MUMBAI ahoy! - Far from the maddening crowd?

My experiences as a helpless commuter in aamchi Mumbai.
For those who have been in this city for some time in their life, you'll know the perspective. :-)

Chuchgate Railway Station, Mumbai
Monday (yet another office-day) 8:50 AM

As I got down from the overstuffed compartment and set my feet on the Churchgate platform #2, there was a sense of exhilaration - mission accomplished (for the day)! I had successfully managed to board a 8:15 Churchgate fast from Andheri without getting my shirt and glasses too much out-of-place, and had managed to get down at my destination still in one piece – a rare feat indeed. Did someone say, practice makes a man perfect?




I look around, and i see another train coming into the adjoining platform. It stops and eeks out thousands of commuters from its 'belly' into the platform beside. This made the otherwise broad walk-way a real difficult stretch to pass.

And I walked.

Around me were faces - thousands, probably millions of them, walking in the same direction towards the exit, as expressionless as one could get - no different from robots, functionally programmed to go through this task on a daily basis. Each one eager to reach the target - the subway that would lead them out of this gigantic railway-station!

As everyday, I wished for some miracle that could get me 'Far from the Maddening Crowd'!

I remember my mother telling me years ago that I was 'one in a million'! Looking around the millions of 'robots' walking beside me, I do realize that she was right....
:-)