Mumbai local - a conversation

It has been a long time that a blog post has been written by me. However, today's post makes me think that it was worth the wait. Writing just for the sake of it does not make sense. Today while traveling by Mumbai local train from Thane to Bhandup I witnessed a conversation which I felt was worth sharing on my blog.

I boarded a CST bound local from Thane and moved closer to the door on the other side as I needed to get down in Bhandup which is just a 10 minute journey from Thane. Within few minutes the train reached Mulund station. A man boarded the train guiding his 4-5 year old son ahead of him and his wife following him. The wife then moved past her husband and stood diagonally opposite to her husband and at a slight distance from me. As soon as the train started moving the lady started to talk to her husband in Marathi and I realized that she was actually not happy with her husband for allowing their son to board the train first. She felt it was risky because if they could not have managed to board the train, they could have been separated from their son.

It was husband's turn to speak up and I was eager to see his reaction. He initially spoke in Marathi and after noticing that his wife was not feeling comfortable, started talking in English. It seems, he felt it would have helped keep the conversation private. He responded calmly and explained his logic to his wife. He said that he had ensured his son board the train first because he was sure that he would have managed to board the train even if he would have had to run a bit and then catch it. Any other way of doing it could have been risky. Having their son sandwiched between him and wife could have been more risky as he would have to keep looking behind to ensure son is boarding safely or not.

The wife who was initially upset seemed to have understood husband's logic and said that the discussion helped figure out his thought process. Husband replied stating that it is better to ask why some action was taken before concluding whether it is right or wrong.

Bhandup station arrived and this family of 3 got down. I also got down and was thinking about the whole conversation. I found it funny because they assumed that switching the conversation to English would have prevented others from listening in. Even though I did not intend to be involved, I was still a witness. Overall, I liked the way the whole situation was handled because the conversation could have triggered a conflict between the couple but it went smoothly.