A simple one-hour journey on a local train can be more entertaining than any of your television soap operas. Besides connecting various parts of the city, trains also bring people from different backgrounds and sources of income together.
It was a lazy winter evening when I was on my way back home, travelling in the ladies compartment of second-class coach of a local WR train. Rushing back home was all I wanted to do after having given an exam in a centre far away. Not having found a spot to cling on, I managed to stand somehow in the jam-packed coach of the slow local. Vendors selling random 'China-made' stuff still managed to have their business going.
"Next station, Dadar" could be heard being announced in 3 different languages while everyone else prepared themselves to face more crowd. The train slowly came to a halt next to the platform. In rushed the crowd while the one's trying to alight struggled their way out. As the train began to leave the station, a limp beggar entered the coach. Wheatish in complexion, his hair was slightly gray with tiny wrinkles over the face. With his legs folded, he used his upper-body strength to drag his remaining body. His arrival was enough to bring in commotion in the compartment. I could hear another female traveller telling her friend how cruel the world has become and how people with disabilities are forced to beg because of being ignored by their family members.
He approached the ladies sitting right next to the entry, asking them to have pity on him and give some money, however little the amount. A lady gave him a ten-rupee note while some handed him loose change. In this horribly crowded train, it was next to impossible to make way for the beggar to come in further. A lady sitting on the 'fourth seat' denied him to go any further. As he tried convincing her, she told him it's his mistake that he entered during peak hours and also that a man shouldn't be allowed to enter the ladies compartment.
The train halted in the next station. Few alighted, fewer got in. The train began to leave the platform at a slower pace. Knowing that his side of conversation was at a loss, the beggar rose up on his feet, tightened his grip on the earned money and ran out of the compartment in a fraction of a second. Totally shocked and surprised by this act, the crowd grew silent for a second. As confused thoughts started floating amongst the one's who got cheated and the one's who didn't, the crowd grew louder, getting a new topic to gossip about.