Tales in Transit

Multitude of places for innumerable reasons all in trains or buses , autos or just treading the way!Having ridden on the public modes of transport in almost all the major towns and cities, I was sitting over to ponder how different my experiences have been.

Spearheading my first encounter with the bad bad world outside home was Kolkata.Local Trains of Bengal don't stop for normal homo sapiens who are used to behave like men, our age.Neanderthals indeed can board such caravans of the industrial eras.

Once I had to drop Deo at her friend's home at a place called Bardhamaan.Early morning Ma,Deo and me took a train to the destination, called the Black Diamond......6:00 am early morning trains are super cool.No one boards, except for people like us.Used to living life at our own pace, not the world's!However the tryst with our self-defined normality of speed was not to last long courtesy our return journey.

Completely unaware of the the rules of boarding a local train that too at office hours, we stood relaxed at the station.Ma had to grab a little space to sit considering her long term companionship with arthritis.As the time drew closer for the trains to arrive, it seemed like people were gushing in from all corners of the place. We were surrounded by people my hands could count and finally I lost the number which I'd quote as 10 to the power n......Actually the local trains of Bengal see many workers and employees travelling regularly to Kolkata.

God save us from the what is called The Human Density of Bengal.And a homogeneous blend of biological and thermodynamical processes made our journey more direful.Every one around sweating......Imagine the smell of sweat, food from tiffins , hairoil all forming a mix......And you squeezed somewhere in between with your lungs and guts almost thrown out of your body.

Since I was more worried about Ma getting a place to sit ,a very weird system caught my attention each time a train arrived......Stand near the windows of each train.Throw your handkerchief, mufflers etc etc the moment the train stops to block your seat and then once you enter, after the mob clears out from the gate claim your place.Thats why I believe Bongs are Intels indeed...... :-p Shortcuts to success.......Usurp the throne with a mere wiper tool of daily life.......Lol!

I finally managed to grab a seat for us by throwing my jhola through the window and asking a regular passenger to do the act of blocking a seat for me.It was the fourth train, missing a hat trick in a row though!

I would never say that all my experiences on Bengal trains have been bad.Especially the ones, I used to board from Haldia back in my graduation days.The journey would start with Chops and other plethora of fried food available.....Name it and you get it.....Mochaar Chop to Hingche to what not!Train could be the easiest vent to the call of ghrelin and leptin......HUNGER and satisfy our palates too.

My second rendezvous with the caravans on tracks was in Chennai.I had to catch a train from Pallavaram to Guindy or may be viceversa.I can't reminsce.......The one thing which mused me was not the flocking crowd or the discomfort coz there was'nt any:-) but for the yellow faces of the rural ladies who boarded the train.I traveled mostly in the suburbs of Chennai that too not in peak hours, so encounter with the mobs did not come into picture.Call it destiny, I always have one or more Tamil pals in my life which even continues, here at Delhi.So most of my cultural queries get a convincing answer then and there."Turmeric is considered divinely for skin, down south".....and that drives the suburban women to the yellowed faces.......

Here comes my third encounter, this time with the Lionized Train Services Of India.Welcome to the tinsel town where the bourgeois travels by local trains called the lifelines! My stay in Nasik for the past two years encouraged me to meet some of my best buddies in Mumbai and of course roadside shopaholism was another reason.These were the sources of inspiration behind boarding the dreaded trains! Else who takes the risk.....

Boarding from the almost the first station that is Kasara close to Nasik never made me realize that I am on a general boogie not the ladies.This usually happened when I traveled alone...... :-) As Mumbai drew closer, I would realize what a blunder I did!People have their boogies and seats fixed in Mumbai locals.Fellow passengers traveling together daily form a group conversing with each other about there everyday lives. And they have an empathetic relationship when it comes to sharing seats.I started my journey relaxing with a lot of a space finally long before Dadar I found myself squeezed to a corner near the window.And you have get up from your seat to reach the exit one station prior! Else either you miss the station intended or simply change your destination.The best would be stand up ahead a few who are about to get down.You will anyways be pushed outside effortlessly.

Another attrahent of the Mumbai Locals Ladies' Compartment is definitely the accessories ranging from earrings to studs, sold by suburban vendors.Everything for just a tenner.If you have patience to dig into the basket you might end up finding stuffs sold for four times in the Mumbai markets.

