The arms of the train

Mumbai’s trains, which carry six million passengers a day, violate the laws of physics.

The arms of the train

Bombay’s trains, which carry six million passengers a day, violate the laws of physics: they carry far more passengers than they can fit.

Suketu Mehta, who knows these impossible journeys, says that when each crowded train leaves, some people run after it. Whoever misses the train misses his job.

And then, arms sprout from the carriages, arms that come out of the windows or hang from the roofs, and help the stragglers to get on. And those arms of the train do not ask the one who comes running whether he is a foreigner or born here, nor do they ask him what language he speaks, nor whether he believes in Brahma or in Allah, in Buddha or in Jesus, nor do they ask him to what caste he belongs, or whether he is of a cursed caste or of no caste at all.