The New York Times has a very interesting and well-written piece today about the migration of villagers from northern India into Mumbai and other large cities in search of work and a better life. Go read about the 24-hour journey on board the Pushpak Express. It's truly fascinating. After reading the article, watch the video and you'll feel as if you already know these people.
These passengers are also part of a great migration that is changing the world. Goldman Sachs, which has published projections about the Indian economy, predicts that 31 villagers will continue to show up in an Indian city every minute over the next 43 years — 700 million people in all. This exodus, with a similar one in China, helped push the world over a historic threshold this year: the planet, for the first time, is more urban than rural.
To ride the Pushpak Express from Lucknow, in Uttar Pradesh State in northern India, to Mumbai is to see a snapshot of that global metamorphosis.
I really wish I'd been on the train at the moment the three transsexuals in colorful saris boarded.
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