07:12 ST Fast

     When you spend more than three hours everyday in a local train (that way, 7 years of an average Mumbaikar's life), commuting from home to work and back, it becomes your second home and the fellow passengers your friends. Some read a book, some solve crossword in the newspapers, some do office work, some keep looking outside the window for hours and some decide to just kill time by looking at those cheap adverts on the walls or enjoying a heavy breeze in the doorway. Or just inspecting an item the street vendor is trying to sell. All in all, if you exclude the pathetic crowd in the trains, all of my commutes have been extremely enjoyable.

     Talking of local trains, you might have seen the Bhajanwalas in early morning trains. Those are just ordinary men, like you and me, trying to devote some time for the higher powers through religious, Marathi songs, most of them dedicated to Lord Vitthal of Pandharpur. Some people see it as an irritating thing; but for me it was purely amazing to see the entire bogie joining in on rhythms of tabla.

     The single craziest thing I have seen in the local trains is probably the water boy. A water boy brings water bottles for the commuters with absolutely no motive behind it. He circulates the bottles amongst the fellow commuters and collects back once they have consumed water. And he does it everyday, year after year. There couldn't be more selfless act than this. Although I have been travelling in local trains for more than six years now, I have never seen the water boy people more than twice. And if you ask why this - May be those people don't find time for doing some good things in their life. The part of punya as defined by the Hindu mythology.

     I was going to CST the other morning when I took the 07:12 train to ST and I felt like I have crashed in a wrong party. Every damn passenger in that bogie seem to know each other and I was the odd man out in their gossip and jokes. It almost felt like a get-together in that train. They probably sent off each other saying, 'See you tomorrow, same  train, same coach!'

     It leaves me confusing every time when I think why do local trains symbolize only Mumbai city? Why not Chennai or Delhi for that matter. They have EMUs too. Who knows? May be these cities and its people haven't accepted the local trains as much as Mumbai has.