The Harbour Line

Every city has one evocative image that typifies it more than any other. When it comes to erstwhile Bombay, the first image that comes to mind is the suburban train and hordes of people buzzling in and out of VT Station.

My relationship with the city is unique. Having spent my childhood entirely in Bombay, I left the city for good, never to go back. It is like one of those cinema plots, where a shock incident leaves the protagonist’s memory pinned to a distant past! Needless to say, the only images of Bombay I have, are those backed in time by more than 3 decades!

The Western and Central Suburban lines were well known for connecting the Northern suburbs with South Bombay. Not so well known was the Harbour Line. In keeping with the name, the Harbour Line ran skirting the harbour all the way from Mankhurd to Bombay VT. Koliwada was a tiny station- a dot on this line. My earliest childhood memory has stayed unchanged. It was taking the suburban train as a joy-ride from Koliwada to Bombay VT! Often, it was in the company of my father or my favourite uncle.

You sat at the train window and peered out. The station names were quaint- there was Wadala and Sewri. May be, it was the marsh lands at Sewri- you smelt the place before you reached it! And then, you had “Cotton Green”! Each time you said “Cotton Green” aloud, it sounded queer! Next on the line was “Reay Road”. Mr Reay’s English past was lost by then. He was just a name on that board- shorn off all his antecedents.

From "Reay Road", the train went up a gradient to reach "Dockyard Road". Imagine a station in Mumbai called “Sandhurst Road”! These names indicated how inextricably the Railways were linked to the days of the Raj. Sandhurst Road was special since the station existed in 2 levels: trains could dock at the lower or the higher level. 

This was followed by “Masjid Bunder”. From Masjid, it was a home run to the last stop- Bombay VT. VT stood out as a colonial relic- with its imposing façade and huge glass-panes and one massive clock.

The Harbour Line would have surely changed. The stations may have all gone. Sometimes, I hear that the railway line now extends beyond Mankhurd. My mind is in absolute denial! It clashes with the space-time coordinates held dear since childhood! Back then, Mankhurd was the most distant place on the map- at which point, the world simply ended and you fell headlong into a total void! How can there be stations beyond Mankhurd? How will you convince that child?