Local news

Mumbai’s fast life has its own lighter moments as one witnesses in its local trains, which are the lifeline of the city and can be said to be one of the best with regard to their frequency and punctuality. Here, the commuters too mostly pay for their travel unlike North, even though they have to cope up with the super dense crush loaded trains in the peak hours.
For a change, I decided to travel 1st class since this New Year (if you can’t hold your resolutions, atleast change your class) and am finding the conditions to be far worse than the general class compartments. Though the cost of travel is five times higher, due to just two bogies reserved for first class, the space is too low and the miseries are even more compounded by the attitude of the co-travelers. Here, people are not friendly as in second class compartments and wear a scowl as if others are out to rob their space. 3 people sit in the seating space where 4 can sit unlike in general compartments. People can’t even stand comfortably as the one who sits is always likely to be offended by a slight brush of arms or legs by the one standing adjacent to them. It is another matter that most of them travel on reimbursed fares by corporates and very few would like to spend money from their pocket for traveling in such a class.

The maximum crowd lays stranded near the door. The fun over here is each one abuses other in English. 60 years past independence, it has still not got over many of our heads that we are not living in Victorian Age and using English language is still being viewed as a sign of superiority by ignorant white collars. Two young men, seemingly working in IT companies talked in length for an hour about their tours abroad. One was speaking of his tour to Mauritius while the other was talking of his tour to Indonesia. Their entire conversation revolved around how much scotch and whiskey were drowned them during their visit, which made me conclude that Mumbai was not that bad a place, if at all people went abroad only to boast about their drinking capabilities.

The other day, I ran like mad to catch a train as I was late. The very minute I jumped, the ones standing on the door were not impressed by an additional load, as they started shouting, and “Hey this is first class, first class!” I felt like Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi heckled by the British for traveling in their class. Yet I did not relent and went inside with a tongue-in-check, “What, first class! I am traveling without ticket.” They glared at me but till that time, the train halted at the next station and a fresh load of public disturbed the momentum of those standing. Once, the train was moving towards Wadala and the passengers started shouting at each other as the train slowed down near Wadala station. The crowd of commuters waiting over there jumped inside not caring for those wanting to get down resulting in a pandemonium of sorts. By this time, I was comfortably seated inside and was watching the confusion with glee only to find out that the train did not move even after five minutes. After a while, suddenly everyone started to move out and I realized soon that for some inexplicable reasons, the train was halted at Wadala and will return back to Panvel without moving onwards to the destination Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus. The commuters were getting angry and restless while I was laughing inside as I could see the funny side of it.

Things can also get violent as it once happened when the train moving from Panvel halted at Kurla and most of the commuters had got down, resulting in an empty seat. Two commuters X and Y jostled for the same seat but as X managed to get the seat like in a game of musical chairs, the other one Y had no choice but stood with a grim face. It did not stop at that. X who was seated started arguing with Y who jostled with him and started teaching manners in high decibel Oxford English. Y at the receiving end, already miffed at having lost the seat got infuriated and used the choicest of abuses in chaste Marathi. This startled everyone around. Y soon took his mobile and started calling someone at the other end to come at CST station so that they will beat X like anything. There was silence in the entire compartment, as everyone around started to ignore X. I was watching X with great interest as he sat with a lot of discomfort but trying to hide his fears. I guessed that he would get down well before CST to avoid any untoward incident. Rightly, as I guessed, he hurriedly got down at Dockyard Road, two stations before the destination while Y was punching the keys playing some game as if nothing happened.

My journey in locals continues….

Two days ago, I read about Arundhati Roy, self styled activist describing Mukesh Ambani as the ghost of capitalism. I cannot understand one thing about these NGOs. What do they actually expect from Mukesh Ambani? While on one hand, these NGOs travel in flights and thrive on funding, do they expect businessman like Mukesh Ambani to live in huts? Will distribution of poverty afford a solution to India’s woes, as is being projected by these socialists? I really shudder thinking of capitalists as the ruling class of India and the NGOs posting as the opposition parties while the government takes the backseat. One thing is certain; many in India get jealous of those who can afford to enjoy wealth. Our hatred for Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the captain of the Indian team is not only due to the disastrous performance down under, but also due to the fact that Mahendra Singh Dhoni earns so much and owns so much that we do not. For that matter, shall we argue that the rival captain Michael Clarke begs for money and so he plays well. When shall we get over such victimized thinking? Suresh Kalmadi comes out on bail victorious as if he has been acquitted while Sadhvi Pragya Thakur wants to travel air or AC coach as if she has done a favor to all of us. This is truly Kalyuga. Sadhus demand all the attention while they advocate others to renounce their worldly possessions. No wonder our Sadhus own huge tracts of land while their bhaktas have no choice but nirvana. We are indeed a truly liberal nation that bears with the idiotic fatwas but has no place for the Rushdies and the Hussains.

My reading news continues….

 

Indusladies removing my posts from "featured" to "ordinary" is another news this year

 

thanks sudhakrishnan and rgsrinivasan for your comments

cheers
suresh

 

THANKS PALLAVI AND SREEMANAVANEETH

cheers
suresh

 

thanks Viswa for your opinion and detailed comments

cheers
suresh