Spitting & Littering
All you foreign tourists and first time visitors – don’t be aghast when you see a fellow passenger spitting every time the bus and train stops, worse still when they spit while the vehicle is in motion. They could very well paint your face or redesign your shirt. Spitting or littering is a common sight in every Mumbai local bus or train. The smells along the Mumbai railway tracks due to piles of garbage can either cure sinuses or destroys the sense of smell.
Pushing & Shoving
This is an inevitable aspect of travelling in Mumbai. Pushing in order to get in or out is something this over populous city cannot avoid. It’s a joke here in Mumbai that if you’re found standing near the door of the train at Kurla station, whether you want to or not, you will be pushed out of the compartment. Whether it is getting into a bus or the mad scramble for an auto rickshaw, the maddening crowds will jostle you without any qualms.
Talking loudly on phone
Imagine a Monday morning, when you’re boarding the 7 am bus, travelling to work and cursing the fact that there are 7 days in a week, you encounter people who are talking on their cell phones as if no one is around. All you really want to do is get up and smash their phones to smithereens. It’s shocking to know how loud people can be at the most unearthly hours of the day.
PDA
Mumbaikars are extremely loving people. The only problem is their “loving” is on display much to the discomfort of other commuters. While this public display of affection is cute at times, when it gets too much, you have no option but to turn your face away. Moreover, it’s funny when the ones in love don’t seem to notice the stares of the fellow passengers. Sometimes all you want to tell them is ‘get a room please’.
Eating
Board any of the outstation trains and barely after you have heard the horn, you’ll experience the aroma of the theplas, dosas or vadas. Like it or not, this is one thing you simply have to bear. Worse is when the same happens in an AC bus or train where the smells can’t escape for quite a while. You will definitely be frustrated by these travelling foodies sometime or the other.
People with unruly kids
As if life wasn’t tough enough among adults themselves, throw in a couple of whining or noisy kids and your commute could very well be a hell on earth. Juvenile tantrums can make your blood boil. Parents who cannot rein their kids in are seen happily permitting their children to yell, litter and occupy seats meant for adults, much to the disgust of fellow passengers.
Listening to loud music
The noise pollution in this city is already at alarming decibels. Add to this insensitive Mumbaikars who blast their mobile phone music making other passengers suffer, and you have a recipe for torture. Even though this is banned on public transport, some brazen personalities will insist on tormenting you with the cacophony of their Chinese mobile phones.
Eve teasing
This is truly a very disgusting habit that most women encounter on their daily commute. Ogling at females seems to be the predominant male past time in the metropolis. From cat calls to whistles to the lyrics of some insane “item number”, it takes a tough woman to deal with this menace.
Dripping umbrellas
The monsoon outside the bus pales in comparison with the downpour inside. Every rainy day numerous poor souls arrive at their work places thoroughly drenched, not because of the rains but thanks to some aunty’s umbrella, that sadly drips onto the person sitting next she where she stands. Pity!
Dozing or bulldozing
Nothing could make the journey more irritating than the unshaven wretch next to you resting his head on your shoulder. His sleepless nights turn into your daytime nightmares. If you let it pass the first two times his head falls on your shoulder, very soon you will have to support his entire bulk. Sometimes you have to forcefully tap them to bring them back to terra firma.