A Service of The Arrow           Thursday November 4, 1999 7:52 PM

FHS Senior Frank Janes travels halfway across the world to gain a new perspective

By: Scott Bennett

ARROW STAFF

Armed with a duffel bag, a hackey sack, and an adventurous spirit, senior Frank Janes embarked a five and a half-week sojourn to India this past August.

Alone, without even a travel guide.

“Basically, I wanted to get as far away from Montana as I could before I started coming back again,” Janes explained. At an 11 and a half-hour time difference, he did just that.

After an extensive series of plane changes, including a 13-hour layover in Bombay, —comprised mainly of “lots of hackey sack and solitaire,”— Frank arrived in Calcutta and was able to eventually find accommodations on Sudder Street, the “tourist ghetto,” at the Salvation Army Hotel. The cost: $1.50 a night. Janes was initially overwhelmed by all the poverty and filth of his new environment.

The stark differences between Indian and American life struck Frank on many levels: the pollution, the animals in the streets, and especially the crowds of humans on the street, most of them homeless. Though many of these people lived, slept, and even excreted in the streets, they spoke more English than some of the European travelers that frequented India.

“Breathing in Calcutta for a day is like smoking two packs of cigarettes,” said Janes. “They dump their garbage right in the street, and sleep wherever they can, and many sleep on the street or in the railway station.”

Janes' first days in Calcutta were spent at Prem Dan, a home for the destitute and dying founded by the sisters who worked with Mother Teresa. Janes wanted to “experience something most people don't” in India. After two weeks of diarrhea and work in Calcutta, he continued on a two-week bus and train tour throughout the countries of India, Nepal, and Bhutan, each country filled with different sights and experiences.

Janes found Nepal to be a hospitable environment; it was cleaner than India, the people were friendlier, and best of all, their diet included meat. However, after weeks of a vegetarian diet, the steak Frank had looked forward to left him a bit nauseous.

There was only one point in time where Janes became so discouraged he would have given anything just to go home. En route by train to Mugal Sarai, after a few hours in of general class, with people crowded in a tiny car and nearly falling out the windows, he was bumped up to a sleeper car by the police. Moments later, in the sleeper car, Janes was talking again with an Indian he had met in general class. At one stop, he got off to get food, and returning to the car, he found his companion draped over his pack, but thought nothing of it. After a few moments, Janes opened his pack, only to find a pouch that contained his money, passport and camera gone.

An uproar spread through the car like wildfire, and in the frenzy, Janes' companion tried to slip the pouch back into his bag before he noticed. But an old woman cried out as he did so, and soon the police were in the car, and brutally slapped the theif twice, then dragged him off of the train. Janes had only to sign a complaint before he left he train, embarrassed by all the whispers drifting through the train, with only the word “passport” understandable.

After traveling throughout India and nearly having his passport stolen, Janes returned to Calcutta, and spent his last day at a home called Kalighat. The home for the dying was much more horrific than Prem Dan. The dying there hardly moved, but just waited to be fed and washed.

So Janes' multinational journey came to an end. But his struggles didn't.

“Coming home was a pain,” said Janes. “In my first week back, my car broke down, my mom and I have been at each other's throats, and I had a week of school to catch up on. I'd have much rather been in India.”

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