Sunday, April 15, 2007

Learnings from my travelling experiences !!

Dear All

My experience in Bombay local trains has been a great learning.

I will tell you some stats about the trains in Mumbai. every train is designed to carry 1000 passengers. But in reality each train carries around 5000 passengers. Frequency is 3 minutes.

First thing that I have gained from travelling in electric trains is punctuality. If you are late by a minute you will miss your train. I used to take the 7:20 local from vashi to VT. This train starts from Vashi, so I will get a place to sit. If I am late & miss the 7:20 local, then I need to take the next train at 7:30. In this train I won't get a place to sit, because it starts from Panvel. It comes jampacked. Suppose you miss the 7:20 train, then you are in for hardships the whole journey. You will be made to bend in all possible degrees.You will get free massages in all parts of your body. people will walk on your shoes as though that is their birthright. Most difficult part is you need to protect your mobile phone & purse from pick pocketers. One my friends has lost his mobile phone in a train.In crowded staions like Kurla & Dadar, if you by chance get into the way of the crowd that is getting down , they will ensure that you also get down at Dadar along with them. Young slum children throw stones at trains. So if you stand on the entrances then you might get hurt by the stones. The whole compartment will be smelling like rot because there is no air circulation , as people get only one feet across one feet to stand.

After such a wonderful journey you will finally get down at VT. For a moment you will not recognise yourself!! Your shoe would have changed its colour. You actually should be happy if you were wearing the shoe in the firstplace. Your trousers & shirts will all be totally crippled. To add to that you will be profusely sweating & your shirt will be totally sticky.

While walking into office, your receptionist will give you a laughing look & will ask why you had missed the regular train.Then you will think all this because of you not being punctual.

Bombay locals make you disciplined !!

My other travelling experience...

Nagarajan & myself were travelling in Dadar Chennai after we finished our training. My friend had come earlier to the station. He had come around 6:00 PM for the 9:00 PM train. He was sitting alone & at that time a stranger had started talking to him. The stranger introduced himself as Sundar, a Film Director & son of famous film director S P Muthuraman. Moreover he said that he had come to Mumbai to book Ayesha Takia as the heroine for his forthcoming film. He told that he lost his money (Rs 25 lacs) , laoptop & mobile phone & train ticket in the taxi. So he did not have any money to board the train. He told that however he had booked the ticket in III AC. He asked for Rs 2000 from my friend. He told this amount will help him to pay the fine the TT will levy for ticketless travel. The guy was speaking to my firend for around two hours regarding various cine actors & actresses. My friend completely believed that he indeed was son of SP Muthuraman & handed over Rs 2000.00 to him. The train started. I told my friend you should not have paid the amount. He told me that this guy was genuine & will give back his money the moment train reaches Chennai. My friend went to the III AC compartment , to chat with him. He returned back taking all bad words against him. I could understand what had went wrong. The guy was missing. There was some other SUndar in that berth. He had escaped with 2000. Hehad planned the whole operation very meticulously to an extent that he had first found the name of a passenger travellin in III AC & then used that as his name & cheated my friend.


To sum it up....

The two main points I wish to state is that one needs to be punctual when commuting in Mumbai & when travelling to a new city it is better not to trust strangers.

C U all !!


LIFELESS TALK

LIFELESS TALK

LIFELESS TALK

1 comment:

Sreesri said...

Dear Prasadh,
Your speech on Mumbai Experiences wassuperb. When you spoke about the way a person stands on one feet in the train you were great. Continue to give us these great speeches.
Srikanth