How Delhi Metro Rail Changed The Way People Live In Delhi And Not Just Travel

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… 

Khan saab ki chaaye

In Delhi, whether it’s a chilly morning of January or a hot and humid afternoon of May, there are certain things which become an indispensable part of your life. Other than Delhi Metro Rail, Khan saab ki chaaye is one such indispensable thing at Mandi House, New Delhi. In the freezing winters of Delhi, holding a cup of the chaaye (tea) in your glove-less hands, not only warms up the palm of your hands, but also, with every small sip of it, your whole body, slowly and slowly, becomes warmer. Few minutes before, what was an extreme weather condition becomes a pleasant experience. Instead of shivering in the cold air wave, coming from few hundred kilometers away, lower hills of Himalayas, you start enjoying the kiss of the same cold wave on your cheeks. As one can cut diamond only with another diamond, the same warm cup of chaaye also energizes you to face the extremely warm weather of Delhi. Hot and humid wave fronts of air, locally called ‘Loo’, can do no harm to you, if you are sipping the same, “Khan saab ki chaaye”.

Certain multinational companies run their businesses on the tall claims of delivering customized products and services. For this, they use high end technology, and hire, highly skilled technocrats and management graduates from premier institutes of the world. On the other hand, in the name of technology, our khan saab uses just a stove running on kerosene oil and in the name of human resource, his only teenage son, Shameem, helps him. Unlike employees of multinational companies, Shameem never went to school; therefore, he is not even a school dropout. But, even in such an unpromising condition, Khan saab ki chaaye is one the highly customized product. You ask and he will deliver. Proportion of milk and water, quantity of sugar, quantity of ginger, duration for which the chaaye was boiled are some of the things which can bring great variation to its flavor. I, and my friends prefer “kadak chaaye”. Now, what constitutes it and how it is prepared, only Khan saab has the copyright! Moreover, if you are his regular customer, you are not even required to make an order every time you visit him, he will notice you coming from the distance itself and by the time you reach him, your customized “kadak chaaye” gets ready with the same and the well-known aroma coming from it.

Revisiting Primary Education and Corruption.

Sometime back primary education in India became a fundamental right. Correspondingly, proving education to a child up to 14 years of age became a fundamental duty of every parent. Today, education is seen in our society as a means by which any one can change his or her status in a very short span of time. In fact, in one generation itself a child with education can take his family from rags to riches, from no one to someone special. For example, P. C. Alexander became a union power secretary during the regime of Indira Gandhi, he actually spent his child hood in a village without power, our all time favorite ex-president of India A. P. J. Abdul Kalam used to sell newspapers in his school days. One can easily come across the news that a son of a vegetable seller, after clearing the civil services examination reaches to the corridors of power. These may be the specific examples, but, in general also we can easily prove that education of a child can completely transform the destination of his or her family.

However, there is a hidden monster in this. This monster lies in the fact of increasing commercialization of our education. By ‘Commercialization of Education’ I do not mean only the profit motive of private schools. These days, people measure ones education in terms of the perks one get. Salary of a graduate from IIM become news and often printed in bold and large font size. What should be a secret affair between the recruiter and the recruit actually becomes an advertisement for both. I am not against ones expectation of economical upliftment from education. But, too much obsession with this economical aspect creates distortions in society. Corruption, which is increasingly becoming a white collar crime is one such distortion.

Recent cases of corruption and misappropriation of money like in management of games, allocation of spectrum, frauds in a private multinational bank involves higher officials of the organizations. Being at higher level of organizational hierarchy, they know and understand rules and regulations very well that it is just a cake walk for them to manipulate them. These are the people who are already blessed with enough financial resources and living a life, which a common man can’t even imagine. What could be the reason behind there deviance? I can find only one reason and that is obsession for more and more money or in a single word ‘GREED’.

But, again a question comes in our mind, what could be the cause of this greed. After thinking a lot about the probable cause behind it I can figure out only one reason and that is absence of values and ethics in ones conduct in the professional affairs. Their goal of having more and more become too important that they do not care about the means they pursue to achieve them. And, I think this happens because from the childhood itself they were not given those values and ethics. They involve themselves in a rat race and even destroy their family bonds.

I believe, the problem of today's institutionalized corruption cannot be overcome without the strengthening of values and ethics from the childhood itself. By stressing on this aspect in primary education a change can be expected from within. It’s a process of developing ones persona, not just personality. And responsibility for this lies equally on schools, media and more importantly on parents. This seems to me an only solution to overcome the challenge of present day institutionalized corruption especially, in the environment of consumerism, where people live life on credit cards!

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