Bombay

Let local trains remain an integral part of my life. I wouldn't mind that.

Dadar station @ 8.30-9am is my favourite. That is when I realise everyday that I live in a bigg city. There are so many people going to work. Train after train pile in newer heaps of these humans..all going somewhere, coming from somewhere...Definitely must be a big city!

Bombay has a sound. A bombay sound. And at these places precisely you get to hear them. I wonder if it's the soles marching forward determinantly..or the chatter in minds and mouths..or the quick swirl of the kurmura with the sev while running for 8.26 BO fast..I don't know!

The boot-polish walle have their sound. They want to some gather attention..esp when the train hasn't arrived for 4-5minutes. Ofcourse the railway announcers have their own distinct space in this pool of sounds. It mixes easily with almost anything. There could be a speeding fast train or complete confusion when a 12 coach enters instead of a 9..the announcer's straight line sound is as melodious, as acknowledged, as essential...

Porters make noise too. Heavy loads on heads and hands. Bent bodies. And sometimes torn footwear. Young and old with weight to carry..for god knows who! Their souls send that sound, which I can never miss when they pass by me..

Women have dabbas. And those dabbas have some good food packed for the journey. The clank of steel in train coaches. Hungry engineering students, hungry office girls- thin, reedy and weather-worn eat contently...and choose to space out while staring outside the window.

And then ofcourse we have sounds from Men hanging one after the other, coach after coach looking in a set direction. Making sounds, waving hands and shooting looks. And ladies brave one pair of eyes and then the next and the next. Like a role we have to play..

I could go on you know..and then I will struggle for an end. I don't have any smart last words. I just know that Mumbai locals or the entire activity of travelling in this city is a center from which an understanding begins. The understanding about the place where we have a home and a social association..

I fill some of it in my ears...some I shun, thanks to my ear-phones...but the connection renews itself every now and then. And before I can change my mind on that, I end up every morning on that Dadar western-central bridge..dodging various hurdles to catch my train, wading through scores of bags, shirts and duppattas...making a tiny Bombay sound of my own :)