Mumbai Trains - My travels (or is it travails?) on them - Part 2

Hi people,

The urge to blog is back and hence so am I. The week’s been OK. “Nothing great nothing sensational” as one of our teachers used to say. Last weekend was bad though what with Kimi (& Mclaren) winning. However, Ferrari are starting to rock. If he had a couple of more laps in hand Michael might have pipped Kimi at the post (who knows). Anyway, still a Ferrari 2 – 3 and maybe at `Polis 1 – 2. Saw the Argentina vs. Tunisia match of the confederations cup on the telly. Who knows what would have happened if Tunisia had scored their first penalty. Too many ifs and buts this week. But Bangladesh beat Australia. For me that’s the high point of the week. Will bring the Aussies back to Terra Firma for the time being.

Anyway, without any further ado, I move on to the next episode of my “encounters” with the Mumbai local trains. As already mentioned in my earlier post, I had had my first brush with the famed Mumbai locals during my previous visit to Mumbai.

I arrived in Mumbai, on 19th May 1999 for my MBA. My dad also came down from Delhi, for getting me set up. We had put up in the house of one of our dad’s friends nearby to college. Hence we didn’t have to travel anywhere by train on the first day of my return to Mumbai.

The next day dad was returning to Delhi and I had to shift to the place of a friend who was put up in Kandivali (For the uninitiated non-mumbaiites, the distance between my college and my residence was around 25 kms). I had to take my stuff and shift to his home on the evening of 20th May 1999.

I was carrying a suitcase and a bag (in those days a suitcase and a bag was enuff to carry all my prized possessions) and we boarded the train to Dadar from Ghatkoper. There were at least 100 people in that compartment and I had to board the train with a suitcase and a bag. Other people who were boarding the train with us were looking at us incredulously and maybe in their amazement some of them forgot to catch the train, because we got to board the train reasonably easily. As each station went the crowd increased and the looks of amazement of the co-passengers started turning into glares of hostility because of the roadblock my suitcase and bag were creating. Thankfully, we reached Dadar quickly enough not to get beaten up and my dad (in one of his most generous days) gave up the idea of traveling by train from Dadar to Kandivali and we took a cab instead.

The next day I had to embark upon the expedition to reach my college from Kandivali at 9.30 a.m in the morning. I woke up at 7.00 and thought I had enough time on my hand to get to college in time and maybe even have breakfast. How wrong I was!!!!!!!!

I left home at around 7.45 and went to the station. That I had to wait around 20 mins to get an autorickshaw to get me to the station is a different story altogether. I reached the station by 8.15 and stood in line for buying a monthly ticket (Second class was all I could afford then). In that serpentine queue there were at least 50 people waiting to get their monthly tickets. By the time I was the 5th guy in the queue, to my horror I saw the counter being closed (I asked the guy at the counter the reason and he nonchalantly pointed to a signboard where in one corner it was written that – to – time was time for counting cash).

Needless to say, there was a mad scramble amongst the people standing in that queue to join one of the other queues and in trying to be civil (i.e. not shoulder block or body check other people - actually not wanting to injure myself in the process), I found myself waiting again at the back of the queue at around the 50th position. While waiting I watched people bypassing the main queue and going directly to the ticket counter and getting their tickets in a jiffy. I asked the guy standing behind me (he ought to have been more irritated than me at these intrusions I presumed) what was happening, and he replied with a look of disgust that those were first class ticket holders and they get priority in queues. I stood their and started musing about the Marxist philosophies of equality and why all men should have the same level of earning (I kinda agreed with him then). Finally this time without any further mishaps I managed to get the ticket around 9.15 a.m.

I knew I had missed my first lecture and was really seething with disgust (more because of the missed opportunity to sleep 2 hours more, than because of my missed attendance). I stepped onto the platform and seemed lost in a sea of humanity. After waiting for 2 – 3 minutes a train came. I saw it from a distance and it seemed to me that it was filled to the brim then. How anyone else could get into that train was a question which remains unanswered till this date. When the train neared the platform, people started jumping off it (some crashing into the people waiting to catch it). Seeing that I shifted to the back of the teeming millions on the platform and thought I would save my teeth. As soon as the train stopped thousands of people started to jump into the compartment in front of me with vivid war cries like “Har Har Mahadev”, “Akramannnnnn”, “Jo bole so Nihaal” etc. I thought about letting the same go and catching the next train. (being unaware of the Mumbai ways I assumed the next one will be empty… stupid me). By the time the next train arrived, the platform had filled up again. Again the same story repeated.

To cut a long (sob) story short, it happened that I missed 4 trains and was in grave danger of missing my second lecture also (which was at 12.30 p.m.), so I decided to risk life and limb and stood close to the platform this time. Miraculously I avoided being hit being the UFOs (The people jumping off the incmoing train) and the milieu behind me pushed me into the compartment which had around 300 people inside. I stood jammed in there with both my feet off ground and resting on the shoulders of some fellow passengers. Believe me it didn’t at all feel like flying. Slowly came the harder task of figuring out which side Dadar platform was and being able to get down there. I remembered with much trepidation the last episode of missing the proper station (read my previous post). However, this time being familiar with the Mumbai ways, I asked around and stood with the people trying to get down at dadar and hence was pushed out off the train at dadar.

The second leg of the Journey (from dadar to college) was much easier (it was against the crowd some one told me) and reached college at around 12.20, met people who had suffered the same misfortune as me, missed lunch and went directly into the lecture hall.

The return journey was easier, because I had come to know what to expect. I was trying to figure out a way of beating the crowds and stay in a place which was forever against the crowds. I was informed that those places were in "town" (as Central and South Mumbai is popularly referred to) with astronomical rents and I couldn’t afford them. So I started looking for the easier alternative of getting an accomodation in the college hostel. I managed to get the same after a month of the same aforementioned traveling (by then I had already lost 9 kgs).

Thus ended my second episode of train travails in Mumbai. But the story goes on, Next week I’ll be back with more of my travelogues on the “Lifelines of Mumbai”. Till then keep bloggin’ and enjoy… Ciao all soon.