Travelling in a Virar fast is an even bigger nightmare than, say, getting stuck on a potholed Mumbai road in peak-hour traffic. But artist Valay Shende had to take that particular train on a daily basis for three years after he shifted to the suburb in 2004. He describes the experience as being similar to what you’d feel like when drowning in the sea. “It’s difficult to breathe when you’re among so many people. And I would normally stand near the gate since it was almost impossible to get off otherwise, which meant that I’d get a free massage of sorts when people would board or alight from the train,” he laughs, adding that he observed two types of passengers in that local — those who’d given up on life and were just going through the motions to earn their daily bread, and those who still had the will to fight and make something better of their lives. “That’s in fact the case with the whole nation as well. Eighty per cent of the population is sleeping, while the rest are working towards making a change,” Shende says.

A sculpture of a dabbawalah