My brother's friend exclaims, "You guys are a different species altogether." A resident of Jammu, she was in Mumbai to showcase her Basholi paintings at the recently concluded Kala Ghoda Arts Festival, Mumbai's cultural extravaganza. It is a weekend morning. At Thane, we squeeze into a crowded train that was headed to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus. The journey evokes nostalgia.
Until six years ago, I would take this very local train to work. Life in a local has its own rhythm and rules. There are no illusions of privacy or boundaries here-you can turn up your nose how much ever you want but you cannot escape the sweaty, smelly armpits and oily scalps jostling for space next to you; you will not be termed nosy for (inadvertently, of course) peeping into the WhatsApp chats of those around you; and no one will wrinkle their nose at you for literally breathing down their neck even as you try to find your feet and move your hands without rubbing up against someone.
I am jolted back to the present when a box of puran polis and sesame seed laddoos is being passed around, with someone screaming, "Sankranti hain le lo, ek ek sab le lo [It is Makar Sankranti; everyone take one of each]." The grind is the same even today, but there is a difference. This is version 2.0 of a Mumbaikar's love affair with her local-we were now shoving, nudging, pushing, muscling our way inside fully air-conditioned trains, that too with automated doors. My brother's friend smirked at my idea of luxury-an AC train in which I have both my feet firmly inside the doorway and not dangling outside; no chance of being hit by a passing pole, see. When will Mumbai get all its trains air-conditioned? Well, we are not sure; we are not used to fast-track projects, only fast-track life. So until we all get to bag a seat, we are good with 'Bag pakad, jagah bana [hold the bag, and make space]:
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