the madness that is mumbai.

well, mumbai is already madness. without me having to add to it...

I had just relocated to Bombay. Leaving Bangalore was a tough decision for me, but had to make it for the sheer adventure of exploring life in a new place. I have always been a vagabond at heart, and somehow found the idea of being rooted to a single place a little unsettling. But on second thoughts, I now realize how much I have traded for this new sojourn. I left behind everything I have built in the two years that I have stayed there – the friendships, the familiarity of buses and bus-routes, the places that I got so used to frequenting, the people, the workplace... Well, sometimes you do want to break free from the mundane familiarity of places, things and people.
but then again, sometimes you just want the reassuring comfort of familiarity.

Bombay is an enchanting place. Love it, hate it, you just can’t ignore it. That’s Bombay for you! the city of dreams, a city where swanky complexes juxtapose grimy slums, and filthy gutters flow beside plush multiplexes. A city that is perpetually on the run, and a city that proverbially “never sleeps”. And what can perhaps capture the quintessential spirit of Mumbai, better than its local trains?? I start my day traveling in them. And so do millions of others. An estimated 4 million people use them everyday!! Crowded, filthy yet fast and efficient, they operate as the lifeline of Bombay. Each one of these trains is designed to carry 1400 people, but at peak hours, sometimes the number swells to 7000, that’s five times its capacity! people squeeze into each other, until you believe it’s practically impossible to fit another person in. And then the great Mumbai miracle happens!! Another person actually pushes his way inside… people push, shove, fall down, hurt themselves, fight, swear, jostle, but somehow eventually make it to their destination. The train stops for about a minute at each station, and about a hundred people push in and out of each bogie in that time. A slurry of action, accompanied by the din of frantically rushing footsteps ensues even before the train stops… it’s worth watching, albeit from a safe distance. And as the train starts moving out, the last trickle of desperate people fight for the foothold at the door. Scores of people hang from the train, hinged precarious at the footboard. some with one foot on the foothold, some with half-a-foot.
It’s Mumbai :-) and it teaches you a lesson or two in endurance, patience and more importantly, to fight for survival.