Pink day

Navraatri, meaning festival of 9 nights (nav-9, raatri-nights) is celebrated all over India even though it's a north Indian thing. It involves dancing the Garba (google it), praying to god, thanking him for all that he's given you, buying-wearing new clothes, eating loads of sweets, meeting relatives, etc. an interesting thing abt Navraatri is that every one of the nine days is assigned a specific colour, and everyone wears that day's colour. Literally, EVERYONE. It was pink on, I think, The 9th day (I don't know any of this stuff, I'm a south Indian settled in Mumbai, but the thing abt Mumbai is that ALL festivals are celebrated here. You can celebrate Navraatri wether you're Gujarati or not, you can celebrate Pongal wether your kannadiga, malayali, Telugu, tamiliyan or punjabi. "Yahaan pe sab chalta hai" meaning -in Mumbai, anything is possible) is pink. And on that 9th day, I saw something I don't think I'll see ever again (except maybe on next year's Navraatri). This is what I saw-
EVERY SINGLE WOMAN in the ladies compartment, EVERY SINGLE ONE, was in pink, including myself. The compartment, which was this fungus-y green colour, glowed pink. Not even a nice pink, but a hideous, bright, light pink which does absolutely nothing for the Indian skin tone. It was the most awesome as well as the most disturbing thing I've seen in the trains (thus far). Interestingly, on the other 8 days, abt 50% of the women were in the colour of the day, but on that day, 100%. I tried to take a picture, but the women started giving me the look nd I couldn't . But I tried. AND got pictures. (take that, noisy-woman-next-to-me-who-kept-stepping-on-my-foot). Interstingly#2, I had unknowingly worn pink too :O

Mumbai is a beautiful city. The energy is insane, the happiness is infectious, the festival seasons are magical and the people and the whole city is wonderfully accommodating. Like a giant, super enthusiastic family. We came to Mumbai in 2007 june and within a month, we felt like a part of the city. Mumbaikars. (that sounded so cheesy)

Whoa #2

A train stops at a station for only 18 seconds.

Ganpati puja

The end of september is ganpati puja season. There's pandals (decorated canopies for the large, extravagant ganesha idols)(pronounced: pun daals) (ganesha is the god with an elephant head) for each and every street, gully and apartment complex. I was in matunga, and on 1 small gully I found 5 pandals :O 1 with a Ganesha idol in it.

This poster, on the vikhroli station, always, ALWAYS creeps me out.

Found another one in the Kanjurmarg station.

Kind kommuters

I observed something today.
The 1:00pm to CST had stopped at vidyavihaar, waited a minute, then started moving. A guy was running to get into the next compartment. He got alongside the compartment nd suddenly a whole bunch of hands helped, ok literally pulled him in.
How nice :)

Every time the train nears a station, you can actually feel the train slant toward whichever side the platform will be on. Scary :O

Unclaimed baggage.

Me nd all the other women in the ladies first class found a handbag in the compartment. First thoughts were that it held a bomb. No one wanted to touch it. So naturally, it came into my hands. Inside, was a doctor's prescription, which we OBVIOUSLY didn't understand and a lot of money. We sent this girl to go to the 2nd class compartment to check if it belonged to any of the women there. She got off at sion nd got into the 2nd class compartment. Don't know what happened there, after another station, a group of 3 women climb into our compartment nd ask if we've found a small bag. Sad.
Though, with the bomb thing nd all, it was another little train adventure.

Forgive me :D

What music do I listen to on the train??


Train tracks, of course! XD

Timing is everything.

The happiest time is when the last lecture (which ends at 5:15) is cancelled. Nothing wrong with the subject, or the class, or the teacher, it's just the timing that's atrocious. 5pm the crowds come in. By 5:15, it's impossible to stand without a woman's hand in your face. By 5:25 (the time we get to the station after the last lecture), it's a miracle if you even get onto a train. Today, the last lecture was cancelled. The lord has showed us train travellers some mercy.

Will you look at that. No train to Thane for another 15 minutes. Oh joy -_-

Never get late. EVER.

Never make the fatal mistake of coming late. NEVER. I did, got into the 12:07 train to dadar instead of the 11:55 to cst, nd so I'm standing with another girl's armpit in my face. It's harsh.
The Dadar station has both local and inter-state trains passing, so it's MUUUUUUUCCHH much more crowded than others. if only I could get out at the next station and go back home -_- as if the crowd isn't bad enough, I'm also late to college. Wish me luck.

Mumbai monsoons

Train in rain = bad idea.

Crazy rains!!!

It doesn't always rain for 3 days non-stop on Mumbai. But when it does, it freaking shuts the whole city down!!

It's so bad, it's funny.

