Apr 30, 2001 10:33 PM
1972 Views
Monday's are a bane in my life. Not because I have to work at office. Its cause it is the first day of my whole week.And my work starts with trying to board a local train to reach my destination.
Even at Borivali, which is the start point, it is a nightmare getting in. The reason being that folks come from malad,kandivali. So for us in Borivali, we have to go standing day in day out. The journey is most miserable in the summer, when it is like a furnace what with the trains being packed to capacity. The fans are just enough to cool the heads of those standing directly underneath it.
In summer we get drenched in our own sweat.During the rains, it is the leaks that often gets us. Or the paneless windows.Its a pain folks. Even the first class compartment is of no use during peak hours...peak hours? anytime between 7.30 am - 11 pm.
And the saddest part of all this is that inspite of the load, nothing much is being done to improvise. As told by my friend who works for the railways, Mumbai passenger fares make up for more than half of the country's rail budgets.And what do we get in return? A bone wrenching journey..provided we make it into the train.
But inspite of all this misery, we will continue to go by the trains..u ask why? Cause it gets us to our destination the fastest. While Mumbai has got a fab fleet of buses and it is well connected, due to heavy traffic, it is unadvisable to go by buses. Unless of course they are off beat destinations.
So we have to travel in trains like a pack of sardines.
Still I consider myself fortunate that I am a Western Railway traveller and not the central railway. There travelling is a nightmare.
