Few moments and a million observations…

As soon as the train halted at the station, some footsteps found their way towards the staircase leading to the road. Some were however not so keen on reaching home, so their hands found their way to their pocket to take out some money. That’s how some men ended up at the food stall where they slurped away their nimbu pani or the all time favorite coca cola.

In the next few minutes the crowd at the station thinned. Only then could the station be seen in full view. The people left behind on the platform were those who were waiting for the train to arrive. Most of them had found their way to pass the next few minutes till they could be see the big yellow light approaching them. One man in white was animatedly explaining the guy sitting next to him about the realty space. His ‘kasam se bolta hun’ could be heard even from quite distance. His aggression made other people around him listen in. Other men were fanning themselves newspaper and few just looked bored and disoriented.

But there were two people who were totally engrossed in their conversation. He was holding her face, looking down into her eyes. She was holding those hands but was not talking. He was trying to tell her something but her eyes didn’t look every convinced. She looked down and then away. Just then the next train arrived and the station was full of people again. And everything and everyone disappeared in front of my eyes.

Life along the tracks...

Slowly after a few jerks, my Mumbai local started moving towards its destination. The train took the same route like everyday, winding through the slender metal tracks. During the one hour of my journey, the life along the tracks came to life…


Small hutments, some made of metal sheets and some of bricks were waking up to the morning sun. Children had started trotting outside their homes, ready and excited for the new sunny day. However, some citizens of the world close to the tracks were still fast asleep on the rickety beds outside their homes. The clothes hung on the wire close by provided for a good sun protection. The shadows of the clothes fell on their faces, letting them snore peacefully.

The life along the tracks was interesting. One of the interesting people I saw was a small girl in a maroon frock. She was standing near the wall which separated the tracks from the road. With a huge brown stick, she was trying to remove or recover something from the tall tree which had grown close to the wall. But by the time I could figure out what the object of fascination was, the train had already moved on.

And as the train moved ahead, the sun was moving further up too. I could see women already engrossed in morning chores, their hands busy with washing clothes and cleaning their habitat premise. The construction workers in their fluorescent orange uniforms were hammering away making new tracks for the squeezed Mumbai local traveler.

But slowly the life along the tracks started disappearing as the train approached downtown. Strong concrete structures replaced wobbly huts. As the train ultimately reached its destination, the huts, the children and the small girl in her maroon frock were far left behind in their own world while I moved towards mine.