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I rode those suburban local trains quite often whenever I lived in Mumbai, and I must say that Manish Vij must be a a very brave man indeed to 'love riding those rails'. Passengers in a rush-hour local in Mumbai are somewhat tighter packed than the fish in a can of sardines. My own attitude was: avoid if at all possible - even at considerable cost sometimes.
But astonishingly, the whole system works somehow - it transports more people and things between points in the network than any other system anywhere in the world: this is more a tribute to the courage and resilience of the residents of Mumbai than the traffic-worthiness of the train system itself. The courage of Mumbai citizens was again displayed when, on the very next day after the recent bombings, most of them were back riding the locals again.
GSC
The carriages aren't "open" - they have manually-operated doors. For obvious reasons, no one ever shuts them except in thunderstorms.
Every system of transport, every road, every railway, every vehicle in India is susceptible to attack. Trust goes hand-in-hand with not giving a damn in our overcrowded world.
I thoroughly enjoyed this article. It gives a very human and relatable side to the recent bombings.
My daughter is due to arrive in Mumbai as an exchange student this month. The writing by Manish Vij helped humanize the bombing for me and to attach associations other than violence with riding the trains. I felt transported into the daily experience of which a very small piece went very wrong. Thank you for the perspective.
Sus Austill
Macclenny, FL
