The locals on harbour line...

I am writing this in the morning so this might not get completed. Please dont read yet.

Hordes of people standing, looking in one direction with total concentration. Some dreading its arrival, others planning what to do next. Then it voices its entry with a triumph slow march, while people barge on it with full intensity. This is not the description of some battle, its description of the local train on the harbour line.

It takes special skill to get on the trains in mumbai. You see so many enstranged bewildered outsiders looking here and there at kurla station at the crowd. The best way to know a outsider in mumbai is the person who is looking everywhere but the road, is out of the line and is walking at slow pace. In mumbai, time is money and money; doesnt come when you waste it.

All the travellers have a common dream, which is to sit in the window seat in the direction of the ongoing train. Getting a seat at the window can be compared to getting a seat next to the king! The lucky person is surrounded by envious stares from everyone around. Specially from those sitting to opposite to him. Its very difficult to digest those stares so they prefer to sleep or read a book or stare outside the window. The grilled window gives a jails impression to the train. Though the one at the window is closest to the outer world.

The train buzzes on at a high speed, slowing and speeding in different period of time. It pauses for a few seconds for the people and goods to scamper around and then goes of at its wild pace. Harbour line doesnt have fast trains because there are not enough tracks for the same. Crossing the vashi bridge forms one of the most interesting expereinces. I remember walking it down once, Staring at the sea from a thin railing from the wide bridge, while the train rushes behind you forms a wonderful experience.

It takes two and the half hours to cross the bridge from mankhurd to vashi on foot and only 10 to 15 minutes by train. This gives you ample idea of what the speed must be like. The drivers call their steering stick the dead man's stick because their are 5 to 8 deaths daily on the tracks. Crossing the tracks is another ennerving experience which takes will of iron as you clutch your life in your hand and your legs, trying to take care of the goods and your life in that run between the trains.