Travelling On The Local

Deepika, 19, Mumbai, India

I travel from Bandra to Charni Road 6 days a week, and I travel in a local train. You must have heard about local trains, one of the most important means to survive in a city like Mumbai. Local trains are crowded, not always, but mostly they are crowded. I have to use the local trains everyday to go to college. It is cheaper for me and makes me reach college in not more than 30 minutes. 

I travel during the rush hours, by rush hours, I mean, 7 to 11 am in the morning and 5 to 10 pm in the evening. But the best part is, I travel in ladies compartment. Yes, we have special compartment for ladies in local trains.  And every morning, I see thousands of ladies crammed into the ladies compartment, and sadly, I am one of them. It is very difficult to get inside the train because Bandra is amongst the most crowded stations of Western Railways.

And when you try to get inside the train, people will push you out, and when you get out of the train, people will push you inside. It is s vicious circle. This is my everyday story. Western railways start from Virar and ends at Churchgate. We also have ladies special trains 8-10 times in a day.  You might get irritated and frustrated with it a, for a while, but after a point of time, you will get used to it. I got used to it.