Three months............in a few days time, it will be three months of my project stay at Mumbai......and the most memorable (or should i say, forgettable) memory would be of the local train travel. For first one month period, I was putting up at Vashi, Navi Mumbai and thereafter at Kurla, a central suburb. Both places asked me to travel via local train to office, situated in South Mumbai, at Masjid. Travelling in local trains is a fun for the visitor, a convenience for a 'sometime' traveller but largely a pain for the regular or daily traveller.
The life of daily travellers in local seems to have become so narrow in view - with entire focus on reaching on time to station, running from auto drop point to platform no. xx to catch that punctual serpentine; fighting it out to board the already overflowing concoction, even before the deboarders can get off; making their way through the dead pack swarm to their most coveted prize of the day - a seat. It doesn't matter, whether you get the fourth seat, on that hard bench of second class, with people falling all over your body, from all possible angles - you have won the battle of the day, the prize of the lucky few, a seat in the local train.
Having got the taste of this travel. Well, not just the taste, but the experience - afterall three months is not a small period. Its 90 days of struggle, and if we include the two way journey - its almost 180 journeys. Enough experience for me to pen (...oops, type) my thoughts. I have made a few theories regarding this train travel.
The Beaker Theory : This theory relates to all lines of the journey. However, I would take the example of my first month experience on the Harbour line from Vashi to Masjid. This journey is very similar to a Beaker. A small opening with a wider space inside. At Vashi, lot of people clobber together to get in, as soon as the train comes and within a minute, when the things settle down all seats are packed and a few people standing…comfortably. Then comes Maankhurd….politically, the first stop in Mumbai, after the creek. Maankhurd is like, a box of pebbles is poured onto a beaker fill with balls. The pebbles, fill up every inch of space available.
Just when you were thinking, that now the beaker is full…….comes Kurla, which is like a pack of sand being emtied into that already filled beaker. People just keep coming in..and you wonder about the physical properties of the wonderful element created by god, called human being, which can squeeze and squeeze and squeeze till all those who want to board the train have boarded. Now definitely no more possible, else somebody would definitely fall out........from the doors, if not from the windows. Then comes a place called Vadala.......and the sand packed beaker is filled with water.......yes , the possibilities are endless......just when we think, its over...........its all over............just then only, a new opportunity emerges, in which more and more can be absorbed in a sysem. Isn't that how our minds function......adds more with each experience.
Compressed Gas Theory: This theory is very specific to Central line and relates to the compressed air filled inside a balloon and the way this air gets released from the balloon and all action reaction physics involved with it. Now, this model become applicable at two stations called Dadar and Parel.........during the peak hour of morning 8 - 9 am. Its not as if this model can't be allowed to other lines or other times.........its just that I have observed this on the particular line and time I have mentioned above. Two stations before Dadar, people start getting up from their seats, if they have to get down at either of these continuous stations. Almost 500 meters before the station comes, shouts of "utara, utara, kudhe chala" and as soon as platform comes, people start jumping - out as well as in. The real fun comes when the train stops.......people move out, as compressed air is moving out of a balloon (50 sec) and after that people move in, with equally acoustic sound (50 sec). The outflowing mass and inflowing mass somehow align themselves so well, even amongst so many heads, that these two streams of air, doesn't cross each other's way. The train moves ahead and the exact same exercise is repeated at Parel too.
Health Index theory: " I got my first project in Mumbai and i became lean and fit...........how?............simple, i travelled low..cal", a friend told me this as a joke, a few months back. We laughed it away and forgot it. Three months down the line, I somehow agree that one of the reasons of average poor built of mumbaikars is travelling in these local trains. Not just you remain short of oxygen and space to grow, with avg. 30 days in a year spent in travelling in these locals, but also take into account the mental tension and agony while travelling in such crowded trains. Average Health Index of Mumbai is going down, and Local train are partly responsible.
Its not that these trains are not providing any benefits. Infact , i completely agree to these trains being "Lifeline of Mumbai", for without these, life and business would cripple in mumbai. Life is a journey, and our responsibility is to keep moving on. Train jouneys in locals of mumbai have given me important lessons in life, which I would never forget. May these train keep running...after all चलना ही ज़िन्दगी है
station. During the eighteenth and up to the mid 19th century, Bombay was a walled city. The city walls had three gates, and Church Gate, named after St. Thomas Cathedral, was one of the gates. The gate was once situated near the present day location of Flora Fountain. In the mid nineteenth century, the city walls were torn down to aid in the expansion program.
Gate, Church Gate and Bazaar Gate. The castle was surrounded by residences, shops and places of worship. A moat was also built in 1743. An esplanade, level open space along the western fringe of the fort, was maintained for defensive reasons, to provide a clear line of fire. The fort itself was demolished by Sir Bartle Frere, Governor of Bombay in the 1860s, as serving no purpose. The ramparts were removed, the moat filled in, and the area was significantly re-structured. 
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as we used to go the same place daily for our professional life. I was not sure how should I approach her. But determined, as I was......tracked down her friends, and entered her friends circle, through a mututal friend. 
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