2003 revisited

I was going through some old CDs which consisted of some data backups from my life in India 3 years ago . I came across this article I wrote in the 3rd year of engineering for my College Magazine 'Kshitij' . I dont know how relevant is it now ..but its a good read...brings back some memories .. this one's dated Year 2003 I think ..

Boss,agale station pe utrega kya? Does this line sound familiar?
Well, I think I am going to touch upon one of the integral parts of your daily life that is the ‘local trains’. Lifeline of all the true blooded Mumbaites.
U stand near the door and u get a tap from behind asking u whether are going to get down at the next station. If you are going to get down, well and good, or else you are hurled the choicest abuses (and I bet when u reciprocate like an asli mumbaiwallah, it still cant spoil either of yours morning. We simply can’t afford to.)
For that eternal brush of breeze, you stand at the door,with one arm wrapped around the pole and the other clutching the rim and at the same time trying to hold your bag from falling off and then u think about a new song u heard the day before ,humming it all along ,making your own space in the crowded train. Creativity in the midst of adversity ,huh!!
You just make a mention of yesterday’s cricket match,and then you have views pouring in from all sides and everyone right from Sachin Tendulkar to Cameroon Cuffy is analyzed. It’s a movie u want to know about,no need to wait till a Sunday afternoon for how many stars it got , you can catch up the story ,review all along your journey.Or it is the pretty face standing at the door next to yours which you see everyday with a hopeless hope. You don’t care about the glares of the uncles(who look down upon us due to the concession we get on our passes,and act as if they have never been students) when u laugh out loud to a private joke along with your friend. They then lecture you on some etiquettes, we students are supposed to possess till the uncles’s friend most non-chalantly spits out(out of the train that is) the gutka he had been chewing all long. You pass a sigh of relief as the uncle stops more that the gutkha didn’t fall on you.
The advertisements and posters pasted all along the compartment walls claiming to help you in any problem in you life ,right from your sex life to getting a job. With a new breed of babas pioneering this new activity (still have to figure out why the name of every baba ends with the word ‘Bengali’)
And last but not the least ,there are the mobile wielders . This species believes that having a mobile peeking out of your pocket is the ultimate sign of affluence. Not only this, there also exists a strong urge to entertain ‘us’ fellow passengers with their unique mobile ring tunes. You are already worried about how are you going to gather those elusive 40 in the forthcoming examination and suddenly you have a ‘kuch kuch hota’ tune ringing right in your ears and the owner of the mobile answers the call taking his own time just to make sure that everybody has made a note it. Then blaring into his mobile, oblivious of his hapless fellow passengers, he announces his location. Not even a minute passes, that we have some other mobilewallah showing off his machine
Hey, Doesn’t all this sound really exciting and amusing? Beware it is only the undying spirit of mumbaiwallahs, that makes this ‘hell running on wheels’ look and sound better.
Actually all of us deserve much more than these overcrowded trains. Nobody probably has any time to even think and realize that they actually travel in sub-human conditions. At times, there is no place to even keep your toes on the floor. Your nose probably savoring the ‘sweet odour’ of the sweat your neighbor is soaked into. Ignoring the glances of irate passengers who obviously feel your hand creeping up to ‘wrong places’, but there is little you can do than pray this ordeal ends soon as possible.
And as your station arrives,you are thrown out like an unneeded intruder,that is if at all you are near the exit,else you are met with dreaded ‘agale station pe utaro abhi’. And when u don’t mind being thrown out,hurled abuses at , or u actually learn to appreciate the bhajan numbers belted by the bhajan gang …..WAIT!!! you have ceased to be a human……….u have turned into a mumbaite and will remain so till death may come to you………….