Chapter 2: Plant response to elevated CO2 - DRUM - University of ...

Once Mom, Mami, Vama and me went to Anand by train. Farmers and
their families in bright saris and turbans, tattoos and silver jewelry sat peeling
oranges and cracking open groundnut shells in the train. The train was steamdriven
and fed with hot coals, black and monstrously huge; the engine spat out
so many coal flakes that by the time we reached Anand, we had soot all over our
face and hair. From Agaas there were just three stops to Anand. The first was
Karamsad, known for the craftsmanship of its leather shoes. A farmer with a
bandhani turban and flowing moustache said that the shoes of Karamsad
claimed its owner. On the first few days, they would hurt awfully, creating giant
sores, but after a few days the leather closed in perfectly with the contours and
the frame of the foot, the sole sliding in at the arch of the raised foot only to
flatten again when brought down. They turned into an extension of your skin.
The next was an obscure station, where the train stopped only for a while.
No one ever got down or got in. I wonder why the train stopped there at all.
Next Vallabh Vidyanagar, the university town and then the dirt and squalor of
Anand with its small restaurants and colorful bazaar where Mom and Mami
bought cotton nighties for thirty rupees.
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