TS- 07:41 Dadar Local Part 1 Page 1

Part 1

1^st July 2004

Jodha was late, as usual. She rushed to M.G. Road to find an auto. The distance between Goregaon station and her place, on the West, wasn't really long, walking distance of around twenty minutes max, yet she took an auto each day paying the minimum fare of a few rupees.

"Bye Mum. Bye Dad." She said wearing her sandals. "Did you take your umbrella? It was on the window sill." Mom yelled, and she remembered taking it, and screamed in agreement as she ran down the stairs of their spacious two-bedroom flat in a Mumbai suburb.

A two bedroom apartment in any other city in India, is pretty small considering they belonged to the higher upper middle class group, well, it's Mumbai, things that work in other places do not work here. Space crunch was something every Mumbaikar knew how to deal with. yelled Jodha ran down the stairs, not bothering with the elevator.

The gentle drizzle, was turning into proper rain, as she stood with one hand clasping the umbrella, and the other waving in the air. "Rickshaw, auto!!" She all but screamed, waving her hands frantically. It was 07.30 in the morning already and the streets were abuzz with activity. That is yet another thing about this magical city, Mumbai never sleeps. Whether it is midnight or midmorning, there are always people about. There is life around. It is lively as ever. Others may not cherish it, in fact, residents in Bombay don't bother, but it is there.

"Station jaana hai, Bhaiyya." She said bending down as the auto driver stopped. He shook his head in denial and drove off.

"Shit."

After the third auto guy stormed off, Jodha was panicky. If she missed the 7.41 train, there was another one at 7.56, but she'd miss the office bus in Dadar at 8.20 and the next bus is half an hour later for employees in the next shift, God knows, why thirty minutes later is another shift, but that was how it was. Bottom line, she would be late.

"Will you come to Dubai?" She demanded of the fifth consecutive rickshaw that denied. She walked on trying to catch another one, as luck would have it, this one agreed. "Thank the stars!"

Jodha was barely a minute away from missing the 07.41 local to Dadar, and she made a dash for the first class compartment at the rear end as it slowly started moving. Hundreds of people scrambled into the train, a quarter did get down, and a few decided to give it a miss, those were the cautious ones, people who never, even in worst case scenarios, didn't hang around from the doors. Jodha had to do pretty little, to get into the train, she was pushed by the ocean of people anyways.

Rains increased the congestion in trains and in the stations as people sought the cover of the roof to remain dry but didn't bother too much, such petty things didn't make much of a difference. As usual, there were puddles of water, here and there, the Udupi restaurant just outside the station as crowded as ever with people grabbing a quick breakfast before heading to work. The local sellers were already putting up their wares, with a rubber sheet above, to guard them from the rain. They couldn't afford to miss even a day's sales if they wanted the stove burning in their homes. These were those hawkers who lived a hand to mouth existence. They didn't have a huge land, in their native towns. They were here not for the heck of it, but because they needed the money. They were screaming, advertising their products. Aye, this is how advertising and marketing works in the roads.

Men and women parked their two wheelers, on the sides, nobody in their sane minds would travel far distances in cars and scooters, it is not only waste of money and petrol, it was precious waste of time spent in road travel.

She had to get her pass renewed and she hadn't done that today. Never mind, she'll do that on the way back. Jodha felt a tad bit guilty on travelling without paying for it, but well, nothing could be done about it. And anyhow, she would get the pass in the evening. So it was cool.

It had been around six months since she had started working in this firm, after moving in from Delhi. She was looking for a place of her own, but the ratio between cost of living and monthly income was pathetic. So, she was living with her parents now, until she could find her own rental accommodation.

Six months, same train, same time, and same compartment, first class, she had become acquainted with some people. Almost the same people travelled every day and there were many familiar faces. There was a lady, old, nearing her retirement age probably, actually there were many old ladies, many old men, many young men and women, many students. To be precise, there were many of everybody, if that even makes sense. I smiled at some people I have always smiled at. It was raining pretty heavily now and I was grateful to have caught the train. That was what everyone around was discussing too. Some of us had gotten slightly wet. It was cool that the train wasn't running late.

