Mumbai locals - a curtain raiser

         On completion of my training in 1997, I was transferred to Mumbai. This was the first time I was living in a big city all by myself. I traversed from the suburbs to South Mumbai in the famous locals, the lifeline of Mumbai.  Like all Mumbaikars I have many anecdotes to tell....but that will have to wait for another day. Today is just a curtain raiser.

         9.25 Fast, Goregaon - Churchgate. On your marks, get set, go. The toil, the sweat, the grime, the struggle.....a virtual battlefield. People in a frenzied mood, each trying to outdo the other, whether by swiftness, age, physical endowments or clever calculation and execution. There is no high or low, sophisticated or unsophisticated, employer or employee, old or young. All minds are clamouring and working towards one goal. It is the survival of the fittest. It is a question of now or never.

      Window seat, any seat, sharing seat, prized place near the exit, place under the fan, any place to stand......adjust karlo please. Fifty minutes of soul searching, gossiping, reading, singing, just doing your own thing - the coach bursting at its seams.

     10.15 Churchgate. Goodbyes till the evening. Each one scattering in different directions towards their workplace. The theory of social stratification, of the haves and the have nots, the lucky and the not so lucky rules the roost once again. Veneers of sophistication and all that is good, apparently, comes to the fore. A lull transcends the multitude until a rewind of the entire sequence above takes place on the ride back home.