If there is anything in the world I hate more than Local trains in Bombay its the politicians in Gujrat.
I have lived in bombay for the last 15 yrs and though I have never had the opportunity (read as fortune) to travel as frequently as some others do, I still maintain that it must be the worst place on earth to be in.
Before I did my stint as a regular train traveller in bombay, I had occasionally done a trip to town and back and since it was once or twice a month I didnt really care. But when I realised that this would be a mode of regular transport I looked more closely and in a month came to the conclusion that its really not my cup of tea.
I cannot imagine that some 1 million ppl actually travel in this method everyday of their working lives. Its not possible and there must be some real dark secret which everyone but me knows. I retch at the mere thought of it.
Lets see.. for one there seems to be a kind of station preference when you get into a local. It seems that if you want to get off at Andheri then you cant board a Borivali local. Now which Hindu/muslim/christian epic or religious book says this? ( am picking on this cause every sort of mischief these days is carried out owing to some sentence in some book written some million years back).
I had the misfortune to learn this that hard way. Those jokers in the station just refused to let me out and actually made me travel all the way, where I got caught by a TC for not having a ticket till borivali. Nice!
Secondly, is it my imagination or is it that train travellers are deliberately unwashed and unbathed? The compartment is like a pig sty. Every one of the guys are stinking like rotten onions. Their breath smells of their last meal, which invariably has a large amount of garlic in it, and they are crass. Very crass. I havent seen a more rowdy lot anywhere.
Lets pull in a comparison here just incase some blokes out there are getting all worked up over these rather not so courteous statements. I now travel by BEST buses. They are crowded at most peak hours too. But, the people do not smell. They do not beat you up if you accidentally step on their feet. They do not pick fights with other men who want to sit too. There seems to be a sort of order in the way bus travellers commute. They (at times) give their seat up for the elderly or for women. They do not attempt to fondle your crotch when the opportunity arises.
Is it about psyche? is it that because they buy tickets that they behave themselves? (most train travellers are ticketless.. and that is a fact). Is it because it takes more time to travel by bus? (the comparison here is the diff in psyche of the person who is willing to spend a lil more time but will not compromise on the quality) or is it that a Bus constitutes a much smaller ’’community’’ as regards a crowded train compartment. Which means in a train most of your misdeeds would go unnoticed (ever wondered why so many ppl in bombay have cell phones? its available easily if you have shifty hands)Which would not be the case in a bus where its not such an easy affair. A person caught in a bus is looked upon by the co-passengers as someone who has threatened their own security (fewer ppl-closer bonding theory) whereas in a train one wouldnt bother ( so many ppl, let somebody else do the job- theory).
SO what we can say is that local trains are not only sickenigly congested to travel in, but are also unsafe. Lets not forget unhygenic. I am, thankfully, not vertically challenged but I can see others who would snuggle in perfectly into an armpit should an arm be raised. I pity their plight cause in a local train it is hell.
Technically, the locals are more prone to mechanical disorder, which means on a bad rainy day, you could well be stranded for hours in the middle or nowhere, which in a bus means you just get off the damn thing and figure out others means and methods of getting to your destination.
If the Bus is so much a better alternative to a local train then why is it that its still the more popular of the two? One obvious reason is the time. Yes a local can get you to a destination in about half the time it takes on a bus. But are we such animals that we simply do not understand the meaning of quality? will we endure anything just to get somewhere faster? Or is it something more complex. The possibilities are endless.
I for one will never take a local train if I can help it. And if the rest of the janata chooses to take the train... I have decided not to complain. Sudden realisation has dawned that we do not want such filth in our still very sane and clean buses.
Ok, most train people who read this review will want to kill me, as I admit its written quite insensitively and my abhorrence for the strata of society that a local train depicts is not really in good taste, but then its an opinion. Take it or dont read it.
cheers