Mumbai Local

Yet another official trip to Mumbai this week & for the first time I used Mumbai local train to commute.

It was one hell of an experience travelling on one of the longest routes, from Vashi to Malad.
I had to opt for Local train travel for couple of days on this route as it was too expensive to travel by auto/taxi.

I could actually see all that I had heard about Mumbai local trains - life line, efficiency & the insane crowd.

It is truly the lifeline of Mumbai with loads of people cutting across age, gender & class, using these trains each day.

For the person I am who hates crowd, had to be amidst a sea of people...as I entered the station, I was amazed with the no.of people waiting for the train...I was wondering if I would ever be able to even make an attempt to board the train. The train came & I was still thinking if I have to skip this & wait for the next train...as the train stopped, each of us on the platform were literally carried into the train...with such a mass of people, one would expect a stampede. All I had to do was to go with the flow.

Once inside the train, It was literally jam-packed & could not just move any part of the body.
My hands & legs were just unmovable...for the first time ever, I was stuck & locked with people!

I was sweating, legs aching & was waiting for the journey to get over.

One of the prominent stations - Kurla arrived, and 90% of the crowd got down in a span of 30 seconds. I was facing & standing in the way of 100s of people who were rushing out of the train...It was like 1000s of Bees rushing out of the comb when its hit. I was pushed out of the train & had to again get back after the shock of my life of being manhandled :)

The worst part was the stink with my face amidst 100s of raised hands...it sounds disgusting, but it was indeed disgusting!

Then there was some sane crowd as I got a seat & could gather some sense to realize what was happening around me.

To add to my woos, I had to change 3 trains to reach the destination every time...with an anxiety to find the right platform, train, boarding & alighting each time.

In another instance, I could not alight at my stop because of the crowd & confusion around...when I overshot & alighted at the next stop, one of the railway staff stopped me for a random ticket check...and he asked me to pay fine for overshooting. My bad Hindi added to my problem, as I had to explain in English. He then asked why am I speaking in English & am I not an Indian...I had to counter him saying I very well speak another Indian language which he cannot understand....finally, got away after I explained my situation.

And all this was on 1st class...u can imagine the plight on the 2nd class. The only difference between the two class is the cost. 1st class costs 10 times more than 2nd class with no extra comfort...the intention is only to reduce crowd, which is nullified during the peak hours.


At the end of the trip, I am happily sitting & waiting for my flight back home, laughing at the situations I had been thru.

Each journey left my body aching, stressed out & had to take pain killers before going to bed.

I can only appreciate the efforts & pain each Mumbaikar who goes thru this painful journey each day.

One has to only make a choice to run thru this stressful train journey or opt road transport, which turns out to be costlier and the traffic woos.

Mumbai traffic is also something I always hated...not because of the traffic jams, but because of the indiscipline, carelessness of the road users...Autos, taxis, cars, bikes none of them seem to follow traffic rules, as they simply don't care for pedestrians, lane discipline & traffic signals.
No one seems to be educated in Mumbai to stop when signal turns red.

In the words of Oprah Winfrey during her first ever visit to Mumbai said "Traffic signals Lights are not there for your entertainment...one needs to stop when it's red and move when it's green".