The day he ceased to be a Mumbaikar!

Guest Writer's [Karthik Visvanathan] post...based on true life incident.

After we said bye to Bush and Amit, we walked towards the central side of dadar station. After getting engrossed in some foot-over-bridge shopping we finally reached the slow platform. It was covered with heads and heads of millions of people.

Me and Santosh glanced at the indicator. There was a 9:25 train to Kurla and 9:50 dadar train to Kalyan.

After looking at the crowd situation, and having a very good estimate of our reduced train catching capabilities since college days, me and santosh safely decided to wait for the dadar local.

But the braveheart, the star, the optimist, the hyderabadi, the software engineer, the tanned guy, Abhijit decided to catch the Kurla local.

And the local came after an excruciating wait of 300 seconds on the crowded platform with varied noises and smells. As the train chugged in, Abhijit frantically tried to get hold of it and tried to get in to the train. Alas! Every single attempt by Abhijit to get within 3 feet of the train was refuted by the mass of people around. He kept trying, like a drowning man in water, like a man stuck in quicksand, like a baby lost from its mother. But still he couldn’t get in. Finally somehow het got 1/4^th mm of his foot in side the train and it started to move.

Abhi realized that he is no longer the dare devil mumbaikar who could hang on to the sides of the train, he is a lazy techie from Hyderabad. Suddenly conscious of his realities he got down from the train and allowed it to pass away, without his bum being on it.

And then like a defeated man, abhi turned towards us with a sheepish grin. He knew, I knew and Santosh knew, that things will never be the same now. Abhi has ceased to be a Mumbaikar. Period.