It got to a point where the entire restaurant staff was hovering around our table and ended up bringing us three sets of starters, as the first set was so spicy it made me cry.

At this point, I am fairly sure I have written more words about Nagpur than anyone else in the history of humanity. If that is not the case, someone needs to tell the poor man or woman to get on a train and go somewhere else. Anywhere will do. Seriously.

Cheers,
J-Wowww