Push and shove

If you happen to be a railway commuter, you'd be knowing how precious space is inside a train compartment. Which also explains why the term dhakka—meaning push or shove depending on where you're standing—is as common as crowd. To be fair to the daily passengers who have accepted the harsh reality of congestion, nobody likes to have a quarrel and that too inside a jampacked train. But things happen and we often get entertained by two or more characters who wouldn't mind slinging expletives before taking up a more violent stand—no pun intended. However, many a times, these silly confrontations evoke either laughter or silent appreciation from people gathered around. For instance, a young fellow was apprehending a senior citizen for dhakka when the latter firmly asked, "Meri umar hai dhakka deneki?" This was before he added, "Dhakka lagne se aadmi aage hi badhta hai, peeche nahi."

Good days, bad memory

With the Metro up and running in Andheri, the local residents have much to celebrate. Although the first day had its share of chaotic drama, things have gathered pace over the days. Reasons good enough for us to eavesdrop on conversations that take place in the air-conditioned train compartment. Two gentlemen were effusively praising the current prime minister for his promise of bringing ‘acche din’ back. One of  them even went so far as to attribute the very success of metro to the PM, conveniently forgetting that the infrastructure was a laggard work in progress for almost a decade now. Uff!