Back Again!

After a gap of 3 days I am back again. Well there should have been one more post in between had it not been a jerky internet connection which deleted my masterpiece! The last three days have been full of rhinorroea and headache! Also of the fantastic unreliability of Mumbai Locals. Reams of paper have been written about the various statistics of the mumbai locals. Check this: the density of people in the peakhour Churchgate Fast would shame some German concentration camps of WW2. But Statistics as someone has famously said is like a bikini, what it reveals is interesting but what it hides is essential! (Variant: ... What it hides is even more interesting!) It reduces the phenomena to a figure, which appeals to the pervert in us, missing the human angle. So while the density may beat Auschwitz, what about the fact that a person gets up from his precious seat an hour before his station so that an elderly man can sit. Unfortunately such actions are outside the ream of Statistics. So when I started out my commute about 4 months back I set myself a goal of one interesting study per day. So it was: the names of the stations, then the relative distances between them, the kinds of foliage seen from the train window, then how to minimise the commuting time - a Slow Vs Fast debate, then the sheer magic of a local every 3 - 5 mins in either direction, then watching people pass there time on the locals, then First Vs Second class crowd behavior and idiosyncrasy, then watching places where Bombay is written instead of Mumbai, phew... The list is really tiring! So much for now, will deal with each of those!

Comments

Anonymous said…
Interesting and fine observations about bikini's and Bombay [You can never run away from either :)].

Many more experiences that could be added to the list ...

Caught by the ticket checker in the FC on a fast local (first timers do not distinguish FC from SC when on the run) on the way to marine lines(was it?) and pulled down at Dadar[and you feel why me?? why did I have to carry no money today? why did this have to be a fast local? why does the checker locate Me when the fellow commuters are trying to hide me? Why Me?)

Lady commuter chasing the train, passing you and you wondering of the feeble indian olympic medals!

Passenger(in vitriol): Do you mind stepping off my foot?
Poor soul (pleading): Request you to get off mine first!

Travelling at 4 am from CST to andheri and not getting to rest your ass.

The list is endless with each deserving a separate column.

Oh, how I would love to travel again in Mumbai, but never ever in the locals.

-Suprabhat

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