Moving Performance

Minus the rush, Sundays are a bit boring on a local train. One young lady who got on a Churchgate-bound local train at Borivli, though, more than managed to perk things up. Sipping casually on what seemed to be a bottle of cola, she was calm till the train left Andheri. She then decided to take a walk in the compartment, which was followed by a stint of hanging from the pole at the door.

Soon, she upgraded her moves by hopping on top of the nearly empty seats in the ladies compartment. Taken aback, all other commuters except my curious sister made a dash for the door. Our lady, pleased at being given the entire field to play, sipped some more "cola" and popped in some mysterious powder from her pocket and turned her attention to the handbills plastered all over. She fished out a pen from her shirt and scratched them. The ''instant remedy'' tantriks taken care of, she began dancing in joy singing, "Chalo chalo, full night jaagenge, party karenge, party karo."

Women from the other compartments who were watching through the mesh separation were beginning to enjoy the spectacle of a trendy girl in an orange t-shirt, sporting a string of beads, prancing around, leaning out at every passenger train trying to touch it, or doing her own version of the Surya Namaskar when the sun was visible. The centre of attraction, though, suddenly grew tired after Dadar and sat down to replenish her energies. The passengers by now had started looking for cops on stations who would take away the lady, obviously on a high, before she harmed herself.

But with not a single cop between Mumbai Central and Churchgate and our lady in question getting louder, bolder and wilder, it was surely an edge-of-the-seat ride.