Trains, Rain, and Spices

I ride the suburban rail to work everyday. The suburban rail is much like a commuter rail in U.S. cities - bringing workers from outer suburbs to downtown Mumbai - with the notable exception that many people access their suburban station using cabs or auto rickshaws. The Mumbai suburban rail moves an astronomical number of people: 6 million passengers per day. Perhaps even more astonishing is the fact that the suburban rail operates at 180 percent of capacity. Like much of the infrastructure in Mumbai, the train has been unable to keep pace with population growth. On the congested routes, people are crammed into every last space and then some.

I am lucky to have a reverse commute. I live downtown and travel towards the suburbs, so I do not have to ride super-crowded trains on a daily basis. I do feel the effects on my walk to the train station. I start to encounter waves of people five blocks in advance of Churchgate Station, where I board the train. Unfortunately, they are all leaving the station as I am trying to enter it. Its an experience much like swimming against a strong current. I have to get some momentum going to not be knocked over as I walk to my train.

Occasionally, I go hang out with my coworkers in Bandra (a suburb north of Mumbai) after work. We usually take the train. As you can see, there is literally no space left unfilled. People start making their way through the crush of humanity towards the door 5 stops in advance of where they need to get off to be sure they will have adequate time to fight their way to the door.



Of course, for those who don't want to be part of the pushing, shoving, and squeezing, there is always the option of hanging out the door. This is actually a quite popular option. These are prized spots on the train. Hanging out means not only that you can easily get off when the train gets to your stop, but also that you get to feel the breeze. Unfortunately, lots of people die this way. In fact, lots of people die on the Mumbai suburban rail to begin with. An NGO recently filed a freedom of information request with the Mumbai police that revealed that, on average, 10 people per day die on the trains. Many fatalities happen from people crossing the tracks, rather than walking a bit further to take the pedestrian bridge over the tracks. Unfortunately, nearly all of the fatalities are easily avoidable.



The Mumbai trains are horrendously overcrowded and there is much that could be done to improve safety. All things considered, though, its tough not to admire the sheer number of people that the system moves daily.

After steadily increasing each day, the rain has dropped off some. We've been limited to severe but brief storms during the night recently. The impending monsoons are still on everyone's mind though. Everyday I find myself discussing how the rains are almost here with several different people. Some days, when I get back downtown from work, the sky is filled with threatening grey clouds and the light filtering through the clouds has an ominous yellowish tint to it. Still though, we've yet to had any flooding or sustained rains...

I visited a spice market the other day. The market stretched for two city blocks, along which every shop was open to the street and sold an array of different spices, chilis, and bulk grains. Between the turmeric, the piles of chilis, and the different varieties of lentils, it was a brilliantly colored place. Spices are often bought in their unground form here (turmeric root or curry leaves, rather than the already ground powders, for instance). The two exceptions are a number of masala blends and after-meal fennel blends (the fennel blends are often chewed on after dinner as a breath freshener). Walking made the market made me think what it must have been like for the Portuguese who arrived in India hundreds of years ago and saw all of these spices for the first time. I get similar thoughts when eating here sometimes. Even though almost every spice used in Indian cooking is widespread in the U.S., I sometimes feel we haven't acheived the mastery of their use that some of the cuisines here have.





I'm leaving tomorrow morning to go to Indore for a couple of days for work. I'm conducting an evaluation of the pedestrian infrastructure there. I will be seeing the city for the first time and meeting with an engineer from the public works department. I'll post soon with more details.