This is the end. Suiting my character I will end the Helmet in India section by intertwining something funny with something devastating, some might say tragic. Train rides: one of my favorite topics.
The Bombay metro system is a known hazard to commuters. Since nothing is alike this city, train rides blend in smoothly. They actually can kill you. I was too lazy researching numbers on how many people die riding the commute each year but just googling for images reveals horrifying proof of the 2006 train blasts; only one of the many perils. Others are mashed by the hordes of people, pushed out of an overcrowded coach and shattered on the tracks, or killed by the power supply lines whilst traveling on the train roof (great idea, by the way!). There are several websites and blogs wrapped up around this topic. And even the Freakonomics blog discussed a business model of insuring against getting busted when traveling without a ticket, plus the adherent question how to make ticket collection economical. Just for the sake of comparison: In New York, 3 million people are using city’s subway every day. Mumbai counts 6 million travelers in trains and on rails in direful condition.
Anyway, I found a poster ad from the Hindustan Times with a future prediction of Bombay’s Metro. And I lived in Bandra.
To set this into perspective watch what Google Images spits out.
So thank you, Bombay. Thank you, India. It has been an exiting, not always pleasant journey. I learned a lot, broadened my mind, gain a lot of respect for the people and made a couple of friends. I’ll come back, I promise. Not soon, though.
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