One of the items which symbolize life in Mumbai is travelling in local train – it is the lifeline of Mumbai. The upper middle class which used to travel on trains is now moving around in cars. Prabha, a local girl used to travel in local trains in her younger days asked, ”What is the most difficult thing about travelling in local train in Mumbai” Everyone said it must be the crowds – Prabha said with a victorious smile on her face “It is managing to stay in the train on Dadar station and not get pushed out”.
Kaushik always liked to compare everything in life to Bridge said, “You mean it is like to trying to avoid a squeeze in Bridge”. Kingo who had travelled in Mumbai trains in the past said, “when I came here as a Kid, I used to see people playing cards on trains and singing bhajans”. Prabha then educated everybody that playing cards and singing bhajans are now banned as it disturbs others and led to heated arguments on seat grabbing.
Prabha said she is now a bridge player, because of watching a rudimentary form of Bridge called Mumbri being played in local trains. Cards were distributed as 5-4-4 and not one at a time. There was no suit hierarchy and goulash deals were common. There were only 7 bids from 7X to 13X where X could be any suit. Each deal would get over in 2-3 minutes as bidding was simple and tricks were claimed by around the 7th or 8th trick. The heated discussion after the deal took another 5 minutes
Kaushik interjected and said, “I can now see why Prabha is the most adept player at handling wild hands”. Padma wanted to know how people played cards in such a crowded train. Prabha responded, “The briefcase was the table and game would take place as long as one player got a seat. It had the concept of dummy – so one hand to be spread on the briefcase. Cards were collected as tricks by the person winning the trick in his hand.
Everyone agreed that playing cards in trains used to be one of the most pleasurable activities. Unfortunately, we cannot play it on trains any more. While this is a lost pleasure, they agreed it was necessary to ban it in the interest of the society.
Tailpiece: Goofy had to comment something – Our lost pleasure is wandering about wherever you like whenever you liked. As pet dogs we are constrained on movement. I reminded him that food, hygiene and playing with family are some positives for him as pet dog and he nodded when I said that humanity in general keeps making changes for improvement of quality of life even though it means sacrificing some pleasurable activities. How does Bridge Pathshala come into the picture? You can learn about life, the universe and everything along with cards with us and gain lost pleasure.
