a race against mumbai local...

It was in mids of 2006. After "successfully" completing B.Tech and lot of struggles, I managed to get a job in Mumbai, the city which is better known as city of hopes. My job was in a firm near bhayender, in the western suburban network which is known for its crowded trains round the clock.

Two of my classmates were also with me in the same firm. As like every fresh engineer’s, our job was also a boring one. 12 hr shift were consuming major part of our day to day life. We hate Monday mornings and loved Sundays. On a vibrant sunday one of us came with a plan of mumbai darsan. We were new to city and haven’t made a trip to it yet. So all welcomed the !dea and joined him. After visiting gate way of india, elephanta caves and marine drive we were returning to our flat in bhayender. In order to reduce the impact of crowd, we took a fast local to andheri from churchgate. Actually that was the first time we people traveling in a suburban local. As we boarded from the starting point it was easy to get in and to get a seat. Around 9PM we reached andheri station. The situation in platform was worst enough to terrify us. A big crowd was there in platform waiting for the train. And for added advantage, all arriving trains were fully packed. So novice people like us were having least chance of getting in. But we decided to give a try and found one less populated area in the far front end of the platform. We moved towards that and waited for a train to come.

Being it’s a peak time trains were running at an interval of 3 mins. Finally an end to waiting a fully packed vessel came. In an instance I found a moderately packed cabin to get in. I called my friends and run towards it. After getting in we found that it was first class compartment in which fare is 10 times that of the second class. And chances of finding a TTE are very high. Thinking of our empty pockets it would be too risky to stay there. We alighted from there and ran towards the second class tibba. For the worst reasons I ran towards the front end of the train and the rest two in the opposite direction. I thought that my friends will get in at any case and being my ticket was also with them, at any cost I should board the same train. As any mumbaikar I too fought against co passengers to get in. before I made an entry, the train started moving. I was having one hand jammed in the crowd inside the train. Apart from boarding the train, no option left with me. I ran along with the train to get in. but all my calculations went wrong. The train was achieving speed in a drastic manner, and the platform ahead me is about end. In that instance one fellow passenger gave me a helping hand and he just lifted me towards the train. I don’t know what exactly happened at that time. After a moment I realized that i am inside the train. People around me were looking at me as I am an alien. Many of them were scolding me in a rude language. It was simply a return back to life. I can’t even think what will happen if that man hasn’t helped me. But in the crowd I failed to find him. I would like to call it as god’s hand which saved me. After that incident, a number of times I traveled in Mumbai local, but even now I am afraid of boarding a crowded local…

PS: later I came to know that my friends were still in platform. They failed to get in and gave up the plan. Much later they came in a local starting from andheri…..