A War-like Lesson Learning Situation

Before joining XIC Mumbai local trains for me were almost like main trains only. I had my whole life in my area, chembur only. But with XIC I thought of travelling in local trains as an exciting adventure. Adventure it is, but not exactly an exciting one.

Two weeks ago, I took a fast train(first class) from CST to get down at Kurla. It is around 4-4.30 PM and the compartment is fairly crowded. I am standing in the middle of compartment facing the door on which the platform will come. A fair amount of crowd is standing ahead of me. Obviously, if they are standing ahead of me they are likely to get down on the station that comes that side which is kurla. So, I am standing there, listening to music, not caring of anything else. Soon enough Kurla comes and I get ready to get down assuming the crowd will soon start moving. The train slows down and comes to stop and then a wave of shock and horror hits me like a slap. Nobody is getting down. A fair amount of 30 ladies are standing in front of me and none of them are getting down. I panic and try to move forward saying ‘uttarna hai’ (have to get down). The ladies get shock and start shouting ‘uttarna hai?! Phele kyon nahi bola?!’. I keep moving but at a very slow pace. The ladies try to give me some space but it is as good as nothing. At that point of time, I felt so many emotions at the same time. DESPIRATION: to get to the platform. EMBARRESMENT: in front of all those angry women. FEAR: I’ll stay on the train and go off to the next station. DUMBNESS: that I could not understand the situation before. I felt like it’s impossible to get through that crowd in 30 seconds. After much of shouting, pushing and wading through the crowd I step on the platform just in time when the train started. And the relief I get, oh my God, it was like as if I have actually won a lifelong battle. I turn to see the compartment moving and ladies still shouting out things to me which I didn’t really hear properly. I said sorry to the whole compartment and the train pulled away.

Thank God, I got down from that train. If I would have been left on it, the ladies would have tortured me with their lectures on how I did the wrong thing and how I don’t know train travelling. I had already made a complete fool of myself. At that point of time, I felt so embarrassed that I had unknowingly been so stupid and with a lifelong lesson learnt, I also earned quite a few stares on the kurla platform.