A mundane 40 minute ride in Mumbai Locals

After 2 days of IT Audits at my workplace, when I spent almost 12-13 hrs at work, I was completely drained out. The calendar day 11:12:13 was marked as auspicious in Hotel parlances, as many functions and banquet events are expected on such days. Refraining from work was not an option so, I decided to go a bit late and instead of catching my regular 9:06 Dombivli (DI) – CST Mumbai slow local train, I decided to catch the  9:27 Semi Fast(SF) local from Platform (PF) 3 of DI to Ghatkopar (GC).

I never dare to catch Full Fast local trains from PF5 of DI in peak hours on weekdays. Most of my friends call me a coward for not attempting that, but my response has always been, “My life is more precious than those few minutes saved with a dangerous footboard journey”.

9:27 SF comes from Titvala and runs on UP Slow line till Thane (TNA) and then crosses over to UP Fast line to stop only at Bhandup, Ghatkopar, Kurla, Dadar and Byculla before terminating at CST. It was an MRVC with Head code 2189C.With a perfect timed jump, I secured myself a respectable 2nd standing position by the corridor to get full back support against the push and shove expected at the next few stations.

With each passing station, the Oxygen levels were decreasing, CO2 levels increasing with exponentially increasing set of commuters inside the coach. At Diva, I assumed no one can get in at Mumbra and Kalva as by then the local was filled to the brim. To prove me wrong, another 15 people got in at Mumbra and one of them was a first timer to Mumbai, I guess. He made a grave mistake of getting on the footboard. I presume he had a second class ticket or maybe no ticket as his mannerisms were very unlike a regular First Class (FC) traveler. The regular hue and war cry when a local leaves Mumbra with commuters hanging for their life on their finger tips and toes, the only physical parts of their body inside the local are so very common during peak hours.

 The ones outside want to move in as soon as possible as the 2 Parsik tunnels and Road over bridges are too close for comfort to be hanging out. This newbie was shit scared to be standing on the footboard with hardly any space to hold onto. To make matters worse he had one handbag which made him handicapped to hold onto anything. He started shouting at the top of his voice in a typical North Indian Hindi. He feared for his life and people next to him could feel his whole body shivering. Luckily for him the other foot plating commuters were accommodating enough to hold him by his neck and advising him to move in specific directions and consoling, yelling as well as laughing at his predicament all at the same time. By the time we reached Kalva, he was profusely sweating and still trembling with fear. All this while, I was in a silent prayer to the Almighty to beg for his life. His traumatized voices were deafening for my mind and I hoped the Good Samaritans on the footboard help him in.

He wanted to get off the train at Kalva as he was too shaken by these 4 minutes of misery. But others onboard advised him to stay put as he was now in a better position to continue his journey till Kurla. The other reason people did not allow him to get down was that any attempt by him to get down could have further disturbed the equilibrium and made space for a few Kalva commuters to pounce in.

Finally, at 9:50 am, we reached Thane, without losing a minute in the ordeal. Sound of all guns blaring Deccan Queen screaming through PF 6 of TNA as it passed through with utter disdain was very audible to everyone in the station premises. We were waiting patiently on PF4 along with TNA-CST Fast on PF7 to salute the Royal Highness. Section Controller did not allow us to cross onto UP Fast line as per regular norms, instead we continued on UP Slow line. It was a master stroke, as I guess the TNA slow preceding
my local was either delayed or left  dot on time as we had a extremely clean run till Bhandup and Ghatkopar without a single slow down or unscheduled stop. My motorman was sounding the horn through the non stopping stations as we were running through the UP slow line. In the meanwhile, Howrah Duranto followed the Deccan Queen in quick succession and in all probability, TNA-CST Fast given a go ahead behind it. My joy knew no bounds when we reached GC at 10:06 against the scheduled time of 10:08.

It was a mundane 40 minute commute but I hope it brings out the fun, the travails and the liveliness in Mumbai locals. For Railfans like us,  spotting trains, observing schedules, getting the wind in the hair while door-plating( and many more) gives us immense pleasure , but for  many it’s a daily struggle to live another day to earn livelihood.

Nikhil P Karunakaran