Train ‘safest’ place even now

On a day when blasts were ripping through Western Railway trains, Vasai resident AR Khutade picked the First Class compartment of a Virar-bound train as “the safest place to be”.

The train wasn’t going anywhere—after the serial blasts Western Railway had suspended services—and Khutade, stranded at Churchgate, chose to sleep in an empty compartment. “I’d rather be on this train than try to get back home,” he said, without a trace of irony.

Virar homemaker Sangeeta Mehta, Borivali residents Ankush Kawle and Suresh Maharana also had the same idea—of curling up on their favourite seats on the train.

Churchgate, which on any given day is a teeming transit for lakhs of commuters, and the nodal station from where all seven trains that had bombs started, was far from deserted.

Scores of people were still milling about, in the hope of taking an early morning bus or even the first train home.

The walls of the station had turned into impromptu billboards, advertising free bed and board in the three hostels nearby. Groups of students and boarders were actually making the rounds and inviting complete strangers to come and take shelter at their institutes.

Nuns from the neighbouring Nirmala Niketan of Social Work were trying to make arrangements for food. “We’ll rustle up some rice and vegetables,” said Sister Celine, “or we’ll just pass around some coffee and biscuits.”

A good idea, since the few foodstalls that were still open had rapidly upped their prices: samosas went from Rs4 to Rs12 in just four hours.