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.