A man whose nerves across his temple is clearly visible and in deep strain..another who is clearly uspet at being woken from sleep..some others who are seen holding their breath and pushing and shoving others with all their might..yet others who have an unarming smile but are busy devising ways to prevent others entering their cherished territory.To an onlooker,all this jostling and exhibition of the variants in breathing technique would seem funny.But can anyone be relegated to the status of a mere passive audience when he/she is traveling in a Mumbai local train!!
Every man in the train is busy.Period. Some are busy playing cards..some discussing vagaries of the Nifty and underlying economic crisis, rather crises, some over the phone cringing about their bosses .In the first class compartment where the ticket price is about ten times the ordinary ticket ,my initial thought was that I d be a loner when it would come to travelling to my place of internship.Like everything that I d whimsied about Mumbai,this too was a farce. I don’t know if there s a theory which says that when each person expects all others except him to behave in a certain way, they do not. Finally,all end up at the same place.
Owing to my inexperience in the hitherto lesser known art of expanding your chest size a certain way as you jostle for more room in the train, I had to struggle real hard to get my bag and laptop inside. Throughout the journey,I was in a state of resigned shock at the reception that I got at my forced entry.I comforted telling myself that things could only get better from now on .But little did I know that each passenger had a 10 x 10 sq inch of shoe space reserved exclusively for him. Everytime I stepped onto their self assigned private space, they d growl at me. I really did not want to court trouble given that it was my debut at being an intern and traveling in Aamchi Mumbai train. The idea is to find your own space as soon as get into the train and get near the guys who are royally seated. Then you may manage to escape the periodical influx at stations lest the power of the masses transfers you directly from one end to the other.And magically so, you may end up getting down at the next station even though you may despise the place. Is this the Power of Mob? Not sure. But this s one of the ways in which it manifests itself.
The passengers would not surely like to be ascribed as Proletariats. They are the capitalists-the bourgeoisie-most of them managers at corporations in and around Nariman Point. Lack of good road infrastructure and hence time taken to traverse to their destination has forced them to take this option. However, everybody seems to give their “sophistication quotient” a small rest once they are in that train. The evening travel seems to be a practical course on stress relief.Getting down the stations is not at your prerogative but of guys who had a bad day at office. You ve to only pray that tomorrow, its role reversal!!
In the second class, apart from the rush, it’s the noise that the passengers make before they get in and out that has the potential to make the most dare hearted, shiver for a while. So, people who fall on the weaker side of the continuum tend to shell out ten times the amount for a first class just to experience a more serene environ. I ve wondered everyday whether its worth it.
Getting down at Churchgate station on my first day was an experience in itself. The crowd getting off those trains may intimidate one ,especially if he s read ,more so heard about the city that Mumbai is ;from relatives or courtesy Bollywood movies. However, once I got down ,I sat down for a while at the station just taking in everything cos deep down, all this seemed to give me a sense of purpose, responsibility and an expectation of things big to arrive. Deep down ,I was enjoying the sight and the sound of hustle bustle around me.
Presently, I am back in Delhi which seems to be quite boring compared to the whirl wind trips that I went to and the world of experience that I had the fortune to amass ,which I would cherish for a long time to come.
Every man in the train is busy.Period. Some are busy playing cards..some discussing vagaries of the Nifty and underlying economic crisis, rather crises, some over the phone cringing about their bosses .In the first class compartment where the ticket price is about ten times the ordinary ticket ,my initial thought was that I d be a loner when it would come to travelling to my place of internship.Like everything that I d whimsied about Mumbai,this too was a farce. I don’t know if there s a theory which says that when each person expects all others except him to behave in a certain way, they do not. Finally,all end up at the same place.
Owing to my inexperience in the hitherto lesser known art of expanding your chest size a certain way as you jostle for more room in the train, I had to struggle real hard to get my bag and laptop inside. Throughout the journey,I was in a state of resigned shock at the reception that I got at my forced entry.I comforted telling myself that things could only get better from now on .But little did I know that each passenger had a 10 x 10 sq inch of shoe space reserved exclusively for him. Everytime I stepped onto their self assigned private space, they d growl at me. I really did not want to court trouble given that it was my debut at being an intern and traveling in Aamchi Mumbai train. The idea is to find your own space as soon as get into the train and get near the guys who are royally seated. Then you may manage to escape the periodical influx at stations lest the power of the masses transfers you directly from one end to the other.And magically so, you may end up getting down at the next station even though you may despise the place. Is this the Power of Mob? Not sure. But this s one of the ways in which it manifests itself.
The passengers would not surely like to be ascribed as Proletariats. They are the capitalists-the bourgeoisie-most of them managers at corporations in and around Nariman Point. Lack of good road infrastructure and hence time taken to traverse to their destination has forced them to take this option. However, everybody seems to give their “sophistication quotient” a small rest once they are in that train. The evening travel seems to be a practical course on stress relief.Getting down the stations is not at your prerogative but of guys who had a bad day at office. You ve to only pray that tomorrow, its role reversal!!
In the second class, apart from the rush, it’s the noise that the passengers make before they get in and out that has the potential to make the most dare hearted, shiver for a while. So, people who fall on the weaker side of the continuum tend to shell out ten times the amount for a first class just to experience a more serene environ. I ve wondered everyday whether its worth it.
Getting down at Churchgate station on my first day was an experience in itself. The crowd getting off those trains may intimidate one ,especially if he s read ,more so heard about the city that Mumbai is ;from relatives or courtesy Bollywood movies. However, once I got down ,I sat down for a while at the station just taking in everything cos deep down, all this seemed to give me a sense of purpose, responsibility and an expectation of things big to arrive. Deep down ,I was enjoying the sight and the sound of hustle bustle around me.
Presently, I am back in Delhi which seems to be quite boring compared to the whirl wind trips that I went to and the world of experience that I had the fortune to amass ,which I would cherish for a long time to come.
