My Super Dense Crush Load Commute
Kinjal Pandya-Wagh is a Producer in the 大象传媒’s Mumbai office. She spends 3 hours a day travelling in the ladies’ carriages on Mumbai’s suburban trains.
In recent years, I have travelled on the tubes of London and subways of New York but travelling by the local trains of Mumbai is a totally different experience.
Every morning I start the day by squeezing into a train that is ‘super dense crush loaded’. These local trains carry more than twice the number of passengers than its capacity which means I am crushed and sandwiched between at least eight other women from all sides, hugging me from head to toe.
I started travelling by train on my own from the time I went to high school, that’s when I started discovering more about the way people commute in Mumbai and the dreams that drive so many people from across India to travel together towards a common agenda, which is to survive in the city and make it big in whatever they do.
This is also the time when I first experienced how local trains are Mumbai’s life line – when the trains stop working, the city comes to a halt.
The people who take the same train every day become friends. These groups do everything from playing cards to singing Bollywood songs and spiritual songs (called bhajans). They also gossip about topics such as their in-laws, friends, office politics and the lives of Bollywood personalities. The women also celebrate birthdays by sharing cakes among their friends. There are groups of men in the gents’ compartment who are known for singing spiritual songs and using small hand cymbals called ‘manjiras’.
Along with this fun there are often fights, mainly during peak hours. Commuters push their way onto the trains, throwing all their energy on the person ahead and obviously this can lead to quarrels about pushing too hard or inappropriately. These arguments will either stop immediately or go on until the time they get off at the station. The level of cursing and fighting depends on whether you are in a first class or second class compartment. If you are in a second class compartment, which costs much less than first class, then bad words are very common during fights. Women also get physical with each other pulling hair, slapping, pushing and sometime even almost tearing off the clothes of the person they are fighting with. There have been times when my shirt got torn while boarding a train because someone behind me was pulling my shirt to get into the compartment. If you are in a first class compartment, you are very likely to hear men and women fighting in English.
There were times during my college days when I was almost hanging on the footboard of my train, trying to get myself inside the heavily loaded compartment. I would scream to the highest of my voice asking the women ahead to keep moving in to allow me and other women hanging outside to get inside the compartment. We don’t have any concept of doors closing before the train starts moving away from the station. This is what is really shocking about the world’s busiest railway lines here.
Another amazing aspect of travelling on the local trains is that people have to board trains even before they halt at the station. I usually time my jump, leap inside the compartment holding the door handles, or even another commuter’s arm, then grab a seat before anyone else. Once this is done it is a feeling of great accomplishment! If I don’t get a seat I ask people who are seated which station they will get off at and if it is before my destination, I will reserve the seat.
During the summer season, it can get really sweaty and stinky on the trains. With temperatures around 35 degrees outside, inside the overcrowded compartments it can be much hotter, with only a few fans on the ceiling. Although air is blowing from outside as well it cannot stop the sweat trickling down people’s bodies and you get a lot extra on you from the women hugging you from all sides!
One thing that travelling by train has helped me to learn is time-management. I try to make the most of my time on the train, reading news is one activity which is slowly changing from reading newspapers to going online and accessing apps of newspapers and using news sites.
I also end up doing some shopping on the trains. In the women’s compartment there are walk-through sellers of earrings, rings, bangles and make-up items like lipstick and nail polish and even fancy Indian suits, vegetables, fruits and Indian snacks. In the men’s compartment you will find sellers are few but you will any day find men selling pens, notebooks, diaries, hair combs, wallets and books on herbal medicine.
Beggars inside train compartments are also very common and of all age groups starting from 10 year olds to senior citizens. Some sing their way to different parts of the compartment, some sweep the compartment with their brooms and some just beg.
What you think about this train travel totally depends on how you look at it. You can either love it or hate it. If you love it then you can come out learning a lot, but if you hate it you will end up being a complaining, negative and fight full person. I have learnt to be tolerant and have a great deal of patience. It has improved my interpersonal and communication skills and moreover it unifies me with people from very different backgrounds, every day, towards a common goal of reaching your destination.
The suburban railway system in Mumbai really is a perfect example of a place where nation building practically happens on a daily basis.
