Around seven years before, going to Delhi with your friends was a heinous crime against your own body. During those days, every time i visited Delhi, headache in the evening while returning to home, was a kind of return gift, from the city. This used to happen because of the high level of air pollution, which was beyond the filtering capabilities of my lungs! But, these days, the use of CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) as a fuel to fuel public transport and more importantly year on year increasing network of Delhi Metro Rail has changed everything. Other than helping people to "migrate locally" (and on daily basis) our Delhi Metro Rail or simply 'METRO' (as any dilliwala calls it) has become an integral and indispensable part of life. In this post, i will try to find out, how metro has changed the way people live and not just travel in India's capital called Dilli.
World over, rail is used as a mass transit system, especially in big, densely populated and concrete jungles. In London, it is called ‘tube’; in New York it is called ‘subway’; in Delhi, keeping things simple it is called ‘metro’. One thing which you will easily notice about metro, in contrast to any public place in India is that it’s very clean and well maintained. I believe, this makes us realize that, we Indians, also have the desire and ability to have hygienic surroundings, neither, we are born polluters nor we have lower hygienic standards, when compared to the natives of developed nations.
Moreover, while exploring metro, you will find that all the stations have some degree of both common and unique architectural design. Common, because on a particular line, all the stations have similar architectural design and unique because different lines have different architecturally designed stations. Certain important stations (important in respect of the number of people they are serving and their geographical location in the city) are actually museums in themselves. For example, Barakhamba station shows “men at work” with the help of ceramic tiles on its more than three stories high walls, INA station shows various textural designs, making you feel as if you are witnessing creations by M. F. Husain. This was a glimpse of internal beauty of stations, externally also, numerous stations provide phenomenal natural view. For example, in the evening, at Mayur Vihar Phase-I metro station, facing towards bank of Yammuna, you can mesmerise yourself with the exceptionally beautiful falling sun behind the farming lands. The sweet warmness of this falling sun, takes away all the tiredness, stress, and worries. Going home and taking a deep sleep seems like a waste of time, as you feel re-energized and fresh. Similarly, when you are not at peace with yourself and need some moments of aloofness, standing at Pragati Maidan metro station, and quietly watching Indian Railways running around 2 kms. away from you, makes you feel that you are out of the sucking life of the city, which is also about running in hurry. Watching those Indian Railway trains running in hurry from a distance makes you feel happy because at least for the time being you are not a part of that hurries and just a quiet observer, observing from a distance.
Metro, is not only meant for observers or loners. Observer and loner are connected in the sense that most of the time observers are also loners, as they are travelling alone they have nothing to do, except making observations! In fact, if you are a lone traveller in metro, there is high degree of chances that you will find a companion. One of my very close friend narrated me his love story, in which metro was the linchpin. The story goes like this…
After a long weekend, it was a usual Monday morning, paucity of time is a basic feature of Monday mornings. Lots of things are to be done while pushing your body from a relaxed mode to working on a war footing. Other than reaching late to your work place, heavy traffic jam in the way is something that, if not happen, one doesn’t get a feel that it’s again a Monday morning and hell lot of days are left for weekend, when you’ll again get a chance to freak out with your friends. In such scenario, meeting someone, who’ll one day come so close to you that even your friends will take a second place in your life is rather grim. But, the beauty of life lies in the fact that, it does not necessarily follow a predictable and obvious path, God always bring twists and turns. Things do happen unexpectedly and often, in the most unexpected circumstances.
On a similar Monday morning, Jai reached Anand Vihar Metro station ten minutes late from his usual timings because of the heavy traffic on the road leading to the metro station. Often, daily commuters literally run to catch the metro after security check up at the entrance of the station and swapping their travelling cards. Seeing other people running to catch the metro, Jai also tended to run, even though like every daily commuter, he also knew that metro is available at a frequency of five minutes. Reaching the platform with swollen heart beats and some sweet on his forehead, Jai, read the display on the platform showing, next train is after fifteen minutes. It seems Monday mornings also affects metro, as it was running out of gear. Jai, put his hand in his denim jeans to take out the handkerchief to wipe off the sweet. But, thanks to the hurries of same Monday mornings, he forgot to keep the handkerchief.
Standing for fifteen minutes, while waiting for a metro, gave him the room to take out dailies from his heavy bag. For Jai, reading newspaper is a daily ritual, without which it was hard to digest breakfast. He took off the heavy bag from his shoulders and while taking out the newspaper he got a feeling that someone in the crowd was staring at him, the crowd, which was eagerly waiting for the metro like a hungry lion waiting quietly but with complete vigilance for an attack! Responding to the feeling, Jai paused and looked back to find out, who the person is? For him, it was an unknown face, like everyone was, in the crowd. But, the beautiful eyes with a spark in them differentiated the face from the dull and tired faces around. Moreover, unlike others, the eyes, instead of looking for metro, which was yet to arrive, were actually staring at him without a single blink. Jai felt a bit uncomfortable because of the stare and showing ignorance, he continued to take out the newspaper from his bag. Hiding his face behind the newspaper, he tried to concentrate on the newspaper.
Few minutes later …
Will soon write further.
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