View out the window on a train from Mumbai to Goa : NPR

Far-Flung Postcards is a weekly series in which NPR’s international team shares moments from their lives and work around the world.

I love Mumbai, but there are days when the city tests me. When I walk in stifling heat amid a cacophony of horns, dodging dog droppings on the sidewalk, coughing up dust kicked up by zigzagging rickshaws.

So I took a break with my family this month near the beach in Goa and booked a ride in a Vistadome coach on the 12051 Jan Shatabdi Express, departing at 5:10am from the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj terminus of the British era.

As the sun rose and the mists evaporated, I and the woman sitting next to me swiveled our chairs to face the train’s famous wide, clear windows. As we did, a lush, green vista passed by: tangled jungle, swollen rivers and waterfalls.

I gasped, then laughed. What a perfect balm, I thought. And a chance to fall in love with India again.

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