Lindsay Pereira: Why it takes 2.5 hrs to go anywhere

It took me a little over 26 minutes to traverse a 15 kilometres stretch a few days ago I was traveling from a friends place to Andheri station but thats the time the measly distance cost me It happened due to a number of reasons starting with the fact that there were two traffic bottlenecks along the way The traffic lights were all functioning so that wasnt the problem what added to the minutes was the uncaring attitude of people towards traffic signals Rickshaws and motorbikes jumped red lights deliberately callously jeopardising the lives of hundreds and triggering massive traffic snarls in their wakeDespite the rush hour madness thousands of Mumbaikars depend on trains as the citys lifeline every day File picI could have walked of course but it was pouring at the time which turned every step into a potential death trap Dealing with a combination of potholes unstable manholes and waterlogged streets was not something that excited me And so I sat still for 26 minutes surrounded by others like me in cabs cars buses and rickshaws trying to figure out how millions of Bombayites did this every day mdash breathing in petrol fumes losing time and money calculating the cumulative loss in terms of years all because some of us couldnt be bothered to follow the rulesThe rickshaw dropped me less than 100 metres from Andheri station beyond which it wasnt allowed to go This was supposed to have been done to make the life of pedestrians easier but unfortunately I couldnt hop and skip to the ticket counter because I still had to manoeuvre past illegal hawkers two of whom were frying something in large pans of hot oil The hawkers are evicted by the BMC approximately once every other year or soInterestingly the BMC office in charge of the ward stands opposite the station but I assume the officers inside couldnt see the illegal hawkers because unopened files obstrshyucted their view A number of paver blocks outside the station were missing too which didnt helpWhen I finally reached the station I found that the ticket counter was actually located a floor above This wasnt a problem for me but it took the wind out of a few older people who had to walk up what felt like 50 steps before walking down another 50 in order to reach the platform I sent a silent prayer of thanks for the thousandth time for not being disabled To be handicapped meant I would simply be unable to reach the ticket counter let alone a platform The ones that did manage to make it had to try and make their way through the crowds on the stairs at any given time of day and then find space in the tiny handicapped compartment provided they werent already occupied by people whose only handicap was mentalIt took me 14 minutes to actually purchase a railway ticket thanks to lines that crawled despite the fact that millions of commuters probably had monthly passes already There were smart card machines around too but two of them werent functioning which meant the lines for the ones that worked werent particularly short eitherI finally stepped onto a platform around 50 minutes after I left my friends place It was a journey I ought to have accomplished in less than 10 minutes in any other socalled global cityThe trains were late naturally It has been decades since I last saw one cruise into a platform on time and this was the Western Railway which has always supposedly been a lot better than the Central or Harbour lines A delay of one minute alone adds to what is referred to as superdense crush load by people who are routinely horrified by the pride of India and Bombays lifelineA delay of a mere five minutes at rush hour really can mean the difference between life and death for some people A week ago for instance a 66yearold man had a heart attack and collapsed on a train bound for Vashi According to media reports he had no history of heart disease but the attack was triggered by breathing problemsIn a bizarre coincidence a 40year old on that train felt breathless too and collapsed The latter recovered after being helped onto a platform the former didnt make itI reached my destination twoand ahalf hours after starting out I didnt complain Like 20 million others I put my head down cursed the people who pretend to manage Bombay and got on with the business of livingWhen he isnt ranting about all things Mumbai Lindsay Pereira can be almost sweet He tweets lindsaypereira Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycom