Tips To Travel...

When you hear the word Mumbai, there are several images that come to your mind. Sky crappers, slums, offices, film city, chaupati, crowd, monuments and trains.
Trains are lifelines of Mumbai City. Every day I travel from Ulhasnagar to Goregoan in these trains. It’s around 150 KMS of traveling to and fro. To travel in Mumbai trains you need practice and that you will learn if you travel regularly. It’s not so easy. We all know that India ranks second in the world in terms of population. Mumbai being the business center of India, Mumbai City is over populated. The main means of transport available here are trains and buses.
Ulhasnagar comes in suburb of Mumbai City. Every morning I have to reach Goregoan at 10:30 AM. Therefore usually I start my journey at 7:30 AM.
First aim is catch fast train but somehow I always miss that train. The next option is 7:55 AM slow local, which comes at 8:05 AM. It fully justifies the term slow and with a very slow speed it starts moving waiting at almost all signal. After three stations there is Dombivili station. When this station comes before the train halts, entire passengers jump inside, not waiting for other passengers to get out. Some how these passengers jump over the other passengers and finally they are thrown out.
The train is fully packed, not allowing air also to peak inside. Now I know why Dombivili has history of producing many sportsman and stuntman. When these things are happening, I am standing inside, thinking, Great! I stay three stations before. Then somehow public arrange themselves, inside the train; they apply all permutations, combinations so that they could at least stand and breathe properly. The compartment is filled with noise. Imagine at least 250 people in a compartment talking and shouting simultaneously combined with sound of train. But all regular travelers have become immune to all this; in fact they enjoy this.
After Dombivili another prominent station is Thane. There also the same scene is repeated. The train moves on and station after station I see same process going on. Finally around 9:30 AM train reaches at Dadar.
Now the whole lot, around 100 passenger gets down at Dadar, like how the water rushes from a hole in the tank. Every one wants to get down first, with all shouts and words like chalo, utro, get down, station has come, arree fast, I get down.
After getting down I take 2-3 minutes to settle so that I could get myself away from crowd and arrange my shirt (shirt usually comes out from one side). Then I move towards western side. I have to cross big bridge and there I have to take baby steps because of crowd, consuming 10 minutes. It’s already 9:45 AM.
Now I wait for 10:10 local that’s its arrival time. It comes at 10:15 AM. Finally around 10:50 AM I reach Goregoan.
Tired and exhausted. After relaxing for two minutes I start my work, getting my mind prepared that I have to return in the same manner.