The city is fortunate in many ways. So many things could go worse, but they haven’t. Here's a letter to the Railway Minister from a Mumbaikar.

Dear Railway Minister, I belong to Mumbai and like all Mumbaikars I am in a hurry. So I will refrain from talking in circles and come to the point straight.

There are several ways one could die in Mumbai. The agents of death are many: bombs, viruses in the air, druggies happy to wield knives, drunkards mixing drinking and driving, security guards lusting after female occupants of flats and so on. We have learnt to accept premature loss of human lives as a fact of life in the busy, overcrowded city. And there’s a word we have agreed upon to explain it away: accident. I understand you cannot do much about 'accidents'. These are too unpredictable.

However, there’s something I would like you to keep in mind while preparing the Railway budget. I don’t want to die on a Mumbai local or at the platform while alighting a train or boarding one. This is one 'accident' you could help avert.

Do I sound too dramatic? Possibly yes. But I am not sure whether you are familiar with the maddening rush at railway platforms or the sight of people packed like sardines on coaches during the peak hours. There’s hardly an inch to put your feet on and the experience that people like me have to go through on a daily basis is not for the weak-hearted. Anyone could fall off the train, get trampled if there’s a stampede on the platform. If that’s dramatic, I cannot help it. That is what I go through everyday.

Dear Sir, please visit Kurla or Dadar stations or any station on the Western line between 8.30am and 10am and between 5pm and 9pm and judge the situation for yourself. Mumbaikars are incredibly hardy people. They have learnt to take the mess in their stride and survive the daily commute. They have to. No railway minister has tried to improve things for them.

But people die too. The other day, at the Kurla station a gentleman I was vaguely familiar with - aren’t they all vaguely familiar at platforms? - slipped on the tracks and was reduced to a mangle of raw flesh and bones by a local entering the station within seconds. The elderly man was unable to withstand the pressure of people jostling to jump into the train even before it had stopped. He was carrying a few toys with him and some dry fruits. Obviously, he had kids waiting at home.

I don’t want to be mushy about the incident. But I don’t want to die like that either. When I move out of home to my workplace, I realise I have to pass through a minefield of risks. I would like you to reduce one. If you are sincere you could help. The to-do list is simple. Have more trains during the peak hours, make trains more airy, take steps to decongest the platforms and modernise railway stations. It isn’t a tall ask. Is it?

Dear minister, Mumbai’s local trains are the city’s lifeline. Take them out, the city comes to a standstill. In my nine-year stay here, I have not seen platforms or stations getting better. And it always the same suffocating crowd on the trains. Slabs come crashing down from concrete roofs at the stations once in a while. Of course, there’s the issue of safety we have not touched. Travel on some trains after 11pm, you will realise how easy it is to molest a woman or snatch necklaces or bully passengers. The city is fortunate in many ways. So many things could go worse, but they haven’t.

It’s obvious that not much effort has gone into changing the commuters’ life. Your predecessors have not done much. I hope you would be different.

Thanks

A railway commuter