I would never forget my encounter with the Machiwalaas and Dabbawallahs at the Dadar Station after getting down the train.There is a weird tone of asking people to move and give way to them."Choo Choo" or something if I am not wrong.Initially it surprised me because I always presume any such activity as eve teasing.But when I found them doing it all the way through the crowd I was quite amused with this novel way of addressing people.Novel to may be just me!

But amidst all the chaos and the toughest of survival strategies, I fell in love with the warmth of Mumbai, somewhere I find a subtle resemblance with Kolkata except for its heart rending pace.The best part is the city sleeps less and when it wakes up it is full of life again.Sounding the morning siren with the flooded locals everyday :-)

In my rule book of vagabondism, where new experiences and people is just another ritual of life, Delhi has added some colorful pages.It is just three weeks here.Not exactly Delhi is where I stay though.My breezy flat on the highest floor of the apartment seems to be the only solace of staying in the deserted maze of malls called Gurgaon.And indeed Delhi metro is a pleasant sigh of relief providing an escape route from this place.

Welcome to the what we can phrase as the Delhi Locals seemingly a modern day version of the usual ones ;-) Again I usually avoid travelling during peak office hours.So there is no smell of sweat and hair oil in here pushing our guts out in disgustion.Everybody seems well dressed.Delhi I have heard, is a city of eye turners and neck twisters.Everybody tries to look good with layers of Revlon and Lakme on their faces.The womens' coach greets you in all in pink.And the synthetic advantage of looking good is men leering through the division of the womens' and general coach.Almost everyone facing the womens' coach.Oh my my..........Some men won't stop ogling at you from their seats.Upar *****Stop Beechmein****** Niche......and again.

Look back at them with a stern and Lol :-) Aaankein niche yaa kahin bagal waale ko dekho ab.....

This kind of lasciviousness exists in all cities but Delhi has learnt to fake eliteness with its monetary inheritance.You gotta be some kinda posh dude with the unprivileged treasure earned......Style feigned at its best I must say.Though one can always distinguish between the recently rich and the classy.

Women here probably are empathetic towards each other which comes maybe because we know the men here are tough to deal.I have seen young ladies giving away their seats to the older ones.Not once but many times.Impressive it was and inspiring too.......Lazy me.

Once off the metro late at night you need to run run run as fast as you can. Huh......To find a safer place.And here comes my final tale in transit, before I reach home.This time the fascinating Tum Tum -Ten seaters of Gurgaon.

The driver would drive the vehicle to the tunes of "Sarkailo Khatiya Jaara Lagein" and the likes.Noone would believe the vehicle turns to and fro with the crests and troughs of the song.Wow what an elevated experience of a disc!It indeed increases my heart beat alongside refreshing my childhood memories when Ma won't allow us to listen to the 90s Bollywood numbers fearing we'd get spoilt and how we would listen to it stealthily when she won't be home.

And finally comes a sigh of relief when you see your apartment shining through the jungle(almost one) from the Tum Tum.I am safe and I am not picked.......

Amidst my excitement to mention my experiencs in all the metros of the country I cannot forget my all time favorite city, Bangalore, Bangy it is :-) Don't have much of a public transport experience maybe coz' it was always Anitha's bike and for the rest I'd manage by - "Kannada Gotilla" in the public buses.......or get duped by the autowallahs paying 80 bucks and 20 bucks for the same route up and down.

Well, yeah have a sweet little story to narrate that happened in the pink womens' buses in Majestic.Royal they felt like when they were first launched three four years back......As I would mostly wait for the ladies' palanquin to reach BTM layout from Majestic, I saw a very old lady boarding the bus unaware it was just meant for women.So her husband followed too.The lady so delighted with the comfort placed herself in the front seat with her husband sitting beside her till the time the conductor objected the male presence.The lady refused to leave the comfort and the husband refused to leave her! The wife was in constant denial and the husband won't leave.An extremely sweet romantic tale.Might have reminded him of his days of wooing and then, bowling her over.

Finally the conductor allowed him, seeing an octogenarian unwilling to leave his wife,also probably because they had to travel just two three stops from Majestic.

So, I come to an end of what I wanted to write for a long time.Ciao.....

AuRevoir! :-) :-)