Mumbai Local!

Remembering my Mumbai stay,

Churchgate to Andheri every day,

Packed local train crowd, I must say,

Thank God I was travelling the opposite way.

I had taken a monthly pass,

It enabled me to travel, first class,

Don't even know how time used to pass,

Since I always took the train that was fast.

The other day as I boarded the train,

I saw an inquisitive face looking at me.

She judged that I had taken the clue,

And came up to do an enquiry.

She asked, "Does this train go to Andheri?"

I said, "All trains go to Andheri",

She seemed doubtful on hearing my response,

So I assured, "Even I'm going to Andheri."

She boarded the train as it just started moving,

And took a seat, while I kept standing,

Finally I thought, what the hell,

Sat next to her and started chatting.

"New to Mumbai or new to trains?",

"New to trains," she said.

Great, now I have a topic to start,

Am I really blessed?

I started explaining the various routes,

The various trains that she could take,

The codes of the major stations,

The difference between the class rates.

She asked me if I had any wierd experience,

I didn't get what she was hinting at.

She got the chance to get back,

And narrated her incident offhand.

She had to once run to catch the train,

While returning from work at six,

The train was jam-packed, even first class,

She had no clue, was in a fix.

She got into the reserved section,

For the physically handicapped people,

Where a drunkard set his target,

To make her get down when next possible.

To her safety came this man,

Who calmed that mad man's anger,

She heaved a sigh of relief and sat,

Swored never again to take this danger.

That day it seemed the train moved faster,

It seemed it didn't stop even at Central, Dadar or Bandra,

I saw outside, we'd just reached Andheri,

Can't this journey last a little longer.

But we had to reach our offices,

Getting late won't have taken us anywhere.

So here we parted ways,

I moved towards the east, she went west.

"Let's hope we travel together again some time", I said,

Didn't even ask for her number,

How dumb of me to leave everything to fate,

I'm still looking for that sweet stranger.