This is a video of my God son Nitin and his wife Ragini dancing away at a get together last weekend at a club in a Mumbai suburb.
There is a unique story behing the get together which is so typically of Mumbai that I want to share it with my readers.
The common Mumbaikar depends on two modes of public transport the Mumbai suburban train service and the iconic BEST bus transport system.
Since punctuality is a characteristic of the Mumbaikar, s/he depends on punctual public transportation and neither disappoints. The same bus / train is boarded every day in the morning to reach one’s place of work while the return journey can be flexible.
Catching the same train every day and boarding the same coach everyday makes for some long lasting friendships and the get together that Ragini and Nitin attended was one organised by the group of people who board the same coach in the same train every day morning. While the boarders were all males, this get together was for them as well as all their family members. (Women commuters tend to board compartments specially reserved for them on each train.)
Regular commuters have a peculiar language for the train service like, local, special, non-stop express etc. They also have switch over facilities to catch different trains from one service to the other ie, from the Central to the Western systems. It is a fascinating subculture which includes, prayer groups, card playing groups, music lovers groups and so on.
Here is a link to another fascinating portal about the service.