Column

Living in Mumbai is actually akin to being part of an endless nightmare, as quizmaster par excellence and Trinamul Congress member Derek O'Brien learnt recently. His proximity to the Union railway minister also makes O'Brien chairman of the passenger services committee. Yes, I had never heard of such a thing before either.

Anyway, O'Brien the Calcutta boy attempted the near impossible task of trying to travel in Mumbai's local trains. Like, get into a Virar local after 5pm. When he finally finished with this foolish adventure at 9pm, he said he felt as he had done when he was in college in Calcutta.

Well, I've been there and was a regular on the 3D from College Street to the National Library for a while. This was a bus on which you travelled sight unseen. You got in, you were held up by the mass around you but could not account for your limbs, bags, and books, and then you were squeezed out towards the entrance. The bus did not stop but slowed down to the now famous conductor's cry of "aasthe ladies". Men did not get that privilege of a slow bus.

This was no preparation at all for Mumbai, by the way, although it was a great contrast to a BEST bus, which seemed like a private Mercedes cab compared to a Calcutta 3D. But a Virar local? Years of travelling on Mumbai's train system and you know that you should not even attempt it. In my early, naive days I got into a Borivli fast once and tried to get out at Andheri, more fool me. Well, Borivli station was quite interesting that time.

Anyway, O'Brien found out first hand just why Mumbai will celebrate its impossible spirit later this week. It is out of this gargantuan struggle to get into a train, a bus, a water queue, to work on time, home on time, to a party, a movie, a doctor, that we learn to deal with everything, even ghastly terrorist attacks.

It's not that Mumbai is braver than everywhere else; it's just that Mumbai makes you braver than everywhere else. Certainly, on November 27, 2008, parts of Mumbai looked like a ghost town and in other parts it was business as usual. It's just that other cities break you down until you give up. Mumbai vomits you out whole and forces you to get up and do the whole damn thing all over again.

Actually, I don't know the answer and I don't know anyone else who does. It's just that once you choose to live here, you just get into the spirit of it. And that's what we will be reminded of this week.