Train announcements roll across Ratlam Junction day and night, where the Delhi–Mumbai main line meets tracks from Ajmer and Khandwa. Step outside and the next sound is a crunch, as someone bites into Ratlami sev, the clove-and-pepper gram flour snack the city sends all over India. In the old sarafa lanes, jewelers weigh out gold.
Beyond the station, families gather by the pond at the Kalika Mata temple in the evening, and a short drive leads to Sailana's palace garden of giant cacti. Winters are dry and cool, summers turn fiercely hot, and the monsoon soaks July and August. A Local Friend can open a door you would not have knocked on, like a sev maker's kitchen at frying time.
