Monsoon Train Ride

I had to run an errand after work today in South Mumbai. Not all the way South, just four stations down the suburban railway.

The monsoon may have come on slow, but it is definitely upon us now. Two or three storms roll through every night, and usually some in the day too. I’ve always been able to time the walk from my apartment to my office and back during periods where it’s not raining. It rained all day today. The day I had to run my errand.

Cars driving through puddles only once splashed me today, and I’m thinking that the brown stains won’t show up on the grey pants. Keeping my work clothes clean is a major goal of mine. I gave my umbrella last weekend to Jingyi and Christine, I think, and I didn’t have an umbrella today. I borrowed one from Mritunjay. His umbrella would not survive the trip. I didn’t need the umbrella anyway. Even though it poured rain for a large part of the day, by 6pm, when I set off on my journey, it was just drizzling. Trying to walk with all the people in the streets is not easy with the big umbrella taking up all the extra space. You bump cars, people, and other umbrellas. So I only used this umbrella for a few minutes anyway.

I had to go the CRY offices in Mahalakshmi to pay for the train tickets I’m going to use to go into the countryside with CRY. The train down there was hardly full. The train ride back is what I dreaded. It would be the first time I had ever ridden the train in rush hour in the direction of the heavy traffic – ie in the evening, out of the city.

The Long Ride Home
At around 7:30 I stood on the platform at Mahalakshmi, and the train pulled to a stop. Some people weren’t even hanging from the doors, they were just hanging from the outside. As the train slows down, herds of people begin rushing with the movement of the train so they’ll be in front of the door when the train stops. While it’s slowing, the doorways begin spewing people to the platform. Those waiting for the train put their arms out in front of them and push through the crowd standing in the train car's open doorway. People do this because when the train moves, this is the only place with real airflow.

It was a shock seeing people try to force their way onto this full train. I waited for the next one, knowing I was going to have to force my way on too. When the next train came, I took a place in the platform crowd and pushed my way on with them. Inside I got pushed into the center. Somewhere in this first rush I lost Mritunjay’s umbrella, and it is currently presumed trampled. In the train we were literally crammed like sardines in a tin. People are touching you from all sides. There is no room for you to put your hands to your face. You cannot scratch any itches you may have. You can only move when the whole huge crowd moves – because you are cemented in together with them.

Bandra, my station, is a main station, and I thought there would be a big enough shift of people that I’d be able to move to the door with the shift. I was stuck in the middle. A man, who I thought had been extra rude in the mean push to get on the train at a prior station, began fighting with another man over, I think, overhead hand placement. I wasn’t able to get close enough to the door. I missed my station. I managed to find a slight hole in the sea of people near the door, and I slid my way into it. This is the door people had used at Bandra. At the next station, the exit was on the other side of the train. I was separated from the door, again, by too many people. By this point, the people were so thick, and I was thinking, crap, how far am I going to have to ride before I am able to get off? An Indian, who must have seen me push my way to the wrong side, told me that the exit at the next main station, Andheri, would be on my side.

At Andheri I was determined to get off, so I did what the Indians do. Before the train has come to a complete stop, I began pushing everyone out of my way so I could slide out the door. If the crowd is pushing you out, and the train has not stopped moving, you and the crowd jump out of the moving train together. This sounds like a good way to fall between the moving train and the platform, but you’re not able to fall. You’re jammed with too many people to have that freedom of movement. Even if you lose your balance, the crowd pushing you from all sides will keep you standing. So I jumped off a moving train with a crowd of people into a huge crowd of people standing on the platform.

Now I had to ride the train from Andheri to Bandra. They are four stations apart. I planned to take an express train that would only stop at Bandra. When a train pulls into the station, the excitement of the people on the platform begins, and surging crowds are expelled from the train doors. People on the platform rush and push onto the train. It seems to me that they push too much on purpose once they get on the train, like they’re moshing. All regular manners are disregarded. The train going from Andheri to Bandra was the most packed train I’ve ever been on. I was actually leaning because that’s how I was stuck into the crowd. I have the awful feeling that a guy was trying to place his hand on my crotch, but that could have just been paranoia since every part of my body was touching other people. I was determined to get off at Bandra, so I rudely pushed my way out even before the train had stopped, just like everyone else.

I can’t imagine having to put up with this kind of rough and tumble aggression twice every day. I got sweaty and dirty. Everyone around me was sweaty and dirty, and it only takes one man near you with b.o. to make you want to gag. If you’re claustrophobic, and I was starting to feel a little claustrophobic between Andheri and Bandra, you would never be able to travel with the rush hour traffic – and crap, sometimes the trains are crowded in non-rush hour times.

None of the lawyers at work ride the trains. Some have only rode once or twice. When we go to court in South Mumbai, we take a cab, even though the roads are as choked as the trains. There is a first class on the trains, but first class looks just as crowded. It costs ten times as much (but I did spend only $.20 on two train rides today). There are cars for ladies only, and I watched the entrance and exit from one of these cars at Bandra station, and the ladies are no more orderly or polite than the men.