Chugging along in commuter trains

I hope I used the right word because I wanted the reader to understand that however long your travel by train takes usually, in commuter trains you travel lesser distances in more time. The more knowledgeable of you will immediately spot the flaw in the design of this form travel. Well done. Appreciation of the intellect is just not what it used to be.

So coming back to commuter trains, these electric trains connect stations situated in and sometimes a little out of the city. So while doing my undergraduate degree I volunteered to be pickled with a few hundred strangers every morning and evening for a nominal fee of a couple of rupees. Well, you must be thinking ‘she really got herself a deal right there, the last time I tried participating in one of these expeditions I paid five times as much’. Well the railways treat their regular sardine substitutes more kindly than the occasional visitor. People who sweat it out regularly in these tin boxes with cut out windows save a few bagfuls that can come in handy when paying the doctors for the diseases your co-passenger so generously shared with you.

Now the railways system does promise you a journey like no other and the air takes on a distinct musty odor, the wind and several impersonators play with your hair and clothes during the journey. After two years of traveling and keenly observing the components and contributors, I have found the air to be quite different in the women’s compartment as compared to the general one. It is quite obvious that a compartment filled with the gentler of sexes is the preferred one for me but you really have miscalculated the equations.

In the general compartment the men chivalrously try not fall too hard on the members of the gentler sex. Unlike their bus traveling counter-parts they do not rely on their female companions for cushioning or other wise comfort seeking crevices. The train travelers are so deep in thought about when exactly this train suddenly come to a halt and call it a day that they barely even notice their fellow crusaders. Therefore when a station does miraculously emerge the crowd gloriously part ways and some enthusiasts even give the reluctant traveler a gentle nudge and send them on their way.

But the women’s compartment is a whole new story. The smells of rotting flowers, coconut oil, gold, sweat and talcum powder mix generously with other odors distinct to women’s attire and accompaniments. And the women are more affectionate toward their companions and barely move a muscle when one wishes to leave their company to reach their family and friends. So the more determined thin their lips, sharpen their elbows and march out of the compartment even if it means dragging a few others with them who are residing closer to some of the upcoming stations.

Another feature of these trains is that if one wishes to stand near the entrance and pleasure the outside environment, the railways have generously removed the doors for our convenience. So if the tracks fall a little to close to the native flora then the door keepers will generally get their hair tussled by birch branches and sometimes birds and frogs have been known to abandon their tree houses for the posh interiors of the commuter trains.

So when you plan you next trip by a commuter train get ready to numb all your senses. The disciplining wooden seats will make sure that your numb mind has a companion at the other end as well. And in case all these seats are occupied your thoughtful companions will make sure that your feet stay beneath theirs irrespective of whether you like it or not.