Bhajans and Songs in Mumbai Locals

puMDlaIk vardo harI ivaTzla…

Pundalika Varde Hari Vitthal..

It was the time when I used to travel through the second class in the local trains of Mumbai, firstly because I do not wanted to miss those Bhajans sung in the local trains and secondly because I could not afford to go by first class. Well, the former was much more a solid reason than the later one.

I used to take the local train that came from Kalyan which was “supposed” to be a bit empty than those coming from other places. There was a group of people boarding, I doubt this could be the word that fits here, for the way they used to get into the train can simply be thought of. They hardly required any time to settle and start their routine Bhajans. It is a nice practice to sing or hear these prayers in the morning. The “Buaas”, the lead singers, had a sturdy voice and a force to drive many other voices. The prayers, started with the above line, were followed by

EaI &anadova tukarama
pMZrInaaqa maharaja kI jaya !

Shri Gyandeva Tukaram
Pandharinath Maharaj ki Jay !

Then came the much awaited bhajans from the favorite Buaa. The commuters used to get so much involved that many of them swung their body to the harmonious rhythms. The atmosphere was no less pure than that in a temple. The inner compartment was entirely packed, with hardly any space to move your limbs, but the spirit was very high.

Situations changed and I shifted to first class. We had a nice group of friends and all tried to make it to the much famed 7.54 train. We used to stand at the door and sing songs - mostly marathi, utter some famous marathi kavitas, and pieces of stories from our own PuLa’s literature – in short we were enjoying our day’s start. But again the conditions changed with the time, and we all separated.

All this narrated the journey while going to the office. But there’s hardly anything to write about my return journey. It is dry, with a news paper in the hand and the mind going through the editorial columns. Not to mention about ‘The Speaking Tree’, it fascinates me a lot.

Today, fortunately, I got into a compartment which is shared with the one from second class. There was a bunch of people singing melodious songs from Hindi movies. A few of them had an appreciable quality in their voice to the extent that at one moment I, in fact everyone in our compartment paused to hear from them. This was the first time in my return journey that I stopped reading the news paper and concentrated on the song, being enjoyed by everyone. While I enjoyed there songs, I wished to accompany them by hitting on the side pieces of the compartment to produce the required beats. But the so called “white collar” of first class stopped me from doing this. The current incident took me back in time where I used to board the train merely for the reason of hearing bhajans. The memories forced me to write this blog, again proving the significance of music and the time at which it came.

Long live the Buaas and Indian Idols from the Mumbai local trains!

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