The terror attacks, it was clear, had blasted a hole in the dam holding back Mumbai's reservoir of woes. While the protesters seemed to be reacting to a tragedy that had left at least 164 people dead and 308 injured, they were really venting the frustrations of having to cope with life in a city with an infrastructure so stretched that simply getting to work and back is an ordeal. At peak hour, the commuter trains - which carry six million people each day - are packed with up to 5,000 commuters, even though they're built for 1,800. Every day, an average of 11 people die on the railway system, either because they fall off the trains or because they're hit by passing locomotives as they cross the tracks.
Mumbai did not have a reservoir of woes.