Metro starts again

The metro journey starts with a spree this season because now it’s the place, where I spend about four hours of my life everyday. Trust me sometimes you feel like driving it yourself because the metro follows the speed of a snail. But you need to control your emotions and follow the 10 kmph motion. I travel end to end of the metro and cross three states daily. I must say it’s tiring but I’ m adapting to it. Now I’ am no longer a one month intern but a trainee for six months. So this is for sure that Metro will be there with me till 2012 and probably for more time. It has been a month now and I have experienced a change in my friend Metro. It is wisely said that people change with time but now I think Metro is no longer a non-living thing. It is running in the heart of the country and probably represents the vein of it. About lakhs of people travel everyday in metro, back and forth. The metaphor for ladies compartment would be as short as ‘head over heels’ and ‘heels over heels’ and also ‘head over head’ and sometimes…I think I should just stop using my head now because I know you can Imagine. If I were a History teacher, I would love to take my students to junctions like Rajiv Chowk and Central secretariat so that they understand the chapter of Jalliawalla Bagh easily. Adding to this, even if I was a science teacher these places would have been best place to teach my students about mass, volume and principles of buoyancy. If you closely look at this you’ll always find something in the Metro that will give you a smile on your face. A little kid, some pep talk f girls and some funnily dressed people. When you going towards HUDA City Centre, you’ll realize the amount of people who want to board the train from Rajiv Chowk behaving indifferently. 70% of them would be underestimating their size and will try to pick some pixel in the Metro and when the doors will be closed they’’ smile in relief and think twice to look at the people who missed the chance to fit in. They fear of getting an omen from someone right in the morning, spoiling the rest of their day! It’s summers and it’s a challenge to travel in a public transport. You’ll meet some sweat machine and some bad breaths. But all you have to learn is the power to control your breath or spray a deodorant in case you have it. In a crowded Metro one more thing than odors is people wearing irritating embroideries, which pricks you as it passes by. With this even the heavy bags that punches you at all the crucial places and then you have to either pass a fake smile or return a frown. You might have met those stinky hair oil people and some frizzy curly ones too that poke you whenever they are around. To save yourself from all this atyaachar, just tap them and ask them to do something or just do something yourself –get out of there!

Metro my friend is an invention in Delhi which makes us patient and ‘patient.’ So which patient you would want to be? J

Life in a Metro

seems am missing the metro experience. It's been so long that I have used the public transport. Life in a Metro train never seemed so enticing. I think I miss the crowd, I think miss the misses and the misters who never had a clue why they are pushing people. I wonder what makes the metro so popular, probably the AC? or it might be the Pollution free factor? It might be an emotional quotient or the Dilli factor...
My love for Metro would probably be a love of a silent observer standing with headphones on but not listening to music but listening to the girls talking about how weird is their professor or hearing the ladies talking about how the other girl at office is trying to act smart or mushy talks in a long distance relationship. LDRs are actually a challenge, if you survive it, you are actually made for each other. Well Metro is something which I would love to travel everyday and have a time to look at the world around me and make me realize that there are so many different kinds of minds in the world, so even if I act weird someday, I walk into the metro and I see a weirder person sitting next to me and feel good about myself. I have been so attached with metro that one day when I was feeling all worn out and felt that when I'll be happy again, I heard my friend through the loudspeaker saying,"There will be a short delay to this service. Please bare with us" and I felt better again. Life's goes on a buffer mode on a metro and turns the duffer like me into a tougher person. That's why it is "Meri Dilli Meri Metro"

Egos on boggies

As I was discussing with one of my sophisticated friends who hates to travel in metro, a debate sparked. The topic was women shouldn’t be given so many leverages if they talk about equality. I agree on the topic of equality totally. There are many people in the world who have written thousands of books on this philosophy of which gender is God’s favorite and which is not. But keeping that aside the thunder inside today’s generation is worth amending those old philosophies. We have come to a time where you need an extra bogie for ladies and you have fights on egos why they are there. My sophisticated friend said if there are already fixed seats for the ladies why would they need an extra bogie. I said be calm my friend, there are ladies around. And when they get angry they prefer speaking from souls (I mean shoe souls). I just said, imagine your self sitting on the seat and there is a guy standing who is almost leaning in front of you because of the crowd. The train starts turning, applying breaks. So you see a guy in front of you swinging here and there. So being a woman all you have to do is to look down and all around but not in front just because you have to ignore his masculinity. Some of them make full use of their weapons to have the pleasure of their journey. Now if in that case if we have a little space to look around without balls hanging in front of us we have the right! Isn’t it ladies!!!!

Can you Handle this?

His aim is clear and sorted. Distractions don’t bother him. He stares at you seamlessly! You can see him from the corner of your eye and then that happens what he’s waiting for. THE BREAKS!!!!! And you loose all control and you sway along the crowd leaving behind the bar you were holding. And when you try to gather your senses you see that monster with a devilish grin with his hand on your bar handle, celebrating what he has conquered. And that too in the crowded metro in Delhi where if there are no support you’ll bounce like a jelly!

