Wednesday, January 6, 2016

A daily tale of a Mumbai Suburban commuter living in extended suburbs

Today had some personal work at Thane, so decided to give office a miss and head to Thane in the morning peak hour.

I had to reach by 10am and decided to take 9:06 Dombivli(DI) CST slow but with concretization work on at DI east, I got late and eventually reach DI pf 3,by 9:15.

9:04F was yet to arrive on pf 5 and 9:16F from Asangaon to CST was scheduled on pf 3 as a last minute change to allow Sinhagad Express and Manmad Rajyarani a free path.This meant a swarm of commuters shifted from pf 5 to pf 3, which was already packed.I was accompanied by my wife and we decided to better be late than being adventurous. We decided to wait patiently for the Kalyan-Dadar slow scheduled for 9:25 after an interim 9:21 slow from Badlapur(BUD) to CST.

As always, I asked her to move to Ladies First class(FC) and I waited near the Middle FC.  9:16 Fast arrived with people already hanging out.The few people who dared to attempt an ingress managed to get in while the rest where waiting to be hanging out or prepared to fall( sorry for my rude presentation).Its seriously dangerous to get into a fast local at DI during peak hours.Either you love your job more than your life or you dont love your family to even attempt hanging out.Equally daring are the women who hung on toes and a single hold of something that they can catch hold off.

I pity a Mumbai Commuter and equally hate the progressive governments to completely ignore the alternate means of transport and for sitting on Rail improvement projects with protests for PAPs and enchroachments.Its time that they wake up for a common cause.

Finally, 9:16 F left with war cries which often goes unanswered.Its the survival of the fittest. Next up was 9:21 slow from BUD.A place which has outgrown its capacity in the past 5-10 years because of exponentially increasing housing complexes and the people who live there , as trains are the only means of travel for them to city.All other transit modes are personal vehicles and extremely costly to use on a daily basis. They deserve more trains but neither will Ambarnath(ABH) commuters allow any extensions of their pet trains nor CR wants to look at shuttles for BUD commuters .(Even till TNA).

I had no plans to board this one too and let it pass with another few thousands inside and hundreds hanging out for life.
9:25 Slow to Dadar arrived in quick succession and what looked to be comparatively manageable to get in was made difficult by people on the footboard blocking half the entry passage.To make matters worse, a man in 40s was dragged a few feet and he was not ready to leave the middle handbar because as he jumped out, the few currency notes were all scattered on the footboard and he was busy collecting it while other ruthless commuters ( including me) were trying to get into the train in those 20 seconds.With the belief that my wife would have made it inside the LDS FC, I also secured a place for myself standing 3rd in line facing Thane(TNA ) exit.

I dont know, how much money he lost and how many shoe marks that guy got on his hands.In that fraction of a second, its hard to stay back and let him collect it as even if I decided to allow him the space,others behind me would have definitely pushed me in with the crowd pressure.Its easier to say now, that man must have been brusied on double counts for sure.

As our journey progressed, Kopar admitted only  3 commuters, who managed to squeeze in through TNA bound crowd.One of them was an old man in his 70s.He had a walking stick and cloth bag hanging from his shoulders. He was fragile and helpless.Fortunately for him, everyone on Kopar side of the footboard was accomodating and allowed him inside.But that was it.He couldnt move an inch after that.We asked him about his destination and if it was Thane, then status quo was fine but he said, "Dadar" and that meant we cant hold him where he was as at Thane he would be swiped off his feet to forcefully alight.

With much soothing words and adjustments from my co- commuters we managed to make some few inches for him to squeeze through to one side.He had just 5 minutes for the acrobatics as once Diva arrives, he would have no more room to wriggle through.There was a flying comment from a commuter who was standing behind me, " Diva aane se pehle andar aa javo nahin toh jagah par hi aap khatam ho jaavoge."It was completely in distaste but a harsh truth.

Finally, we passed his cloth bag inside with due symapthy from co-commuters and he could also be moved inside.One might argue that he shouldnt have travelled in peak hour, but we dont know why he chose to do so.Probably some reason we cant comprehend or even care to understand.

Some humans turn Wild animals in trains.Diva came and the science laws take a back seat..There is no equal and opposite reaction to the force applied...All the force is inwards and people inside try to become thin and absorb more of that.

At Mumbra as the lights go off for a few seconds (Neutral zone), the war cries to get inside intensify further.This time its more of Hindi and Urdu diction.So a 'chal andar ' is not polite but very coarse and it becomes "Jalandhar" ."Maaro, aur dhaka maar" are all so common to ears that people inside calmly turn deaf to them.

Then a few say, " arre andar chalo , woh darwaze walla gir jaayega" That moves a few by millimeters but sometimes its too late and a life is lost for ever.Nobody cares.It just becomes a statistic in the railway records and if someone takes a video highlighting the plight then twitter is abuzz about the videography being right or wrong.Nobody wants to answer the core question of why was a human life lost.

Kalwa is a place to wait and watch as trains go past by in the peakhours as its not at all possible to get into a train.Smart Kalwa commuters either take bus ride to TNA or hop into Carshed locals of TNA.The dumbest commuters are the ones on the platform waiting for a miracle of someone allowing them to get into a peak hour UP slow local.

By now, my heavy body seems to have lost its volume and I feel thinner being crushed from all sides.I absorb some pressure from the back and pass on a few which I cant hold back.The person in the front gives a glaring look but he knows, I am helpless.Finally, as we enter pf 4 of Thane, the dam is almost broken before the train comes to a standstill. I am being pushed out with the flow and land on the pf safely without any injuries.I say a small prayer for my well being and look at LDS FC to find my wife walking up to me, in an equally harried look but safe.I just look at the ironed shirt I was wearing about 20 minutes back and it has got creases all over.My black shoe has turned brown with the stamping of co-passengers.I cant blame anybody.Thankfully, I live on for another day to bring this ardeous journey to you.

TNA locals are relatively empty but extending them will lead to protest from Thaneites.There are a few slot in morning where pf 2 of Thane remains empty for more than 6-10 minutes.A crossover from UP slow to Pf 2 at Thane North can help introduce a few shuttles from areas far north to Thane if pf 1 and 3 are kept aside for TNA CST Slow locals.More importantly, IR, MRVC has to immediately push for the TNA DW new lines.Instead of extending the deadlines, its high time the local politicians are brought to book and project completed ASAP.



1 comment:

  1. Good that I shifted to Hyderabad. A 15 min morning commute to office.

    ReplyDelete

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