I know it's a weird comparison - a club and a railway station; people 'dancing' and people trying to get on/off trains. But once you get to experience both - and I mean really experience both - you realize the two are not so different.
What is Dadar station? Only the biggest hub of local trains and national trains in Mumbai - where you start to feel like a snail when walking at a normal pace; where you come to expect being pushed and squeezed like a lemon (not unlike the juice vendors outside the station) while trying to get on or off a train. The attack can come from any side- perhaps the woman brandishing a long black umbrella or the bare-handed one preparing herself with a fist.
Either way, the experience of Dadar station is incomplete unless you leave the place as the proud owner of a more than a few bruises (and in all fairness - you probably caused a few as well).
I never would have imagined I would compare this hellish intersection of train lines to a fun night of clubbing with friends. It's not that I expected an empty club - after all, the popularity of clubs is based on the number of people it can engulf. It's the same everywhere. Mumbai. Toronto. Wherever.
But there was a slight difference in the clubs of Toronto. Because there are so many couples grinding (which I still do not consider dancing, but whatever), they tend to remain within their own space. Even if there are hundreds of people jammed in a club, the majority of them are busy sticking to their partners, so they tend to leave the others alone.
Continue to imagine that club, but just replace the grinding couples with a bunch of Indians for whom dance is incomplete unless it involves the unchecked flailing of hands and legs. Add a few bottles of liqour and you've got Indians gone wild - or rather - hoards of hands and legs gone wild. And once they start flailing, they don't care what or who comes in their way - they will whack you right left and center.
Not unlike the woman brandishing her umbrella as prepares to get on the train to Kurla at 6pm.
Next time I want to get whacked like that - I think I'm really going to have to think of which of the two options I'm in the mood for.
What is Dadar station? Only the biggest hub of local trains and national trains in Mumbai - where you start to feel like a snail when walking at a normal pace; where you come to expect being pushed and squeezed like a lemon (not unlike the juice vendors outside the station) while trying to get on or off a train. The attack can come from any side- perhaps the woman brandishing a long black umbrella or the bare-handed one preparing herself with a fist.
Either way, the experience of Dadar station is incomplete unless you leave the place as the proud owner of a more than a few bruises (and in all fairness - you probably caused a few as well).
I never would have imagined I would compare this hellish intersection of train lines to a fun night of clubbing with friends. It's not that I expected an empty club - after all, the popularity of clubs is based on the number of people it can engulf. It's the same everywhere. Mumbai. Toronto. Wherever.
But there was a slight difference in the clubs of Toronto. Because there are so many couples grinding (which I still do not consider dancing, but whatever), they tend to remain within their own space. Even if there are hundreds of people jammed in a club, the majority of them are busy sticking to their partners, so they tend to leave the others alone.
Continue to imagine that club, but just replace the grinding couples with a bunch of Indians for whom dance is incomplete unless it involves the unchecked flailing of hands and legs. Add a few bottles of liqour and you've got Indians gone wild - or rather - hoards of hands and legs gone wild. And once they start flailing, they don't care what or who comes in their way - they will whack you right left and center.
Not unlike the woman brandishing her umbrella as prepares to get on the train to Kurla at 6pm.
Next time I want to get whacked like that - I think I'm really going to have to think of which of the two options I'm in the mood for.
