Train Travel

A train travel can be quite experience, something I don’t think you will experience anyway other than our very own country, or to be more specific our city of Mumbai. There are so many things that actually bewilder me. I normally take a starting train from Malad station. Every time the train enters the platform a couple people standing in the front will wave their hands in front of the train as if they were hailing a cab. I wonder whether the train would actually halt there for them.

Well getting into a Mumbai local at peak is another event itself. It quite reminds me of the famous Bull-Running in Pamplona, Spain. The mad dash to get in to the train for either a seat of a comfortable standing place is something quite unworldly. If you are getting into starting train then you can just wait for the mad dash to settle and get into the train. But if you are in the train and trying to get off it then God save your soul. If you don’t use every ounce of your strength you’ll find yourself being pushed deeper into the compartment.

One thing about travelling by train is that you may not require to visit massage parlour or a sauna. The compartment so packed like a can of sardines. Bodies against bodies. You have to contort your body in ways you didn’t think would be possible, just get some space. And to top it all you will still have people complaining or making noise or picking a fight with someone because someone is not giving them enough of space. A train fight can be an interesting place to learning all the A-Z of Hindi gallies. Well getting in to the train takes up so much energy that by the time you are in the train you are one mass of sweet. And to top it all you have hundreds of commuters breathing together, making the compartment one big steam/boiler room.

Well you also get some free entertainment while travelling. You’ll have these guys leaning out of the train or trying to do some daredevil stunt, like catching the train from the tracks, getting off the train and catching it while in motion, leaning really out of the train, touching every pole they pass. Wonder if they are trying to impress the females in the passing train (who actually don’t seem to give them any attention)? Then there are those who travel on the roof top of the train, wonder if they are aware of the peril in travelling this way. Then saw a guy standing on top of the roof top and in spite of the warning of the passenger, continue to stand while the train was in motion. Maybe he thought he was surfing on the beaches of Goa or the US.

Then there is this fat gentleman who gets in at Jogeshwari and wants to stand at the door. And when Andheri comes he’ll move from one end of the door to the other and even fight with the person standing on the end if he doesn’t give him space. Sometime I really want to applaud his act everyday.

Well there is more such thing that happens while travelling that you need to actually travel to experience it.