Spirit of Mumbai : Local Trains!!

Typical day for a Mumbai Salesman 

It was a usual day for me like any other Mumbaikar. I had a meeting scheduled at 11am with a customer in Lower Parel. Staying in the outskirts of Mumbai might have an advantage on cost of living however if you want to reach the main city, you have to commute only by the Local Trains – a lifeline for every Mumbaikar. Specifically for a professional salesman like me, it can never be avoided.

If you have to travel by train, especially towards Mumbai during the peak time ( office hours), you need to ensure you have to have a cushion of minimum 2hours and today I made sure I am at the station by 9am. Its always a wonderful feeling to have a luxury of travelling I class, thanks to the profession and my company  as Iam entitled for it ;)  One big advantage to commute on I class ticket is that traveler, when he has to buy the ticket,  gets a special priority ( more like a frequent flier if you consider Air travel ), Ofcourse you spend 11 times more for a I class as compared to II class travel fares. I managed a ticket from the ticket window irritating and bypassing many other II class passengers,  who seem to be spending half of their lives standing in Queues on such ticket windows L  As expected  an old man on the II class queue  tried to stop by pointing me on the long queue however his expressions changed to frustration after I declared my class of travel. I feel bad but sometimes you cant help as it doesn’t make sense to stand in a long IInd class queue to get a I class ticket.

Fresh morning with a fresh energy, I decided to go by a fast train as it can save atleast half an hour. I had anticipated the crowd specially at the peak timings which I planned today but confidence shatters when you see human beings as honey bees  trying to get inside the comb L It was a typical day for any Mumbaikar but for me, especially after spending 3 years in Chennai, I have lost my agility especially when I need to catch a train.

A good thing about the Mumbai local trains is that every 5 minutes, during the peak hours, there is a train and just in case you miss one, you always have the next. I was sure that I can atleast board the train somehow as I had a I class ticket and you have special I class compartments for executives like us J

The train arrival was announced and it was suppose to come in any moment. I was waiting like every other fellow passenger at the red and green stripe area that indicates the I class coach. If you want to see unity in diversity, you should stand in any of these stations in Mumbai. I looked around and found a lot of people in these crowds are like teams. Most of them work either at one place, or one town or have been travelling since ages with each other on the same train at the same time scheduled. One thing you can learn from these commuters is there is no hierarchy in these teams. Ofcourse, in terms of noise making or singing or eating Gutkhas, they have self - proclaimed leaders.  You can hear different languages standing just at one place – be it Bengali, Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi, Bihari, Marathi . And for the record, each one of them is a Mumbaikar here J :p

Train arrived. I managed to go forward two steps and had to back off as I couldn’t manage even to reach near the door. A disadvantage of I class travel is that in these local trains, the I class compartments are very less.  A single coach can take around 72 passengers inside these local train but as if Mumbaikars have to teach a lesson to Jessop ( the Kolkata Coach manufacturer),  a typical peak hour train carries around  300 passengers in just one coach. ( A train unfortunately has only 9 or 12 coaches) . And if you thought this is a bit too much, there are more ambitious traveler who prefer the roof more than entering inside the coaches J These are the kids with young blood  who frequent roof top policy. They are a treat to watch for onlookers and each of these commuters think themselves as some superstar ;)

 After spending ( should I write wasting) 15 minutes and making three sincere attempts to board the train, I decided to change the platform and opt for a slow local as I was now desperate to start. I took the overbridge on the station and tried my luck with two slow local trains ( Slow local train have good frequencies with regards to availability but are around 20 minutes slower). The I class compartments here were more crowded than the fast ones. Finally, the third train which I was about to miss somehow worked on me and I decided to try the II class compartment. I ran to the nearest coach and to my surprise, I could manage to keep my foot inside the train this time.

One more thing to know about Mumbai trains is that once you keep a foot overboard, you need not worry if you can get inside, because there are other passengers who, like you, want to board the train. They make sure , you get the right throttle behind you J 

I was in. J

My three years in Chennai made me out of date for the train travel as I failed to see commuters having their sacks do not take it on their backs. New rules declared by your fellow passengers dictates that it should be taken on the front. I could barely move my hand inside as I was surrounded by almost 50 people In every angle we have learnt in trigonometry. My axe deodorant axed me as I was getting different scents from every side. Should I say scent or odour? I don’t know how you will name a mixture of this two together. On top, with every passing station, the crowd was just increasing.  I can now understand a feeling of clay when it is pressed inside a mould. One good thing about travelling in winter time is that you don’t need to really wear a woolen clothing here, specially, when you are travelling in peak hours. The warmth that you get will shy a good heating device ;)

I had roughly  thirty more minutes to go amidst all these funny, crazy, dizzy smells and free thai massage. I wonder if the state government here has some tie ups with Thai companies running massage parlours . Iam sure they might have learnt some good tricks in these Mumbai local trains. If you have a body ache, be sure, you will get cured if you travel in such nice trains. And if you don’t have, be sure, you get one free as a compliment for the travel ;)

Standing helplessly between 8 shoulders, you have no option but to listen to some good gossips happening around. I could hear an old man chatting to some fellow companions on how much he was drunk on the 31^st night and how he spent on his friends. I could hear two people fighting somewhere inside the compartment on seats. Seems one of the fellow standing next to a commuter, who had managed a seat for himself, stamped on his feets. Both were cursing each other alternately. I could hear some bhajans being sung and my neighbor with his 10kgs of castor oil-filled head was engrossed in sync with these bhajans. I somehow managed myself to avoid free oil massage on my right cheek. I managed to use my elbow to set him right without really offending him. I don’t remember if had any better use of my elbow before this.

One of my co-passenger who seem to be quite happy and peaceful earlier exposed himself as soon as his Mobile phone with the latest “Chikni Chameli” buzzed with high decibels. He was mid 30s and seem to be working for a good company as an executive. Ofcourse, I didn’t make these impressions in the critical position I was in at that moment, but I had seen him on the platform where he waited like me. He tried hard to be soft on the call he was attending. Without any guesses, it was his better half on the other side of the line. The problem here in trains is that even if you don’t want, you have to hear conversations. Poor fellow tried hard to keep his voice low but the fight which started when he was leaving home had to continue and seems it was this time.  The soft voice was soon distressed voice and later a bit aggressive. In the next ten minutes, the crowd that surrounded me was more silent than the other noises as our fellow here was giving free education to all the husbands on how you shouldn’t talk to your wife ;)

Fortunately, by 10.45, my train reached Dadar station and like a joy slide, or the descent from the mountain, to get off a train is simple, when you have so much of crowd at your service. Simply follow the flow and you are outside on the station.

After an entertaining travel of 1 and half hours, with complimetory Thai massage, my clothes were crumpled L and disoriented. I wonder next time if  my clothes get ironed if I use a crumpled one ;)

Finally, I was ready to meet my first client for the day.  A typical day for many I class passengers like me who buy a ticket of I class but end up boarding a II class compartment. At times, I have also tried the luggage compartment which is even more comfortable than the II class with regards to crowd these days in Mumbai L

Where are we heading my dear Mumbaikar?