Bhajans and prayers in Mumbai trains

There are our Main Gods, Rain Gods and then there are Train Gods!

The busy Mumbai life leaves us with no time for anything... not even for prayers. So some Mumbaikars have made the local trains their temple!

Rightly so, since these trains do fulfill some of our wishes like reaching work just a few minutes late, reaching back home, staying in shape (running on FOBs, lifting luggage with one hand while streching the other hand to hold the train handle...). And what could be a better way to pray to the Almighty - utilising the long commute hours. So some local train commuters, equipped with books, pictures of Gods, bongos, manjiras and the memorised and popular bhajans, sing along in a group while occupying acertain 'fixed' area in the compartments.... every single working day!

Good, for it might please the Gods who might enable these people fulfill their small and big wishes. But what about those who are studying in the trains for their exams, thinking of an idea for the next client pitch, having a headache or catching up on the sleep the busy Mumbai life has deprived them of? Well who cares?

Now, MS Gopal aka Slogan Murugan from Mumbai managed to get us some great pictures of the bhajan routine in trains (more pics). God bless him!

Click on M S Gopal's blog for photographs and stories from the city that's always on the move.

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Hands Up Cops!

Policewaala hai toh kuch bhi karega kya?

Not anymore! Or at least this is what it seems like with the arrest of five cops by Dadar GRP in the last week of May.

Three policemen who extorted Rs 8000 money from an IIT Bombay student for allegedly storing pornographic clips on his mobile phone were arrested on May 31, 2011. If you are unaware of the incident, well this student was on his way back home after a vacation when the cops at Dadar station threatened to arrest him for storing such videos on his phone. The student had to hand over the money to save himself at that time!

Cops travelling in coach reserved for physically challenged arrested

In another incident, two policemen attached to Nagpada police station were arrested by the RPF at Dadar. Now these two travelled ticket-less in a coach reserved for physically challenged in a Kalyan fast train. How disgusting!

While such behaviour by cops infuriates me, I am glad that Government Railway Police is being strict with wrongdoers, be it an aam aadmi or a policewaala.

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Guess the railway stations

So you frequently commute by Mumbai local trains? Let us see how well do you recognize the railway stations. Identify the stations in the following photographs:

Mumbai Railway Station - 1

Mumbai Railway Station - 2

 

Mumbai Railway Station - 3

 

Mumbai Railway Station - 4

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Timeless Trains: Photographs of Mumbai local trains

It goes unsaid that most of us are fascinated by Mumbai local trains. We often see people on platforms or trains clicking photographs, wonder why they are clicking and later forget about it. But these naive as well as professional photographers and journalists capture the world around our magical trains and make the moments timeless.

I came across this wonderful picture taken by Mr. Deepak Amembal (of Magiceye fame) and thought it's worth sharing such lovely photographs with you all. While he allowed me to share his photograph on this site and then earlier Neeraj had helped me out with his photographs, I got another idea.

From today, this site shall feature some amazing Mumbai local train photos. If you think you have just the right image, please share the link. We'll have the collection with the links displayed right here, in this post.

Here we go!

Pleasant monochromatic view from a train 

- Contributed by Deepak Amembal

Unfortunate train derailment

- Contributed by Neeraj

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Garib Rath Express Train derailment - updates and pics

Ever since I reduced traveling, it had been tough to update the latest about Mumbai local trains. Generally my brother and husband keep updating me as they travel.

An hour ago, my brother called up to help me update about the status of trains - that they are running very late. Since he does not access the internet from his workplace, he gave me all the info based on what he could see at Kurla station and the railway announcements. I am so very thankful to Anup for all the help (I posted the update here).

And even before I could gather more info, I came across Neeraj's tweets. I can't thank him enough for allowing me to post the updates and photos clicked by him. Guys, Neeraj has been updating the status live all this while. So here are the photos and I hope there are no casualties or any more derailments.

Image courtesy and more pics: Neeraj's photostream.

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