THE LADIES’ SPECIAL

This is the Ladies Special train between New Delhi and Palwal,a district in Haryana—the first such train for working women in the Capital. The train was launched by Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee on August 5 as a “Rakhi gift” for women who make the daily commute from Delhi to the suburbs of Faridabad and beyond.

At 5:50 p.m,the train pulls out of the platform. There are barely a handful of passengers onboard. “When I first took the train,a few days after it was launched,I wondered if it was a bad idea because it looked empty. However,it fills up along the way and by the time it gets to Okhla,it is more or less full. It is very crowded in the morning when it departs from Palwal at 8:55 for Delhi,” says 30-year-old Manorama Manjhi,a bank employee.

Kanika Gupta,21,and Ruchi Varma,25,make a rush for the “window seats”. They don’t have to—the train’s almost empty—but it’s a game they have been indulging in. “We have friends who join us at Okhla. It’s great fun to travel together. We gossip and sing songs. The best part is there are no lecherous men,” says the rather boisterous Kanika,who works with Ruchi at a CA firm. So enthusiastically do the two look forward to the train journey back home that their colleagues call them “Ladies Special”.

“We leave a few minutes early from work because the train leaves at 5:50 but it is worth it. The best thing about the Ladies Special is the comfort,” says Ruchi.

“I can’t begin to tell you what a nightmare it was to travel in a general train during rush hour with people falling all over you and vendors weaving their way into the madness. I hated it,” says 18-year-old Surbhi Sood,a student of Gargi College who lives in Faridabad. She is travelling with her friend and neighbour,16-year-old Nisha Sharma,a national level cricketer. “I travel about thrice a week from Faridabad to Delhi where our practice sessions are held,” she says.

Sonia Suri,an executive with Ansal group and a resident of Palwal,chips in,“The biggest relief is that we no longer have to constantly be on guard against eve-teasers,” she says,while getting her friend to paint her nails.

Around 6.15,the train pulls into Okhla station. Again,the women wait patiently for the train to come to a halt and file in neatly.

About half an hour into the journey,a group of women start singing devotional songs. “Most of us have been travelling together for years now. In the general train,we travelled in the ladies’ compartment but it was a lot more crowded. Here,guards of the Railway Protection Force don’t even allow vendors in,so it’s a lot safer,” says 57-year-old Aruna Sharma,a resident of Ballabgarh who is employed as a secretary with the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Sharma has been travelling on this route since 1975 and has a formed a community of sorts with the women who travel with her. “Now that we have more space,we have even started celebrating festivals on the train. A few days ago,on Janmashtami,we had a little puja onboard. And a lot of singing and dancing,” she says. Almost as if on cue,33-year-old Loveleen Kaur gets up and does a little jig as the women start singing another song.

Almost everyone gets off at New Faridabad station. The few who go on to Palwal settle for a quiet 15-minute ride. The train pulls in at Palwal at 7.45 p.m. and the passengers bid quick goodbyes and scamper out.

mumbai

For seven-months-pregnant Prajakta Sathe,a CBD Belapur resident commuting 40-odd km from Panvel to Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) and back at peak hour every day,the new Ladies’ Special,the first on the Central Railway’s Harbour Line,has come as a timely convenience. “My journey to office and home just got easier. I get ample space to sit down and relax. Sometimes,I knit for my to-be born baby. I even get room to do the deep-breathing exercises that my doctor has advised me to do,” she says.

In fact,she thinks that it’s the only time in the day that she gets “to be with myself”. No wonder then that the 29-year-old who reached CST station at 5 p.m. on Thursday,patiently waited between platforms 1 and 2,watching at least three Panvel-bound trains come and go,till her Ladies’ Special arrived at 5.55 p.m.

The much-awaited Ladies’ Special on the Harbour Line in Mumbai was launched in August by Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee and has become hugely popular among women ever since,just like the Ladies’ Specials that already run on the Western Railway and the Central Railway’s Main Line.

This train,which leaves Panvel at 8.48 a.m. to reach CST at 10.09 a.m. and on its return journey,leaves CST at 5.55 p.m. to reach Panvel at 7.12 p.m.,has already become a hotspot for socialising for the nearly 35,000 office-going women. Some say their prayers,meditate and other practise bhajans. Since the entire train is reserved for women,space is less at a premium than in other Mumbai local trains.

And as a Panvel-bound college student jokes: “There is some breathing space available,tempers don’t fly so often and cat fights are fewer and far between.” So the compartments here resound with laughter and impromptu singing.

Good friends Malati Sharma,a logistics manager in a shipping company,and Rajita Kaur,a Central Railways employee,both Chembur residents who got in at Masjid station,remember meeting each other in a jam-packed train home in 2007. Both say they have nurtured their friendship standing on the footboard. Soon they found four more friends and became a group. But the first time they got the space to sit through the journey was only after the launch of the Ladies’ Special in August. “Finally,we can sit down and chit-chat,” they laugh.