On my way back home, the other day, I suffered a moment of insanity.
The crowd that day was double of the usual. The bags, more full than usual. The heat, more merciless than usual. The women, more annoying, more sweaty, more grumpy, more space consuming, more chidchida (hindi for irritable) than usual. So obviously, i was getting stepped on more than usual. It soon got to such an extent that my mind thought it was best, for me, in a situation like that to randomly start laughing. Not giggling-discreetly-to-self kind of laughter, but the OHGOODLORD-that-was-crazy-hilarious! kind.
Good fun. Good fun.

The hawkers.

There are these hawkers who are practically a part of the station, selling the strangest of items. Everything from X rated movies to philips hairdryers for a hundred bucks. Coconuts nd peas in plastic covers to tupperware. How they get their hands on those items, i will never know.

Another sleeping lady :D

Railway fatality no. Two. I think.

On kurla station, two stations away from matunga, i, once again, noticed a small crowd on the station. It was a young man this time. 20 something, lying on the ground. People were rubbing his feet nd he was unconcious, frothing at the mouth :/ oh dear god. A guy that age, frothing at the mouth, probably from consuming poison, is what newspaper reports would call a relationship suicide, without knowing the facts. Young people bitten by the love bug, but turned down by the ones they 'love' do stupid things sometimes.

The doors were closed :O

The staircase at 6 in the evening O_o

Some lady in the thane bound local XD She was sound alseep! I just HAD to take a picture ^_^

This is how a station looks from the train.

This lady is female train mascot. I guess. But basically,her face is everywhere.

Fat Gujarati ladies are the worst.

I must say, Train travelling is in fact more fun than college itself. The first class ladies compartment never fails to surprise me. Ever.
I know the first thing that people hear about the local trains is negative. The first thing being, "the crowd is unbelievable! Faaaaar too many people!!" nd after hearing this, we freak out. This was the first thing i heard too. Teamed with the newspaper reports of passengers falling out of trains nd falling onto train tracks due to over-crowding, train-travellers being hit by stone throwing stupids by the train tracks, peaceful local waale (people again, but in hindi) being crushed by crazy crowds, etc. etc. is a killer combination to make a person NOT want to travel by train. But i was majboor ('left with no choice' hindi again. You'll probably be seeing a lot of hindi in this blog, because my english has been infused with some very 'interesting' hindi from living here nd listening to people speak 'hinglish' for the past 4 yrs) so i travelled by train despite the dangers. (Yes, i'm quite the daredevil :P ) but one thing those warning others not to use the train do not mention is the fact that it is one of those experiences which completely transforms you into a true mumbaikar. It is one of those experiences which makes you feel alive, makes you feel as if you can face anything because you survived the mad merciless mumbai crowd.
Just this morning, i was on my way to college, peacefully standing in the corner, listening to 'high hopes' by pink floyd when the train stopped at the ghatkopar station. Eery silence filled the air. . . (the kind of silence that comes before something scary is about to happen) nd then BOOM. I was overwhelmed by a flood of fat gujarati (people originally from the state of gujarat) women, holding onto their handbags as if they contained their life forces, pushing through the sea of people already in the train to try and catch a seat (which, as everyone knew, was impossible). In the mad tidal wave of henna'ed hair, handbags nd handkerchiefs, my headphones got stuck to some weird lady's bag nd maybe she didn't hear me shouting at her to stop for a second because she kept on mowing her way through the crowd with my headphones fatally attached to her shiny brown basta (bag, in hindi). After a two minutes of shouting, i realised that those headphones were now lost to the world nd i turned around, looking for a place to stand again. . .
I may have lost my nice new headphones, but at least i have another train story to tell.

That isn't me. But this is practically how ppl look when the compartment is empty. Quiet and peaceful.

I hope he survived.

Yesterday, just as i was about to walk onto the platform, i noticed a small crowd next to the police station, and naturally, i had to have a look. There was a man lying on a stretcher, breathing heavily, tightly bandaged, Covered in blood. His head was smashed out of shape. A by-stander told me that the man had fallen out of a train and was in critical condition and that it had been half an hour since they called for an ambulance which had not yet arrived. It was gruesome. But worse, was knowing that there was nothing i could do to help. The man looked to be about 35 years old. Wonder whose father, brother, husband, son he was. I hope he survived.

Rickshaw, then train to college.

Over the past few days, I have come to realise, no distance is too large for a mumbaikar. I know people who travel all the way from one corner if the city to the other to study, which would be completely normal if it were a small city. But mumbai, is a VERY big city. 233 sq. miles to be exact.
I wanted to take the arts stream for my 11th and 12th and had managed to get decent marks in the boards so i secured a seat in Ramnarain Ruia college of arts and commerce, matunga. But matunga was a bit too far to travel by bus to, so i was finally, FINALLY going to have to travel by the elusive local train which i had been avoiding for a very long time. College was to start on 20th july and 20th july was also going to be the day i would travel the city by the mumbai local, alone. For the first time.