The gruesome, gory incident that led to the murder of a young man in the first-class compartment on Tuesday has shaken us. Mumbai is a pressure cooker city that is prone to a million devastating behavioural explosions. The reason is the diseases it suffers from, such as disconnection, alienation, loneliness, and mental health issues. Trains are no longer closely knit communities like those of yesteryear. Back then, people played cards, sang bhajans, recited poetry, played antakshari and were involved in many engaging endeavours that kept them sane. Arguments, if any, were mostly quelled by self-appointed mediators; I refer to them as “mandoli ke badshah”. Recently, ticket collectors have been also assaulted for no reason other than doing their job.

As a school kid, travelling by train in the late 1970s was fun, as fellow passengers would take good care of us. Later, in the medical school, when I would travel from Andheri to Mumbai Central, if any passenger would fall on the platform, fellow travellers would feed them, ensure their safety, and help them board a new train. In the late 90s, if someone would fall while alighting, others would get down without trampling the person, but not assist him or her. In recent times, a fallen passenger may be trampled upon and may get scant attention.