Monsoon Madness

The Bombay suburban network doesn't really bring images of beauty to your mind. The overflowing gutters, the garbage dumped by the railway tracks - not too pleasing to the eye.

Sometimes though, the elements and the location just combine to provide the ideal setting. There had been light rain earlier in the morning. The train pulled out from Dadar station towards Elphinstone Road where the two Central and Western lines diverge after Dadar - a great big expanse open land in the centre of Bombay with the illegally cultivated spinach, palak and god knows whatever else growing between the railway tracks. The plants had this wonderful fresh look to them. And with the early morning shower, all the dust and pollution in the Bombay air had been washed out of the sky to leave bright clear blue sky

There on a train in the heart of Bombay you were traveling through this pristine world - the green, brown and blue combine to present this idyllic scene. All to be destroyed by the onrushing train in the opposite direction. The other train passes and you are back in the world where you can almost brush the buildings on the side of the tracks. Back to the real world after a split second visit to a dreamland.

And they tell you that the rains bring only gloom.

On the Gravy Train...

You know when people say that there is a presence about a place...what do you call the opposite of that feeling? Things are just going as normal...then suddenly out of the blue.. you are hit with the feeling that there is something missing...call it the Absence?

Had the absence kind of feeling yesterday...was on my way back ...reach Sion....suddenly things seem different...seems much quiter...a eerie sort of silence ..like someone has flicked a switch which kicked in a filter to block out certain frequencies.. was wondering for a few minutes what the crap was going on...then it kicked in..all the fans in the compartment had gone off..amazing how that subtle drop in background noise can affect you..

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At the other end of the decibel counter are the morons at Dadar hawking away...Was sprinting from western to the central side at 1 in the morning the other day to catch the last train when this idiot with a megaphone (for real) gets in my way brandishing a book..."Hare Krishna! Why dont you buy the Bhagvad Gita?"

If I had the time I would have asked him why doesnt he shove that megaphone down his windpipe...Wanted to ask him whether he was bloody blind or he could not see tht there were a sum total of ten ppl on the bridge..and not one in the mood to listen to him..What really stuns me is that the guy actually expected me to stop

Well its appraisal time ... looks like god needs to meet targets...

And did we tell you the name of the game, boy,
we call it Riding the Gravy Train.