A newbie’s guide on how to Mumbai local
Before making a trip to Mumbai, one goes through this phase of statutory warnings from everyone who’s vaguely familiar to Mumbai about how life-endangering local travel is. Being a non-Mumbaikar, I had made only weekend holiday trips to Mumbai. Local trains on weekends are hauntingly empty (as compared to peak-time standards) and I was like “Pff! This is a cakewalk for me.” Then I got posted to Mumbai for work and weekday travel happened to me.
I had always thought that for Indian railways, the least count is a minimum of 15 minutes. So the minutes half in timings such as 8:37 and 9:05 make no sense since they are always rounded off to the neared quarter. But when I heard people talking in times accurate to the minute, I realised we are dealing with some serious stuff here. The difference in the 8:17 train and 8:21 train is that in one you’re standing cozily inside and in the other you’re dangling on the footstep hinged on one foot and one hand.
The research people have done on the dynamics of train is phenomenally greater than what I did for my masters. People have planned in what coach and which seat they’re targeting for and for that they know exactly at what deceleration the train will undergo once it enters the platform, where the targeted coach will stop, and where they’ll stand to jump inside at the optimum speed. So if you’re more of a seasoned traveler, you’ll be standing a couple of coaches prior to where you preferred one would be and when the half a meter opening of that coach appears, you give your best shot at hurdle jump inside and you’ll be presented with the much glorified seat of yours.
Some people have gone to the extent of knowing exactly which train will follow what route so that they can occupy places in some station before the start station and then take a u-turn. So if you’re fortunate enough to jump in first at a starting station, don’t get too excited about it because many a times you’ll be greeted by a number of smug-faces who traveled the longer route just to occupy those seats.
