The True Meaning of Rush Hour – Local Trains in Mumbai

Welcome to rush hour in Mumbai.

Unfortunately, John and I were too frazzled and frustrated at that point that the last thing we were thinking was to take pictures or a video of the frenzy. But i’ll still go ahead and share our experience. I’ve borrowed some videos from You Tube that are the exact replica of what we went through.

Here is a birds eye view of the madness.

We were headed out to Bhandra to meet Abhi for drinks. Mistakingly, we got to the train station right during rush hour. We filed in line with all the other locals to buy our tickets. Luckily for us, we chose the window with the slowest man in the galaxy. Speed was not his specialty.

With 10 people in front of us, we waited a mere hour to make our way up to the window. As clearly and slowly as I could, I asked for two tickets. At 6 Rupees each, we handed him a twenty and watched him set it aside.  Five minutes later, as he was still fumbling around with printing tickets and still hadn’t returned our change, he asked us for another 12 Rupees. We exchanged confused glances and pointed to the twenty we already gave him. 20 minutes of no progress concluded in three other Indian men yelling and screaming in his direction. Another 20 minutes later, we got our tickets.

After finally getting to the platform, we watched a couple trains go past and both of our mouths gaped open in astonishment. This is what we saw.

There are no doors on the trains. This allows the maximum, or rather a much exaggerated definition of maximum, capacity of passengers to jam into one compartment. Before the train even came to a halt men on the train were already at full sprint out the “door” and men waiting on the platform were already forcing their way on.

Anarchy.

We received two invaluable tips beforehand:

1) “When you get off the train, get off at a running start. If you walk off, you’ll fall.” Laws of motion at work. Thanks, Newton.

2)  Avoid the middle as you’ll never find your way out if you don’t.

After we had thoroughly studied all three laws of motion and calculated F=ma, we decided to give it a go. Getting on wasn’t so bad and we made sure to set up camp right by the door.

Surprisingly, because India is always full of surprises, as you watch the in-flow and out-flow of human bodies, you notice an organization to the chaos. Similar to Indian traffic, there is an understood flow. Men yell over each other to see who will be getting off at the next stop. The men slowly push and shove, exchanging millimeters of space, eventually swapping positions.  Such consideration. If only Newton was around to study this phenomenon.

Here’s another funny video. We didn’t get any singing but it is not at all surprising.

Only two stops later, every millimeter of space was taken. Then, another phenomenon; every millimeter was but a 5-inch perimeter had been spared around me.. This was interesting. I shuck it off to just a rare breed of decent men. But as they swapped out and others bombarded in, each of them on top of each other, faces in armpits, groins against groins, the 5-inch perimeter stayed constant. Let’s remember that Indian men are notorious for staring at women and stories of groping are far from few.  I was allowed this space for the entire hour we remained aboard.

As we arrived at our station, we prepared to be swept up in the stampede and fall flat on our face. Then, another surprise; the men around us acknowledged that we were preparing for our death and hollered “aram se, aram se” go slowly, go slowly, ensuring that those around us were aware of foreign beginners. Even more consideration for our well-being. I couldn’t believe it.

After that evening I pardoned at least 100 Indian men for their misgivings.

Perhaps, just perhaps, we’ll ride another local train just to capture the mayhem.

Tags: Colaba, India, Mumbai, Train Travel, Travel, Travel Tips, Traveling