Celebrating Vata Purnima on wheels

Madhuri Vaidya’s spangled silk sari will make you believe she’s off for a Vata Purnima ritual — a festival where a woman prays for her husband’s health and long life by fasting and tying a thread around banyan tree which is worshipped. But instead of making it to a banyan, she makes a dash for the 8.17 ladies special local train from Kalyan.

She is greeted with giggles the moment she enters. A Reserve Bank of India employee, she has taken the same local for over a decade but the familiarity is not the only reason. Her choice of jewellery is. After all, it is Vata Purnima.

“I haven’t fasted. I’ve had my fill of poha in the morning,” she says. “Isn’t it enough that working women keep in touch with tradition even while contributing to the family kitty?”

She opens her purse and begins the haldi-kum kum ritual. After the banyan twig is worshipped, the women apply vermillion and turmeric on each other’s heads. “I believe rituals like these don’t take me back. They are my way of reaching out to my sorority and establishing a connect,” she says.

“We have so much to do in one day, both at home and at work, so we try to make the most of our travel time together,” says Vasudha Patil.

Vasudha, 35, knows what this informal ‘centre for women in distress’ means to her.

Only last year she lost her husband in an accident and was shattered. “I would just sit in a corner, look out and the tears wouldn’t stop. I was scared about shouldering the responsibility for the family,” says the mother of two who also has an old mother-in-law to care for.

“Madhuritai and the other women not only gave me pep talks but also practical advice on what to do with my husband Dilip’s provident fund, how to counsel my truant 14-year-old son and also helped me find alternative accommodation two months ago when repair work in my building began. When the deposit fell short, they all contributed and lent me money.”

There are many like Vasudha who have shared the space of the compartment with their “train friends” and come back lighter, pacified and hopeful.

Jayanti Nair, 26, would lie everyday that the bruises on her body were the result of her falling down. “I didn’t know whom to tell since I was scared my husband would pack me off back to my parents in Kerala,” she says.

“When Madhuritai asked me repeatedly about whether I was being abused I broke down. A group of 15 women came to my house and shook him up with a warning that they will beat him to pulp if he raises his hand again. And he never hit me again.”

They may not go around the banyan tree hand in hand beseeching the Gods for help but just like the aerial roots of the tree they are strengthening their belief in themselves and each other.