Second class travel, first class people!

I stay in Vashi and my parents stay in Kandivli. So every Friday, I go to Kandivli and return Monday morning. Lately I have found that while going, nothing is better than local trains so I generally catch a train from Vashi on Friday evenings.

Last Friday was no different. I wanted to reach at a decent hour so left about an hour early from office. There is no direct train from Vashi to Kandivli so I took an Andheri train. When I reached Andheri, I thought of catching a rickshaw to Kandivli. Just then, I noticed that on the next platform, there was a Virar train starting from Andheri.

Sometimes, having choices is bad. More so when life presents you a choice you aren’t familiar with. Virar trains are generally dreaded by an average Mumbaikar but since this one was starting from Andheri and was empty, I decided to give it a chance. As it is, if I took an Auto, I wouldn’t have reached in less than an hour and here was an opportunity to reach Kandivli in 20 minutes flat! I jumped in….

Kandivli is the fourth station after Andheri and all went ok till the first two stations. The crowd started building but I was ok. I was carrying some luggage (one bag of clothes and a laptop) so I stood close to the door and told myself to get ready to get down.

The third station saw tremendous crowd getting in. Suddenly, the compartment was as crowded as it could be. Those who have traveled in really crowded Mumbai trains will be able to picturise this. It was so crowded I could hardly move. There were only three people standing between me and the door but there was no way anyone of us could move even a millimeter.

Kandivli came and went. I loved the ‘whooshing’ sound it made when it passed by! Next was Borivali and I thought may be being a junction, more people would get down there (including me). Just then someone told me that Borivali will come on the other side which meant if I had to get down, I had to move to the door on the other side! Another lovely ‘Whooshing’ sound….

Next is Dahisar and I had lost all hopes of getting down. At this rate, I thought I would only be able to get down at Virar. With the weight of the bags, my hands had started hurting but there was no choice. It was so crowded that if you breathed hard, your belly ended up kissing at least three others…

All this while, my fellow passengers were at their accommodative best. They were confident that they will be able to make me get down at Dahisar. The three guys that stood between the door and me were trying their best to push me closer to the door. Sometimes I could move; sometimes my luggage. With about a minute of pressing their bellies hard inside, standing on one toe, suffering the edges of my luggage, they made sure I reached the door and got down at Dahisar. Hair ruffled, legs trembling, spine aching and hands numb, when I got down, I realized those who helped me must also have suffered similar pain-and while I was free of it since I had alighted, they might still have to suffer for those who wanted to get down at next station. And none of those good souls said anything harsh or sarcastic to me. They offered unselfish help. In fact, they were better off not helping me because that way they wouldn’t have had to make those adjustments for me to move. Still, they chose otherwise. I feel so grateful to them! I had lost hope of getting down before Virar but they made it possible for me. One may argue that they had to suffer only for a small duration and what’s the big deal but the point is they had no reason to help me and they still did. And anyone who has traveled in a crowded Virar train knows how painful sixty seconds standing in an uncomfortable position can be. Years later, I will forget the incident but I will remember that in this fast, professional, businesslike, I-couldn’t-care-less kind of city, some strangers went out of their way just to make life less difficult for me.

Wife is not from Mumbai and hates Mumbai to the core. I love the city. Both of us keep arguing about the pros and cons of the city. Our argument is endless and I know that I will never win this argument. Though I do know that after last Friday’s experience, I am a point ahead!

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!!!!

http://www.rediff.com/movies/2007/nov/27kim.htm

The article above has a discussion board at the bottom! You are advised to go through that as well!

PS: When I wrote this post, the discussion board had some clean funny comments. Ever since, the comments have become cheap! Please ignore the discussion board

The book cover tag!

Sigma tagged me a few days back.

The rule is ‘Go to the advanced book search on Amazon, type your first name into the Title field, and post the most interesting/amusing cover that shows up.’

Sounds interesting, isn't it?

I opened amazon.com and no sooner had I looked at the title field in Advanced Search, I realised I had a problem. I mean who would ever write a book which had the word 'LeziBlogger' in it?As expected, ‘LeziBlogger’ didn’t yield anything on search; neither did ‘Leziblogger’. Same was the case with ‘LazyB’ or ‘Lezi B’. Sigma suggested that I use my real first name but that name had no chance to show up on Amazon.(Though I did try it, Sigma!) So I had to break up my blog name and search for ‘Lazy’. Tons of results came up and it took me some time to filter through the results.

Below is the one that caught my eye:



It is a book titled 'The Importance of Being Idle-A little book of lazy inspiration' by Stephen Robins.

Editorial Review:
“The time that a man may call his own,” observed Charles Lamb, “that is his life.” In an age of increasingly long and stressful working hours, The Importance of Being Idle is a call-to-arms for would-be loafers to turn their hands to absolutely nothing whatsoever. This compendium of guidance and wisdom from prominent loafers argues with stunning wit and impeccable logic that idling plays an important role in both the progress of civilization and in our daily well-being. Just the thing to bring harried executives to their senses or to help committed idlers while away the lazy hours.

Not only did I find the book title funny but also the Editorial Review. I couldn't imagine anyone actually writing a book explaining the importance of idling and to top that an editor telling the book a 'call-to-arms for would be loafers to turn their hands to absolutely nothing whatsoever'!!

Btw, during my journey through the Amazon search results, came across some very interesting Titles like ‘The right to be lazy’, ‘The lazy way to success’ etc but the best was a book titled ‘The Case of Lazy Lover’! Don’t you think there is some anti-thesis in the name, eh? :-)