Being a spark plug in Mumbai locals

Mumbai thrives on its crowd. There is a feeling of choking (in abstract terms) if we stay away from the hustle and bustle of the city for long. I visit my native place every year, which has been advertised as “God’s own country”. After a few days of calmness and serenity, the call of Mumbai gets so strong that every passing minute becomes difficult to live. And, once I am back in Mumbai, even 24 hours seem to be less. Such is the pace of life here. Quality of life suffers, but you live your dreams here and make them come alive.

Super Dense Crush load (SDCL) is the new term coined by railways for Mumbai Locals’ peak hour rush. My daily commute to Ghatkopar (GC) from Dombivli (DI) depends on the Shift Duty timings. The worst duty timings are 11:00-20:00. I ride my bike to Kopar, a relatively new station, just before Dombivli on the Central Railways (CR) Mainline, in order to catch a Dombivli starting local in return direction. There are a lot of groups who jump into the 8:51am local to DI from Kopar as it returns back from DI at 9:06 as CSTM slow. I am not part of any group but I do use this crooked way to ensure a relatively easier journey to work.

As my bike was under repairs, I decided to reach DI station and hope for an empty seat by jumping into the First Class (FC) which is nowadays more crowded than Second Class. The clock ticked 8:53, and the DI local was seen approaching the platform. Taking a fraction of a second to pray to the Almighty to gift me that elusive seat, I made the best effort to dash into the 4^th coach (CST End) FC and look for an empty seat, even before the EMU had come to a halt. My heart sank, as the wider seat was already occupied by 7 people and the 3(Left) X 3(Right) seats opposite to them was also occupied. But there was a catch in this.

The aisle seat on the 3 seater left seat had a teenager wanting to get up to alight at DI. By now, I had made up my mind to go and stand in between the cramped seating of our MRVC locals, but sensing this opportunity, I quickly tried to occupy his seat. The dirty group politics started to show its vicious head. To understand the seating, you would need to refer to the diagram.

Seating Arrangment

In the longer seats A1-A8, already 7 people were perched, of which A1-A3 (3 people) were of a group and A4-A8 (4 people) were of a rival faction. The teenager was getting up was from seat L3. R1-R3 and L1-L2 were already occupied.

As the teenager was forced by a man sitting on A2 to occupy the seat L3 till his friend enters the coach at DI, the teenager was reluctant and trying to get up. Sensing that he was getting up, I told him that I am going to occupy his seat and as soon as he made an attempt to rise, I stamped my authority on his seat and with my bag held close to my body, I sat calmly. The obese man with a monstrous voice who was sitting on A2 was not happy with this arrangement as I had occupied the seat which he was trying to reserve for his friend. He stood up from his seat, overlooking me and shouting at the peak of his voice in chaste Marathi, "Don’t you understand, this seat is reserved for my friend, how dare you occupy that seat. Don’t you have the manners to respect old people and give them seat?" 

I knew, the next statement which I utter will be a make or break for me. Either these guys will pounce on me for taking away a seat which they call theirs or I have to win the seat which was rightfully mine for the fact that, it’s purely, First come First serve basis. I didn’t want to raise my voice and create a ruckus as I was alone and no match for the group of 3 hefty men. I calmed myself and said, “This seat got empty when I came in so I will occupy it".

I deliberately did not prick him about reservation of seat and groupisms. He kept yelling that I did not have manners to get up for his old friend, (who by the way was just 50 yrs old). I repeated myself and did not deviate from my stance. Understanding, that I was in no mood to relent, this obese guy said, if you want to sit, shift into the longer seat (A1-A8 as it had only 7 occupants) and vacate L3 for his friend. I did not want to prolong the argument and agreed as for me the sole criterion was sitting space and not exactly a particular seat. So evidently, I was shown some space on the longer seat as he gestured to people on A1-A8 to shift to make some space for me to fit in between them

I got up from L3 and tried to sit in the little space offered by these guys on A4. As soon as I got up, his friend claimed my seat on L3 and as I was about to sit on A4, all the guys from the rival faction adjusted their butts and thighs to leave me no space to sit on A4. A1-A3 was already occupied by 3 people and A4-A8 had only 4, but the way they swiftly moved to encroach on A4 was mind-boggling. I was not even spared 5cms to sit. Not ready to take this lying down, I simply sat on the lap of both the persons who obstructed my seat. With a little sense of shame the guy sitting on A3 got up and told me to sit. I was relieved and made myself comfortable. I just kept myself engrossed in my mobile phone, reading whatsapp messages.

The real trouble began when a guy, supposedly from the rival faction gang (A4-A8) got in and the same people who had prevented me from sitting, adjusted their butts to accommodate him, making it 8 persons on that longer seat. This did not go down well with the people sitting on A1, A2 and the one who vacated seat for me and was standing. It was no holds barred after that. The obese guy from A2 was chided with this. He started yelling at the top of his voice that “ Morons” on A4-A8 were adjusting for their own person and were unwilling to make me sit.  The verbal fight which started at Dombivli, went on till Ghatkopar, where I alighted. I plugged in my earphones at DI, but couldn’t hear any songs as the drama unfolding in front of my eyes (rather ears) were too loud.

Thus a small tiff for seat, which started with me ended up with a long session of verbal duel between two Gangs of Kopar. I was feeling like a catalyst or the spark plug, igniting tempers between them.