Its 9:30 in the morning and as usual I am waiting at the CottonGreen Station to catch a 9:35 local train to Vashi station. Quite a few familiar faces as they have their respective trains fixed for their journey. The clock shows 9:35 and there arrives the Vashi local. The one thing a person is used to while travelling in Mumbai train is the speed to enter the local train irrespective of the rush and crowd in the rain. It seems that the local is the last train they are catching and acquiring a seat in it is equivalent to acquiring a seat in heaven.
I am just looking for a window seat which is facing in the direction in which the train is travelling. But to my disappointment all the window seats are occupied and I will have to occupy an aisle seat. The train reaches Wadala station and soon the seats are all occupied. Then comes a gentleman and urges a man to give him a seat on the desk which is already occupied. The man is a bit reluctant and tells the gentleman that the desk is meant for three people and if four people sit on it, it will be uncomfortable for both of them. The gentleman now seems to be furious and have already started using the local slang...”navin aala aahe ka ikda...raja aahe ka...ki tula sampoorna jaage paahije baasayala....thooda sarak and basayla de mala... ”(Are you new to local trains?...Are you king?...Why do you need the entire desk to seat?....Shift and let me sit as well ). The man doesn’t understand the slang but can understand the gentleman’s action.
While the argument continues, the next stop which is GTB i.e. Guru Tegh Bahadur station is about to come. The person sitting in the middle seat gets up to get down of the train. As a result of that, the person sitting on the aisle seat moves to the middle seat and the aisle seat is vacant now. The gentlemen now again fights with the person shouting that he deserved the middle seat and blames that since he was going to take the middle seat, the person quickly moved and took the seat. The person gets a real embarrassing set of words from the gentlemen and gives him 1 slap. The other people in the train are just wondering what was going and there are chats ... pick pocket thief is caught... verbal dispute is on between the 2 mad guys and so on.
To summarize, the gentlemen wanted a 4th seat for which he started the fight. However when he was getting the 3rd seat, he specifically wanted the middle seat to sit close to window and enjoy the wind...useless fight...
