The hawker's timeless friend

When tourists described Mumbai as the ‘city that never sleeps’, I neither understood nor liked the hype. That is until I met Bharti. An accountant by profession, she was discussing the price of bangles she had bought with her fellow passenger in a Mumbai local train — a garment seller. This is par for the course for the accountant, who has been a loyal customer for these train vendors for the past three years.

During her long journey from Vasai to Andheri and back since five years now, Bharti has forged a special bond with these women, who sell their wares in the 11.34 pm local. “I feel for them. On some days there are no takers, so if I buy even the cheapest product, it encourages them. There are others apart from the three women with whom I usually interact, but they probably must be in the train before or after this,” says Bharti, who seems to know more about the hawkers than their own families.

Sharing the fun of this friendship, Bharti says, “If I don’t bargain even with one of them, the other would come to me and insist that I must buy it for lesser price.”

However, it’s not all fun and games. Bharti is far from happy with the conditions in the railway system, which makes it inconvenient for these women hawkers. “They have so much baggage with them as you can see. Imagine how much trouble it must be to switch from one platform to another when a train is rescheduled at the last moment and arrives on a different platform,” she complains.

Bharti has been working for Gold Cinema in Andheri since 1995. “Being a loyal employee has its perks. I did not like boarding the local in the morning during office hours because of the rush. I have been with the company for many years, so it lets me choose a shift from 3 pm to around 11 pm,” she says.

That’s when it strikes me that ‘sleepless city’ doesn’t mean it is one where no one sleeps. It means that it’s a city where time is so flexible one can find companions even in the middle of the night, just like Bharti and her hawker friends accompanying each other as they head back home late at night in the Mumbai local.