The Hand that pushed me in!!!

Any regular traveler in and around Mumbai wouldn’t need a second-hand description about the traveling ‘adventures’ that a Mumbaikar goes through every day. Pushing, pulling, squeezing your way past a thousand bodies trying to do the same is like daily chores. Add one more to this list of activities—‘Hanging on for dear life.’ For relatively new travelers, this term is apt, as this would be their last and only choice during peak hours. For the others, who seem to be hanging on to keep their souls breathing, it’s their way of having fun, also perhaps, a way to impress a few from the fairer gender in every passing station.

I don’t fall under the category of a new traveler. But, and this is a big ‘But’, my idea of fun does not include acting like a super-hero in a vehicle that takes about 2,000 lives in Mumbai every year. A couple of times I have had to hang on to the pole by the door the reason for which was mentioned in the first paragraph of this post—it was my only available choice to reach college on time.

Now, I fall under the category of ‘working class’. This means I have to get off and on the trains at stations where the word ‘crowd’ would seem an understatement. Come to Dadar and you will know why! Getting off at Dadar isn’t tough for me for I go along with the flow of the hundred others in front of and behind me. But getting on to the train, I always think twice before trying to leap (literally) in!

So, here I was at Dadar waiting for a Dadar-starting heading towards Titwala. For someone from Dombivli, getting inside a train, while it is nowhere near its halting point, is a piece of cake. Or so I thought it was! This one came at a fair speed. There were a few hanging by the door wanting to get off. I looked at one door. Found it unmanned. And jumped in grabbing the pole. Well, almost! I did grab the pole, but the jump wasn’t good enough to reach the footboard. I had completely misjudged the speed of the lifeline! I was ‘hanging on for dear life’! My hands gripping the pole hard, my feet suspended between the train and the platform. A red and black costume and I would have looked like a junior Spiderman! Those three to four seconds seemed to last an eternity. I have heard the phrase, ‘heart in the mouth’ a lot of times. I was experiencing it now! Suddenly I felt a strong hand pushing me making me swing inside using the pole in a typical Spidermanesque way! On my way to catch the seat, I looked back and those behind me were still running behind the train. I had no clue who pushed me in, for the people who came in behind me came a good 4-5 seconds later!

Sitting by the window seat that I managed to grab, I was still shivering at what just happened. Or what was about to happen!

The drama didn’t end there. The train became so jam packed that people who were inside wanting to get off at Dadar couldn’t get out even after the train had stopped and restarted on its way back! These were the ‘new-comers’! In an attempt to get off at the next station, Matunga, a couple of ladies from that group fell off from the train on the platform. I watched in horror as the train stopped again! The ladies survived! Phew! I let out a sigh of relief and a big one at that. That could have been me at Dadar about 5 minutes ago!

All I can surely say is I didn’t use any super-hero-like power to swing myself into the train. And I did feel a Hand pushing me in. It was the Hand of God!