Aamchi Local S'train'

Once a friend of mine happened to ask me about the highlight of Mumbai life, to which I instantly replied the ubiquitous crowd which flows unabatedly and tirelessly in its various forms. On road it assumes the shape of snarl ups and long jams; on pathways it can be experienced by innumerable jostles; It also makes its presence felt by long queues and packed restaurants.
However, no other nature of human assembling can match the power ‘packed’ display of the God’s beloved creation in its Tsunami like avatar at the railway stations which evolves into even more forceful flow inside the trains.
No better spectacle of human power is on offer than the entry in the local train. At the first and the slightest of conceivable moment a human being can plausibly board the train in motion, a wave of people rush powerfully inside to capture the seats in a warlike manner. The speed at which they remorselessly bang their arses on to seats reminds me of the musical chair game I used to play as kids. One needs to be amply experienced, agile and also powerful to be able get a seat in the train where a place to stand with just enough breathing space eludes even the most seasoned travelers like feminine grace does to Rakhi Sawant.

Living in Mumbai for last couple of years I have also been the part of this mad rush and also learned a few basic tricks but still far off from being called a cat.
I still remember the days when I would wait for a relatively empty train just to let go a series of trains one after another convincing myself that the next train could have less people. However, this misplaced optimism would fetch me nothing but my boss’s fury for getting late, as the every next train I pegged my hopes on would be as packed as the previous one.
Being a mute spectator to this everyday game of ‘Local Train Rugby’, I decided to be a player and sooner I learned that all I had to do to be on board was to ungenerously subject my unwilling body to front of the door and the mob would do its part to push me inside. This courage however, had its own flip side as all my body parts would gang up and retaliate later with vengeance for this ignorance and torture.

Sooner I realized that it’s just the beginning.. getting on to the train is just a labour pain and being inside is the more painful struggle…..struggle of survival….Survival of the fittest..
And as the great Chinese scholar Confucius would say.....'If a women can't escape the rape she should enjoy it"
I also started started enjoying and finding positives out of unavoidable everyday rape inflicted upon me by the local train journey...
Will soon be posting on the POSITIVE side of a literally ‘HAIR RAISING’ experience of traveling in the local train.