On May 5, as women commuters boarded their ‘Ladies Dabba’, little would they have realised that it was 20 years to the day since the world’s first ladies special started, on the Churchgate-Virar sector of the Western Railway. An instant hit, soon the Central Railway introduced a similar service, on July 1, between CST and Kalyan. Today, these services are second home, chill zone and therapy session, all rolled into one.

Women commuters have a parallel life on the local train