Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Mumbai Local Trains

First of all Happy New Year to all the readers !!! (However small that number is..lol)

Mumbai as they call it, is a city of dreams… and one of the most significant part of fulfilling these dreams is played by the Local Trains which carries lakhs of people everyday (considering the crowd in the trains sometimes I feel all these lakh people are trying to come in the same train..). Anyhow, the ride in the train can be very tiring and uncomfy for the obvious known reasons…. But it can be fun also if u wana look at it …here is how I sometimes look at it and people..

They say people match their watches looking at the same guy at the same place every single day to catch the local train. That is how mechanical (or punctual if u want to sound positive.. haha) the local trains make you. Here I am trying to paint a day of work in which I spend 38% of my time travelling in train…lol...


For me the day starts normally,as I try my best (actually very best) to open my eyes at 7 AM (ya that’s early for me ok..) so depending on the time I have, I rush with my morning chores to be out of home around 7:50 AM. A Bus ride to the local train station is made refreshing by the lovely faces going to Sophia College. But the sad part is that its just the next stop to where I get in soo the time is too less for even a eye contact ..lol.. nonetheless I am more focused on thinking of my TO-DO list of the day. I somehow manage to catch the 8:13 local from Grant Road.( you must be already thinking of me as the Ram Bajaj in Andaaz Apna Apna… Sab cheez time to time honi chahiye..lol.. remember Robert asking him..Sir!!! chai main shakkar dalne ka time ho gaya?..lol)

Train is full of special characters;

1. ‘Mr. Hari (Hurry)’ will try to rush in to running train before stopping even if the train is empty (he is so used to getting in to those crowded trains that he can’t get out of that habit….lol

2. ‘Mr. I-Don’t-Care-About-Others’ will try n take up as much space as he can with this thunder thighs and heavy bag kept on the seat itself. But this man turns in to ‘Mr.Oh-Please-Come-Sit’ when the crowed enters in a hurdle at Dadar 

3. ‘Mr.Wana-Be-Neat” would adjust his shirt every 5 mins and his hair style every 1min (Please note that the intervals might change depending on if any girl is standing nearby). Also It could include “Mr.I-am-Scared-of-my Wife” fearing of having to wash the cloths if there is stain on it.

4. ‘Mr.Sleeping-giant” wouldn’t care if someone even sat on their lap or ran away with their stuff. I might fall in this category at times. Infact you won’t believe, once I was travelling on a train to Churchgate (down south) in the evening after office and woke up on the train going opposite towards Borivali (going north)…lol. For a moment I was scared.. I had travelled all the way to south and come back 1 hour away from my station.. it was not funny at all.. took me 10 mins to come to senses and understand what had happened..


If you are wondering why there are all Mr and no Miss in the list, its because there are hardly any Miss in the male compartments. There are so many stories related to Mumbai Local trains that it would be never ending. But these are some funny things.


Looking forward to hear your funny experience in Mumbai Trains or any local transport trains….

Keep Smiling :)

8 comments:

Ruchita Jain said...

It honestly takes meh down memory lane.D mumbai local trains.....i guess itzz d fav subj of every1...n yup yo really categorized d guys wel .. bt dis is far less entertainin dan d categories yo find in d female compartment.[I kno males r d decent species :P:P] .Try d female comp sumday...Highly recommended.. full on entertainment..:P:P:P

n wel I rmbr dis incident wen i wrongly boarded a train 4m Andheri 2 Cgate [n dis train ws supposed 2 go only til dadar n d display board dint indicate dat...]...n i knew dat d 4th stop 4m Andheri in a fast train is Cgate.. [D trains so so heavily crowded dat yo simply cnt c which station is it ya :P]... n den i got up 4m moi seat jst b4 d 4th stop.. n d female standin near d gate asked me " where yo wanna get down??".. n i ws lik " cgate".. she started laughin n said " Madam ye train Borivali jaegi [yup; d train got converted in2 a return train 4m Dadar 2 Borivali]...O freak!!!.. n den finally after spendin 1 gr8 hour in d local trains i ws back at d same Andheri station.. 4m where i had boarded a train an hour bck :P.... waitin again 4 moi Cgate train..

Anubhuti Sharma said...

The Mumbai local trains r truly a fav among dos who've stayed in mumbai..i can so relate to d entertaining experience of millions of ppl out der..itz routine fr sum, a scary ride fr sum, an adventure trip fr few n an amazing experience fr few..no matter wot d experience is lyk, ne1 who has travelled in mumbai localz evn once has d memory fr a lyftym..
I've stayed in mumbai fr 2 amazingly gr8 n adventurous yearz, n local experience ws lyk gr8..i neva slept off nor did i board a rong train(thnks to mah frenz), bt i can't fr gt hw i got in n hw i ws thrown out..whn d train came i ws waitin fr it to stop, b4 i cud evn raelise wotz hppng i ws d crowd bargd in takin me along..gawdd i ws all zapped till ma frenz tol me itz normal..n whn v reached churchgate it got evn mor wierd..d train stopped n crowd literally threw me out..mah first reaction ws..PHEWWW!!
bt tht ws jus once..aftr tht i so njoyed gettin in wid d crowd n gettin thrown out at mah station..hehe :)

Rahul Choube said...

@ruchita

thats funny.. but i dono why u didnt get down in dadar.. and take another train.. i m sure ladies compartment also has lot of fun incidences.. and weird characters..

@Anubhuti.. thanks for ur first comment.its an art to be part of the crowd and make sure u get down at the desired station.. lol

Anubhuti Sharma said...

i noe..i ws lucky to learn dat art pretty early.. ;)

aditi said...

ah! d much talked bout local trains..unfortunately havent travelled by them yet..but i hope i do ...but d saathiya scene where the locals cross each other and both protagonists recognise each other is my favourite.. :) also toi carries a lot of funny incidents related to locals..so i guess locals must be a great experience.. :)

Shesha Chaturvedi said...

i Nvr knew there are male compartments too.. anyway since i am from delhi and so local trains are seriously like nightmares.. Have travelled once or may be twice.. I really dont know how i went in and how i got out.. People are so helpful in getting you in and throwing you out.. lol
But one thing really awesome i had experienced were whirlpools during the journey while standing near the compartment door.. :)

Rahul Choube said...

@aditi
Oh ya i remember those scene in Saathiya they were nice . am i sure there are stories like that ..i havent seen any.. and i m too sleepy or focused on the news paper to look around ..lol.. but surely u and advait gota come here and i will take u around.. pucca.. and promise u will get in and get out at will and not with the crowd.. lol

@Shesha

Haha they are not male compartments .. they have female ones and general... but normally bcoz of the rush females dont travel in the common ones.. people are genuinely helpful in all respects (i luv mumbai) .. Whirlpools .. thats an interesting one..not sure what caused that.. lol..

Naina said...

Interesting text. You have a nice blog. Keep it up!