I can't imagine how my life would have been without the local trains of Mumbai.Getting up early morning and rushing up in the bathroom, get ready have breakfast and leave as soon as possible to reach college.I would always be late of course if i would not be having my savior activa to help me reach station on time.Rushing up and parking my vehicle,I proceed to the platform 1 of Thane station where i see the 8:08 A.M CST train halting and ready to leave.Taking a deep breath of relief I move towards the ladies compartment and if i am lucky sometimes get a seat too.
The advantage of staying in thane i find is that you can get a train which starts from here and so is comparatively less crowded than the one's which come from kalyan or badlapur side. You can even take up fast trains which do't stop at small stations and promise to reach faster than the slow one's. However it does't make much difference as fast trains are crowded as hell and your luck if you even get a place to keep your foot.
Sitting in the train and hoping it starts soon,i always imagine how the others would have struggled to get on here. The school children,office going ladies,college girls and even oldies. Sometimes even the beggars who irritate and leave only when you give them a rupee. It has become a routine to see all these things around in a local train. As the time passes the train is full till the foot board and you cannot see outside.People then too step in somehow to reach on time. Its 8:08 and the train whistles and leaves. A sigh of relief and as the stations pass by people keep on getting in even if there is no space. Everyday i get to witness at least 2-3 ladies fighting for a seat and sometimes it gets worse that a lady cop has to be called in. Women curse,humiliate and sometimes it even gets to pulling hair.
somehow all these things have become a part of routine for me so it really doesn't matter.Once in front of me two women were fighting and just a minute after they were normal and started making fun of the whole thing. So its just not a travel but its a medium to learn many things by just observing and interacting with different people from varied walks of life. The ladies who travel together from years form groups and play games and even some of them have kitty parties arranged. Some you would find sharing their life sorrows and some would just go on asking for seats.
The whole 45minutes ride of mine has too many things to learn from. But its worse experience when there's no seat and I have to stand the whole journey. I can't fight like other ladies around which is a disadvantage but somehow i happen to grab a side of the door to stand safely. Stations pass and the 10th station from thane is Matunga. I get up after d previous station passes and breaking through the crowd reach the door and stand behind the already standing women to get down. After getting down the first thing is to take a deep breath and see the train moving.
I have become so used to travelling by train in the past 5 years that now seeing the traffic on the roads i wonder if i would have gone by train. Its not just that its a medium of travel but it has become a part of life. You do face problems when there are heavy rains or breakdown when trains are late and you are stranded between stations for long duration but in these conditions too you would find great things to be learned.
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