Stranger in a strange land

Successfully negotiated the Mumbai local train system today.  Given how irrevocably jacked up most of the things around here are, the train system is actually quite efficient, and inexpensive.  There are 3 main north to south train lines in the city, of which the Western is the closest to me.  I did a BUNCH of reading about how to go about it before I tried, and I'm glad I did.  During the week the train system in the city carries on average 8 million passengers PER DAY.  So basically 8 times the population of Columbus, OH gets on that thing.  Every day.  Sometimes it's as high as 10 million.  Unbelievable.

First I had to get to the train station, which was further than I'd want to walk (especially given today's 116 degree heat index), so I had to take a rickshaw from my place to the station.  It took me a couple tries to find one that knew what the hell I was saying, but I finally managed.  From there I made it to Andheri station.  Andheri is the name of the neighborhood I live in, and all the stops on the train are named after the neighborhood where they are located.

Inside, looking toward the ticket counters.  Not sure why the overhead sign looks like that in the picture.

I had a little language barrier here as well, as not only were the usual challenges present, but added to that was the fact that the guy I was trying to talk to was behind a glass partition with a little hole cutout, and it took me a few tries go figure out what he was saying.  Round trip ticket to my destination of Lower Parel was 140 Rupees, or $2.20, which seems insanely cheap, but I guess if 8 million people a day are paying that, it can be.  I even splurged for the "first class" ticket, which basically just means it costs more, so the cars wind up being less full.  It was worth it, as some of the regular cars looked pretty crowded, even though it was a Sunday afternoon.

Happy Journey!

From there you have to figure out where the train is that you want to go.  It wound up being pretty easy.  There is a train coming through that is going your way every 3 minutes, so you just have to make sure you get on the ones that stop at all the stations, rather than the "fast" trains that only stop at the major ones.  Even better is that someone developed an app for the iphone that makes it even easier to find where you need to be to get on the right train.  Once over that hurdle, it's down to the platform.

In that picture you can see the sign showing when the next train will be coming, and all you need to know about it.  It says BO 02:36 S :10 which means the originating station is Borivali, it leaves at 2:36 PM, it's a Slow train (stops at every station), and it will be here in 10 seconds.  And when they say 10 seconds, they mean it!  The trains run like clockwork.  They seem to be really proud of keeping an on-time schedule. Each train only stops for 30 seconds at each station, so you don't have time to stand around and figure things out, otherwise you'll be watching it leave and have to wait on the next one.

From there you have to locate the right car to get onto. They sporadically post signs and paint things the corresponding colors, but you can't count on it reliably, so you just have to look at the train cars themselves.  First class, in my case, had a section of the car painted with red/white diagonal stripes.  They also paint markings on the ground or poles at the station that match the car classes, so you know where to stand while you're waiting on the train.

See how close together those overhead grab handles are? Now imagine a person holding onto each one. The entire train is filled with them.

The car in the above picture is marked to indicate that it is a women's only regular class car.  They also have women's only first class, although as a woman you can ride whatever car you purchased a ticket for.  The issue is that, as I think I've mentioned to some of you, Indian men can get a little grabby when the trains are crowded, and rather than try to fix that problem they just ignore it and let women have their own space if they want it.  I've read that you don't want to get on one of these by accident, as they'll quickly remind you you're in the wrong place.

Total cost for the trip, including the rickshaw rides to/from the station:  300 Rupees/$4.71. Crazy.

Lastly, here's a little video clip I made of my ride today.  Sorry about the bars on the window.  In the tradition of twisted Indian logic they put bars on the windows, but you can hang all the way out of open doors while the train is moving to your heart's content, which you'll see in the video:

I took this trip so I could go locate a place to buy some belts that I mistakenly left at home.  There's a mall closer to me that I could have gone to, but this provided an excuse to go explore the trains.  I went to a place called the Palladium mall, which we were told is the nicest in town.  It certainly was that, as it's probably the fanciest one I've been to anywhere.  There was almost every luxury brand you could think of, like Armai, Burberry, and many others that I'd not heard of before.  It seemed strange to have such a high class place inside, where just outside there are people so poor they can't even afford shoes to wear, let alone a place to live.  It's hard to figure out how a population of people that is so in touch with spirituality and kindness seems powerless to help alleviate the depth of the poverty, but then I guess you can say the same thing about home.  I read yesterday that 65% of this city's population lives on less than $55 US.  A month.

On a happier note, I was in my apartment yesterday afternoon and heard what I at first thought was thunder, but quickly realized was drums of some sort.  The club in our complex can be rented for wedding receptions, and I had noticed that they'd done some decoration for one, so I realized I was hearing the band leading the wedding party.  In Hindu culture it's customary for the groom to ride a white horse to the ceremonies.  The groom's family can just be seen in the video ahead of the horse, and they were dancing like loons to the music.  They looked like they were having the best time, smiling and laughing while they danced.  The drums were LOUD...they were really banging on those things.

And finally, today's WTF I can't believe people here think this is acceptable adult behavior, I bring you this guy:

He's got this....probably....