"Baarish is saal achcha aayega." Some old, experienced person pronounced and someone else agreed. Then they were talking about some block somewhere, probably in Central Railway. Western Rail was way more crowded and here came the living example of a typical Mumbai nightmare. Andheri station. If the crowd at Goregaon was a sea, Arabian, likely, the crowd in Andheri was the Pacific and Atlantic together. So, in this particular first class, there were more men who got in than women. Women preferred the ladies compartment, that wasn't any lesser.

In here, there were many who missed the train. No one helped them. No SRK or Saif stretched out their hand for others to get in. No, things don't happen that way. It doen't mean, we are selfish, it just means no one is selfless and everyone is here with a purpose. We don't have time for others. I didn't find a single girl with hands outstretched enjoying the rain, like they show in movies and shows. Again, no one has the time. It isn't so bad a thing actually, people do not not know how to enjoy life. They do. But, not in the way heroes and heroines do, conventionally. There is no need to stop and look back and enjoy smaller moments in life.

You can always run and enjoy running. That is how life works. If you wait for that one moment to stretch your hands and enjoy the rain, you probably would have to wait an entire life and still not get there. Rather, what you COULD do, is, stand in, and enjoy the hustle and bustle and liveliness.

Even good-looking people travelled by train. It is a gross misinterpretation and misconception fanned by the entertainment industry, that only the poor travelled by train. No. Wrong idea. Everybody travelled by train. Barring the Ambanis, Tatas and Birlas. They flew. The metro was being constructed to divert some crowd and reduce the pressure on Andheri but, odds are it would be opened only in 2014 at the present rate.

I knew I wouldn't find a place to sit yet again. There were some people who threw their weight around and sat in the same seat day after day, month after month. These were people who instead of going directly towards Central or Churchgate, went backwards from their original destination till Dahisar, and came in the same train, again, so they could sit comfortably in good seats. And, we, who couldn't afford to do this back and forth business hardly got places to sit. Not that, that was a major concern, since, it is more fun to watch people from here.

Gosh, how much I had missed living in this city. I was brought up here. I have lived all my life in Mumbai except the last one year when I moved to Delhi for a project, it feels so good to be back, to live among familiar surroundings, the crowd, the noise and the din. I loved the fast pace. I hate slow moving things.

I looked ahead and saw this guy and our eyes met, and I acknowledged his presence with a nod. Someone asked me the time, I turned around telling him it was 8 am.

Pronita was missing today. There were a hundred possibilities for the reason and I am not even going to go into any of it. She was a young lady, married. We were slightly better than acquainted. She got in at Jogeshwari and so I noticed.

There were many train friends, when I think about it. They had started together as youngsters and now had graying hair. Well, that was damn cool actually. From when do you know her? Oh, I know her when because, I ran late as I had gone to watch Manoj Kumar's new movie, and surprisingly she too was there!

Funny stories, these were. Very fascinating. If I were a filmmaker, I would capture these finer nuances rather than repeatedly showing the same Juhu beach and Gateway of India. Come on guys, there is more to Bombay than those sights alone.

It seems, one of the men on the train, not pretty old, was born in the same train! Like how awesome is that? He travelled free, he had a life pass.

Every train, every compartment, every green and yellow compartment, had a story to tell. The walls, the handles, the doors, everything. Even ordinary moments in life could be special if one wanted.

A/N - This is the Western Railway Line. Starts from Dahisar I guess, Goregaon somewhere later, two stations later, Andheri, it goes to Dadar, Central, and Churchgate. In case, you find it confusing.😃

Btw, I asked my Mom, about the local trains. She said it is virtually impossible, for ladies to travel in the Men's compartment especially in Western, in the mornings, it is that crowded. But, I had already posted the Prologue and had to stick to it. I am mortified with the faux pas, can't do a thing. xD🥱

If you guys find anything else illogical, not realistic, feel free to tell me. I want to make this story as real and as natural as can be.😳

And, I don't travel by trains. Drat, I don't even live in Mumbai. Parents did. So, I would really like those of you who do so, to give me inputs on how you go about it. Not statistics and all like, it is for 4 lakh people but 14 lakh people commute. But finer things, like, how exactly you make train friends. Whether you have any train friends. Can there be food items sold within the train. Is it possible for two people to fall in love there, a little far fetched still, and how much you know others on the train. If things have changed in the years, how? What happened when there were rains, when there was the blast? Anything... I look forward to those responses.🤗

Before you complain about not having Jalal there, guess who Jalal is.😉