When the whole Delhi gets into it

The rise of Delhi’s census gets a proof when you come across some people who say that it’s their first time. I just wonder if the whole Delhi climbs up the metro, what it would be like…
1. That day metro would have oxygen cylinders (and air fresheners of course. Thanks to the hot and spicy cuisine of north India and some of our hairy mates).
2. For Boarding and de-boarding people would also use emergency exit.
3. With so much crowd couples would spend a lovable time in the metro CLOSE to each other, rather than in Public Parks and monuments. (Archeology department would be quite happy that day)
4. People would tie dupattas on the handles to stand with a support.
5. The amount of pick pockets would make the burglars richer than people in the reality shows. 6. The untouchability stigma would just disappear else you’ll be thrown out.
7. People would become coolies as there would be no place to keep the luggage. People will keep on bumping their heads on the emergency button and giving fines (DMRC would earn huge profits. Maybe the amount collected can rebuilt new routes, so one day you will have the metro at your doorstep! Too dreamy…chuck it!)
8. You can imagine slumber fights going on making waves all across the bogies with people pushing, kicking, and beating each other.
9. The cupid will get extra arrows and will throw them all across, as some of the love stories would definitely build up in the metro with things falling (I mean books and bags here you dirty fellow) here and there. And it usually starts with ‘may I help you’ and then end up asking for names and the rest of the work is done by adding the person facebook.
10. People will get lost in the train. It will become Kumbh Mela part II. Movies will have dialogues, “main apne bhai se metro mein bichada tha”
11. While some people will meet their old pals and relatives. You might bump into the irritating professor from college on whom you played the wackiest pranks.
12. And if by chance the metro would stop for some reason then…it’s upto your imagination.

Well there are endless things which I can add to this list but I have miles to go before I leap safely in my daily metro travel!

The thinking lady

With the overcrowding metros, people sometimes loose all control while boarding and de boarding. After climbing up they just want to push in themselves, stepping over others foot, pushing in their bags which usually scratch away some part of your skin. Actually the situation gives no mercy to anyone because everyone is pushing everyone making way in nowhere. Sometimes you can’t even move a little. And when you are standing, you have to look for the best area. So the popular spots are the area next to the gate and the area provided for the wheel chair. And it is obviously understood by our intelligent Dellites that a person with crutches has no space in the metro, so why not just spread out! While standing in the same area, I was taking rest on the window(it is the best way to rest in the metro, the second best are the poles. but sometimes they get weird with too many breaks as you look like a pole dancer swinging alon the pole). During the journey at some station a lady climbed in. An ordinary looking lady, probably a housewife who has a busy life. Despite it was just 9 a.m she looked pale and tired. She rested her head on the pole which I was holding and I could feel her warm breath on my hand. With her breath I could also sense her weakness and the irritation she had in her mind. I was keen on talking to her so that she relaxes for a while. I looked at her face again and again and passed a smile (this is the way you usually start a conversation in the metro). But she was swimming in her own sea of thoughts and problems which made her opt for a job in this condition. The metro was so crowded that the regular pushes were experienced by both of us and we were saving ourselves in falling on each other. After a while it even started irritating me and for her, it was much worse! For once I thought she’ll burst out with tear in her eyes. Suddenly at Chattarpur station the crowd started moving out. There was some movement on the seating area where we were standing. This meant that some seat is going to be empty soon and you’ll find all the eyes on it. It sometimes reminds me of the musical chair, the game which we used to play during picnics. As the train stopped she pushed herself in carefully to opt for the seat. But she was late. A fat middle aged woman sat on the seat and turned on her headphones so that no one accuses her of grabbing on to their aim. Disappointment reflected on her face. And for the first time I saw that lady properly from top to bottom. She was wearing a woolen Kashmiri kurta and salwar, typically found in all middle class Indian homes. And then I noticed her bulged stomach and I looked at her face again. For the first time our eyes met and now everything became crystal clear. Now I could call her an acquaintaince because only both of us knew how much she was looking forward to sit. But all in vain! She must be 3-4 months pregnant and thus she looked tired. She had to work because she was going to be a young mom and things have to be settled before the younger one joins them. She had no option than to do a job and feel weaker day by day. I offered her to stand where I was standing at much comfortable place than she was. When I talked to her (for the first time, it always needs some sip of courage and a gulp to talk to some serious people in metro) people noticed her and as she was stepping forward to replace me, a girl got up to offer her seat. I looked at the girl and smiled to thank her for what she did. The lady also gave a little smile and just after that withdrew it and again started sailing. I wonder what she was thinking? Was it about her husband or her family?or was it about some loans or was she actually having some health issues. I just knew she had no charm of a pregnant woman and I was just guessing why she didn’t have any.
But she made me realize that a woman has so much power, she has the will to stand even while holding a delicate life in her womb. She has the power to withstand the most difficult situations in her life and be there for her family’s happiness. She’ll love, she’ll care and she’ll swim all the day long to think of an idea which could make her family more happy and comfortable. I hope to see her again soon but this time with a smile and a new identity of a mother.

Bheedh bhadaaka

As the Train enters the platform people start counting on the number of people in front of them in the queue. People always wonder whether ever they’ll get a seat in the metro.this thought worries people like me who have to travel all the way from one end to the other. But in case you are standing at the front, all your wishes are granted. People would be looking at you with those wishful eyes and you’ll be holding the royal smirk. But when you are at C.P station you just hope to be somewhere in between...else you will recall the newton’s laws and you’ll understand that they are not favouring. Apart from being scientific, artistically too the placerment of people in the full metro is amazing to see. You will see the girlfriend and boyfriends always in the corner. If you don’t see them, they’ll reach there anyhow after two stations. Besides the corner, the middle part is mostly full of children holding on to the poles and running and swinging along and sometimes falling too. My mothers worries about them more than their mothers. Once she scolded a mom of a 2 year old who had a humpty dumpty fall. Imagine what could be my reaction. (it was like--- ! O ! ? ) when you are sitting you have no other option then to look outside or ur phone or your book or dnt know maybe the empty spaces. But never try to look at the people who are standing (untill and unless they are good looking) else they’ll expect you to pick up their hot lunch boxes and the oil will pour all over you. But sometimes when you have space you can always try to hold something, basic courtsey and the smile from them may make your day. This is life and this is the smiling life in a metro!