Koo Chook Chook

6 March 2010

We’ve given different names to the train stations here. Hauptbahnhof is CST, Altona is Kalyan, Klein Flottbek is Lonavla…. and so on. Probably we try to find some similarity, some Indianness in that, that doesn’t have any….

Before I narrate this incident I must enlighten you on some facts!! All the trains here are not of the same length! Some have more compartments than the others! First, there is no First Class and Second Class. So you cannot walk 2 feet taller like you do in Mumbai, with a First Class Season Ticket looking down upon the Second Class Pass holders. I have still to see a luggage dabba! Also there is no Ladies dabba. Ladies, Gents and all types of sexes travel in the common compartment. If the men back home learn of this, then there will be uproar. After all, who enjoys ogling at the ‘ladies’ through the dirty rusted jaalees?? Saamne baithke nazar ladayenge bhai! As if this is their birthright… Bloody A!@#$%S

We were waiting for our train. We wanted to go to view one of the houses- this seems to be a regular weekend activity till we finally find the one that’s suitable. The train arrived ….. but instead of a ‘bara dabba’ it was a ‘nau daaba’. All the passengers had to run to make it to the nearest door! Atleast in Mumbai they make announcements about things like these. Well, most of the times!

So after boarding the train we sat down and started planning our evening! We had to get off at ….. Our station was not far away. We stood in the middle of both doors. Will it come on the right side or left? I know which side of the train does Dadar, Matunga, Mahim, Kurla, Borivali come! But I had no clue on this one! Also in Mumbai one can ask- Bhaisaab, Thana kaunse saeed aayega? And then ‘Bhaisaab’- without uttering a word and giving minimum strain to his tired body- gesture by barely lifting his head and eyebrows. But here whom to ask? We had to wait till the train actually approached the platform. Thank God! we were quick to turn around and alight! If it were Mumbai, we would’ve had no such luck. The pushing crowds would have left us with no option but to get off at another station…If you board a train at Kalyan, Thane comes on the right hand side. Very rarely it comes on the other side, and I remember one such day that it did! On what special occasions did this happen I fail to understand. But on that unfortunate day, I thought the women in the compartment who were already yelling at me, would throw me off in the Thane creek as a punishment for my lack of judgement and commonsense.