The Great Mumbai Local Trains!

Hello there!

Happy Diwali and a prosperous New Year!

Festive season is at full throttle. Navratri followed by Sharad Poornima followed by Karwa Chauth followed by Diwali.

Hindus are the most lucky and unlucky community when it comes to festivals. Lucky because there is some or the other festival to celebrate every few days. Unlucky because they are constantly active, no relief from the festive fervour, and so many related expenses like food, clothes, gifts, etc. And in this inflation, too many expenses does make life difficult.

Still we all enjoy the festivities with our loved ones. But, the best place to experience the festivals besides our own homes is the great Mumbai Local Train, followed closely by Workplaces. Local Train is the lifeline of Mumbai and the people of Mumbai. A typical working Mumbaikar spends almost 15% of their day in the Local Train. Co-travellers become extended family. Birthdays, anniversaries, festivals, work achievements, you name it and it is celebrated in the Local Train. Birthday cakes are cut in train. Snacks are shared. Literally parties happen in trains where turn by turn people of the group get snacks for all. Sometimes even dinners and weekend outings are planned with the fellow travellers.

There is a strong emotional connect. The people meet only twice a day on account of the commute together. And in that shared journey a strong, everlasting bond is formed. This is especially true for Women. Being a woman myself, I have witnessed moments of joys and sorrows being shared amongst close-knit groups in this very train. The bonding is so strong. The train friends stand by each other in times of need and even fight for each other if need be.

You know, during Navratri, we have the tradition to wear different colours on each of the 9 days. It is a symbolic reference to the Goddesses that each day is dedicated to. I don’t know who decides the colours and how it is decided, yet. We get this communication in Whatsapp groups and Official workplace mailers specifying the colour code for each day. And we all try to follow it. Both men and women. And it is definitely a sight to see. If it is say, yellow colour, you get to witness all shades of yellow in the clothes of people travelling. There is a sea of Yellow on the local railway platform. Waves of yellow entering the train as it arrives on the platform. And then the waves are subsided by a calmer and smaller sea once the train leaves the platform. Within the train, men sing bhajans (devotional songs). Some men even carry musical instruments for singing bhajans. Such sessions makes them forget their more than an hour journey. Women sing garbas (traditional folk songs sung during Navratri festival). Some women even dance to those songs, making a circle in the aisle of the train. And it is not actually restricted through religion. Anybody and everybody who wants to join and have fun can go for it. And everybody enjoys the music. Secularism bang in the middle of the lifeline of Mumbai. And those politicians just talk shit about “Secularism” and actually try to divide people by talking about Religion and such allied things. And singing is not related to devotional music only. Even Antaksharis are played with Bollywood songs. Thanks to smartphones, commuters love playing Ludo game in group as it reminds them of their childhood memories. And it’s fun to see them playing, pulling down each other just to win the game. At times, you’ll also enjoy discussions relating to politics, stock market, Bollywood movies and what not. Some people brag with so much confidence that you’ll almost believe them to be true. These people know how to have a good time in adversity. I mean, all these people could have had a horrible day yesterday. They could be looking forward to yet another horrible day ahead. They could be stressed about work, about home, about family, kids, chores and what not. And yet, in the company of the fellow travellers, who could be experiencing the same things in their own lives, they forget their respective troubles and enjoy the moment. This is probably what keeps them energised, keep them going throughout the day, each day, inspite of all the troubles.

Another aspect of the festivities is dressing up! The favourite activity of women. Women dress up for so many things. Festivals, Public holidays, and so on. And it is another important part of the train friendship. Come any such event, say Karwa Chauth. Days ahead women will plan with their group members about what to wear, what accessories to wear, what to cook and so on. Members help each other by lending their own stuff and/or going shopping together. There would be a full on Make-up Masterclass right in the middle of the train. The pro person of the group would advise on shade of lipstick and nailpaint to be used. Even apply the eye-liner and lipstick and do hairstyles for the group members in need. It is like a free of cost, everyday salon.

And these local trains are so important for lunches of the working people. The local trains are an important part of the tiffin delivery service run by the famed Mumbai Dabbawalas.

For the uninitiated, The dabbawalas constitute a lunchbox delivery and return system that delivers hot lunches from homes and restaurants to people at work in Mumbai. The lunchboxes are picked up in the morning, delivered predominantly using bicycles and railway trains, and returned empty in the afternoon. They are also used by meal suppliers in Mumbai, who pay them to ferry lunchboxes with ready-cooked meals from central kitchens to customers and back. (Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dabbawala) It is an Army of 5,000 Dabbawalas fulfilling the hunger of almost 200,000 Mumbaikar with home-cooked food that is lug between home and office daily. They are Six Sigma Certified and is a great example of solid, organised team work. They are an integral part of the life of the Office-goers. And now they even have their own centralised kitchen to provide the comfort of home-cooked food to people who are alone or do not have somebody to cook food for them at home. You can visit their website http://mumbaidabbawala.in/# for more detailed information. Trust me, you would be fascinated to know how they operate. And they are strongly aided by the very same Mumbai Local Trains in their daily operations. Tiffins or Lunch-boxes are collected from homes and transported to the nearest railway station by Bicycles. At the station, they are sorted based on the Destination station and accordingly the men take responsibility of their respective allocated locations and load the tiffins in the train. At destination station, the tiffins are unloaded, sorted and then sent away on bicycles to reach the final destination. All before the lunch time. Every single day, whether it is raining or sunny, whether the trains are on time or late, whether roads have traffic or not, the Dabbawalas ensure that the tiffins reach the people on time and everybody gets their own tiffins. There is always First Time Right. No room for error. And after the lunch time, these empty tiffins are also collected and delivered back to the homes they came from. It’s marvelous how this process is repeated every single day, without any mistake. And the centre of it all is the Great Mumbai Local Train.

Local trains in Mumbai are truly the lifeline of the civilians here. Everybody’s life is connected to it. If the local trains do not work, their lives come to a standstill. Travelling anywhere within Mumbai becomes a nightmare. So cheers to the Awesome Mumbai Local Trains.

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Tada!