STATION STORIES A TRANSFORMATION

A fleeting moment at a station transforms a routine-driven professional into a storyteller.

- By Dr Supreena Narayanan

Just another Monday morning at Mumbai's Churchgate Station.

Yes, you all got in the hot weather, mixed with tea and metal from the train tracks. It was bustling — commuters hurrying, vendors calling out, trains screeching to a stop. As Maya stood on Platform 3, she adjusted the strap of her bag on her shoulder and gripped her phone just a little bit tighter. She was 27, the quintessential urban professional — polished, efficient, perpetually on the move. While she scrolled through her Instagram feed, double-tapping images that would qualify for invites to exclusive A-list parties — pristine plates of avocado toast, sunsets in Santorini — a motivational podcast about accelerating one’s career played through her AirPods.

Her life seemed perfect on the internet: a high-paying job in marketing in Lower Parel, brunch on weekends at palm-lined, fancy cafes, and an enviable array of gadgets. But beneath the carefully edited posts and Instagram stories was a fatigue she could not quite put into words.

The familiar rumble of the 8:22 train passing. Skittish, Maya, who had been buried in her phone, came forward. She had nearly fallen as the crowd pushed.

“Careful!” a voice rose above the hullabaloo.

A hand steadied her. Maya looked up to see a man — confused, a little bemused. He seemed to be in her age bracket, in jeans and a distressed denim jacket, a vintage camera slung around his neck; he was the opposite of her shiny, gadget-laden composite.

He nodded and smiled briefly, then got on the train with her.

The compartment, as usual, was crowded. Maya was seated at the window, and the man toiling away with a camera was at the door. Intrigued, she leaned closer. “What are you photographing?” she asked.

“Stories,” he said, looking down, voice smooth, slicing through the storm.

“Stories?”