The Ladies Special

The Ladies Special is a local train; specially meant for the female commuters. It runs on all the three railway lines. As I travel on Western Railways; I would detail on LS @ WR. There are Churchgate Slow LS starting from Virar, Bhayander and Borivali in the morning and vice versa in the evening. All the twelve compartments full of ladies!

The train timing at Virar is C 07:38 S and it arrives at platform no. 2 around 07:25am. When the train enters the platform; it is the usual Virar Slow. That means there are male commuters in the nine compartments. Those all have to gather on the opposite doors for allowing all the jumping ladies to aboard the train. Actually everyone gets into the train even before it completely halts on the platform. All is fixed; the standing positions (which are two doors ahead) and the doors to catch. And if anyone messes up this fixed routine then there are fights. If you are row one jumper then there is surety on getting a third seat. If you belong to the next row, at least you will get a fourth seat (if possible, means if the three seaters are ok giving you little space by showing as if they have compressed themselves). Rest of the public has to stand and claim seats; the verbal seat booking starts. Here we are called by station names; I am called Santacruz because I get down at that station and the one who claimed my seat gets to sit. All the window seats and second seats are already occupied by ladies coming down; it means they board the train at Vasai or Nalla Sopara while it is moving towards Virar.

After boarding the train, maximum go deaf for the world by putting on the earphones and watching movies (they also share movies via SHAREit). Others are on WhatsApp and Facebook. Some are on calls and some are talking with fellow commuters. There are some benevolent aunties who will help you claim the seat. You will never get any seat before Malad. As the train passes Nalla Sopara and Vasai; the area near door gets packed. Naigaon onwards ladies have to struggle to get in somehow. Then the yelling starts as “Move in, people are hanging out here!” The majority crowd gets down at Malad and so on. By the time the train reaches Bandra, there are seats available.

This train has the regular commuters so there are many groups formed here. There are birthday celebrations. There are talks on the latest Ekta Kapoor serials, on office, on mother-in-laws and daughter-in-laws, politics, giving film reviews, etc. Fights are so interesting; in Second Class we get to hear those in common languages while in First Class we get to hear the English translation of the same. During the Navratri festival, you will get to see 1000+ shades of the same colour. The train is a moving market. You can shop for kurtas and leggings, scarfs and skirts, imitation jewellery, mirrors and hairclips. There are ladies collecting orders for Avon, Amway, Lakme products. You will even get idlis and dhoklas here.

Hope the Railway authorities increase the frequency of Ladies Special trains to make our daily travel little easy!