You run to sit n u get up to run again. Welcome to the world of Mumbai trains and its way of functioning.
Every time a you reach a station there is certain calm in the air on a station which a train has not arrived. But that very place turns into a war zone of space seeking Mumbaikars who fight till the train moves n sometimes even when it is moving to find enough space just to place their 2 legs sometime just one to make sure they marked present in that moving EMU.
What makes this whole chaos interesting is that people have sometime all the time in the world yet hurry for the heck of hurrying. You could try this just create a small ruckus on any station and see how our voyeurism seeking Mumbai crowds gather around you in large numbers without bothering about the amount of time they waste just staring. I am not saying everyone is like this but a lot of them are.
Then there are our dear co passengers also seek to entertain themselves by doing a list of annoying things. People in the train do not shy even a bit from asking you a newspaper you just kept aside after reading. I have no problem sharing but shouldn’t you buy a lousy copy which comes at less that Rs. 5 on any given weekday. But no our co passengers inner voracious reader cannot control himself from asking for a second hand newspaper. Well sometime this habit of borrowing seems ok when your co passenger cum eavesdropper reads your news paper from behind your shoulder. It irritates me to no ends when I see someone staring into my newspaper and reading out of it aloud like I can’t read it for myself. I don’t get these things and can’t even shout a person leeching into my read because it has become a socially accepted anomaly of people.
You heave a sigh of relief when its time for you to get off but think again. There will be 2-3 big lines that are formed near the exit of the train. Depending on where and when you reach the line you get a designated place for standing, sometimes on your toes, then as the train pulls into the station people start with their war cries like ‘ooye chalo!’, ‘aaaye’ aloud. This is the time when people who are short and cant see beyond someone’s sweaty back realize that station has arrived. Then begins the whole of race of getting off and don’t fool yourself by thinking that it as easy as just walking out because there are many hurdles yet left to cross. Firstly there are people who are in the queue of people getting off decide to play spoilt sports by not getting off. This leads to a lot of cursing and lot more of pushing that person towards the door sometime slamming on the middle bar like full force blow on the body. Secondly there are people who leave their designated lines and shove themselves into the others leading to lot of shoving in. Now when you can finally take your step out of the train the people who want to get in would push you back into the train. Only after making your way through this drudgery you get off the train with war injuries like spoilt hairstyle, broken spectacles, displaced bags etc.
Now that you have gotten off there lay another level of game to cross before you leave the station namely ‘Climbing the stairs out’. In this level contestants who have fresh out of the trains rush to the nearest stairs all at once. There people again push you into a line that you walk on. It is not easy mind you there are people who are rushing down from the stairs who’ll push you, the guys behind you will comfortably place their hands on your back and start pushing you & there will again be people who break the line given to them and get in your line and disrupt your flow. Finally you reach the crowded foot over bridge that sometimes feels more crowded than the station itself and make your way rubbing shoulders with who’s who of the war heroes from other trains.
If an outsider happens to come in contact with this chaos there is no sympathy shown towards him being new or not known to the place and its little customs. This outsider is pushed, shoved and made to get off or not let to get to get off the train without a slightest remorse from the junta who single mindedly board trains to reach their destination.
I travel these trains everyday but must say it still is the best & fastest way to travel in the city of Mumbai. This chaos has grown on me and I never think of these problems while traveling as my threshold for bearing the Mumbai trains has grown tremendously. This happens to you once you travel on trains for a month or so I like to think of that first one month as the induction period after which you get comfortable with this running & pushing & etc. The whole process of traveling in these trains I wont say is intoxicating but it makes you stronger and your want to be on time in Mumbai will lead you straight to the trains station for another journey to unfold.
