Anil Arora, who earns a living as a lemonade vendor outside Churchgate station, got the shock of his life when the train he was travelling in suddenly jerked and climbed onto platform number 3.
Anil Arora, who earns a living as a lemonade vendor outside Churchgate station, got the shock of his life when the train he was travelling in suddenly jerked and climbed onto platform number 3.
Recalling the incident, Mr Arora said, “I was travelling in the coach right behind the first ladies compartment that shot past the platform. At first, the train just stopped and I didn’t give a second thought and was about to get off when suddenly it shook and tilted sideways throwing us towards the door. Somehow we managed to hang on to the rods at the sides and didn’t go flying out of the door.”
Mr Arora said he saw the compartment rising an inch or two above the platform and for a while, was at a loss to understand what was happening. “I just couldn’t understand and believe that the gap between the platform and the footboard was increasing. All I kept thinking was I have to get out as fast as I can,” he said.
It was only when he jumped onto the platform that Mr Arora realised what was happening. The next thing he knew was running towards the ladies’ compartment suspended mid-air to help the frantic women get down. “A couple of us just went running to help the women. I thought the worst had happened but luckily, they seemed to have escaped with a few bruises,” he said.
The lemonade vendor said he had never imagined in the 30 years he had been travelling from Khar to Churchgate that he would be one of the many in accidents he had read about only in the newspapers.
