Saturday, September 12, 2009





Spiffy new compartments pretty up Western Railway
Shatabdi, a long distance train.
The ladies compartment in a local train, 10.30 in the night.


Why does a set of apparently decent persons morph into a hungry, bloodthirsty, mob? Comfort in anonymity, in knowing someone cannot hit back, cannot afford to? If perception of goodness/ weakness transforms a perfectly reasonable person into a jungli fanatic-type hooligan mawali, shouldn’t such an impression be corrected? Or would correction and knee jerk reaction bring in another opportunity for misinterpretation? Difficult to contain damage?
Hell with it. I’d say off with the kidgloves.

7 comments:

AmitL said...

Shatabdi looks lovely...miss travelling by it,specially when I was in BSL.:)
---
People turning into a mob?Simple answer-they find a source to channel all their frustrations..I've seen it so often in Baroda.

PQ said...

10.30 pm....have never traveled that late....but I hear Mumbai is quite safe until late right? Wouldn't say that of other places in India I've worked at.

And compartment to ekdum sahi...I can imagine rush time mein kaisa hoga...have traveled in Mumbai locals...waise not sure how it is to have that fast paced life everyday...but you guys are great just for being Mumbai-ites...my admiration for the place and people always

norrbu said...

I took the Shatabdi back in 2001 - Delhi to Jaipur. Read RK Narayan's Ramayan on the way. Much better than the Amtrak here.

manuscrypts said...

“Character is what you are in the dark.” immediately popped to mind... unfortunately character these days is also defined by how the other person reacts :|

austere said...

manuji- well said. seems like some internal barriers have crumbled, not for the better.

norrbu- this was Ahmedabad- Mumbai, boarding Baroda.Yes, no better way to indulge during a train journey.

pq- safe in most cities in Gujarat, I've caught trains at funny times back home and it was cool. I don't have to commute-- wouldn't have lasted if I had to!

amitl- without their masks people seem scary.

mark drago said...

it does indeed look spiffy! ...ach, mobs: Sartre: "Hell is other people"

er2dfw said...

I like the pics! Specially the ladies. :-)

Well, you could've left out the rant....