The Lifeline of Mumbai

When you travel daily during rush hour in a Mumbai Local you face a trade-off. This is because even if you board at the starting station there is a fair possibility that you might not get a seat. Therefore whenever you enter the train you have two options: 1) Stand in between the seats and wait for someone to get up and be ready to grab the seat. But there are chances that no one around you might get up and you may have to complete the long journey standing with very little oxygen around you. 2) You can stand at the edge of the entrance so that you can get ample amount of fresh air. But here also there are chances that you might be pushed inside when crowd rushes in or thrown out when it moves out. If you are thrown out then it’s not a problem as you may still get a chance to stand on edge of the entrance (assuming you don’t get hurt while you are thrown out). But if you are pushed inside then it’s worse then the first option. Firstly you have definitely lost the opportunity to sit. Secondly you might even get crushed to death if you are up against the wall. And it is much more suffocating as infinite number of people stand in that region.
Delhi Metro may seem to be much swankier than Mumbai Local but the amount of service the latter is doing to Mumbai is, according to me, much more than done by former to Delhi. It daily carries half of Mumbai (this number is equal to 60 lakhs) on time. Well it is due to its special characteristics. It’s non-AC and open. If number of people traveling in a local at rush hours were to travel in Metro, its AC-system would explode and/or people would die of suffocation. From outside it may seem that the volume of a Local is finite but from inside it appears that it has infinite capacity. On every station you might feel that the compartment is full and it won’t be able to accommodate any more but on next station even if greater number of people board the train, they manage to fit in somewhere. Don’t know where. This applies to the city as well. On an average 57 families come to live in Mumbai everyday. Yet this city always has a billion opportunities to offer to everyone. It has a market for anything and everything under the sun at any time of the day. Mumbai never sleeps.
Coming back to the Local. There are a few people who just can’t compromise on fresh air. So, if they don’t manage to stand on the entrance, they cling to window from outside (where the hell they keep their feet I couldn’t figure out) or stand on the window (yes it’s possible) or sit on the roof top (I am sure some current must be induced in their body also as they are so near to the 25000 V line just above their head). Although I have never traveled in a Delhi Metro but I am sure that it does not provide such facilities. Like everything else this facility has it cons as well. On an average around 17 people die everyday in Local train accidents.
I have learnt the traveling etiquettes very well as now I travel for 82 km daily. I have become an expert in sleeping in a Local. One day I went to one station beyond the station I am supposed to get down. The only thing I am yet to learn is sleeping while standing.
Some other facts about Mumbai Local: It’s considered as one of most efficiently managed systems in the world. During rush hour there is a gap of just 800 m and 1200 m between two slow and two fast Locals respectively. If there is a serious breakdown it’s declared a public holiday in Mumbai. (a city where there is no off even after a day of bomb blast!).

The Perfect Ten!

First of all, this is not the blog which was supposed to follow Teaser Preview. Secondly, I wrote this exactly a month back but couldn’t post it. Here it goes …..

12th June, 2005. I arrived in Mumbai, the city that never sleeps. I was excited. I had come here to join in an MBA programme. I took this institute as a platform to develop skills, get exposure and make something out of myself. I got exposed to new people, different cultures. I was performing well. But something was missing. I interacted with most of the people. But was not sure of people around me, not sure of myself. Gradually, on the academic front, my performance was going down. This was all due to lack of motivation, dissatisfaction from life….. I would call it a vicious circle.
And then nature conspired for me. It all started around December. We, a bunch of like minds, all started coming together. By the end of December, or I should say in the New Year, the year of 2006, we had a perfect gang ready. If I was asked to give it a name I would call it Gang D. We have ten people in our gang. A perfect Ten! I think we are the craziest people in the world. I want to give a brief description of each of them (although I feel I can write a book on them). I would mention them in alphabetical order.

1) Well this person has captured all the moments of our mischief to make them more precious. (Thanks to his 6630). He can share with us even the most embarrassing moments of his life. Man, you need guts for that.
2) The next one can grasp anything at the speed of light. He is a very down to earth person. We run to him for solutions whenever we don’t understand anything in any of the subjects, even Yoga. (Don’t get surprised. Yoga is part of course. I hate getting up for it early in the mornings. Sorry got carried away by yoga. Can’t help it. It sucks that much!)
3) This one is chief chef of the gang. He knows everything under the sun about cooking. Once he accepts someone as his friend, he cares a lot for that person.
4) Here comes a gal! Although she is a pure veggie but can grasp any joke at the speed of light which is Non-Veg in nature. She never gets angry even though we tease her the most. We love her.
5) The next guy is best person for an Ex-tempore performance. A real entertainer and a great friend with whom you can share anything.
6) She is amazing. Out of allotted 24 hrs, she is SMSing for 16 hrs. I am not sure whether she sleeps or not. She has taught me how to enjoy every moment of life without any guilt.
7) He is Hot. He is Shocked. He gets a shock on the simplest piece of information. That’s the funny part of it. A party is simply incomplete without him. He is so loveable. I fear him the most.
8) The deep thinker in our gang. A very emotional person. I admire him for his guts. The most popular guy among gals.
9) Well alphabetically this is me. I am ….I don’t know. They will tell you better.
10) Last but definitely not the least, this person is the model of our gang. He is such a cool person that he would not panic even if the earth starts shaking at 9.5 on the Richter scale.

Well this is my gang- the Gang D. Life has been really kind to me. I feel blessed to have them in my life. I have done so many things with them, which I have never done before. They give me the confidence. I know that there are a few people whom I can always rely upon. They tease me, pamper me, and scream at me because they love me. I can’t trade this gang for anything. These are the best days of my life.
I got up at 3:30 AM to write this blog.
Oh God! I thank you for this.

When I wrote this blog a month back I was in a positive frame of mind. But now as it is not so, I realize their importance even more. Even if I am in bad frame of mind I feel lot better when I am with them. They make me forget my pain. I would have been dead a long time back had they not been there. Life sucks, but it can’t kill me now.
God, I thank you again!