The CISF Jawan at the entrance does the routine checking lest I am carrying some explosive or material that I should not be taking along. But before I present my self for the checking, my bag has to go through the black X-ray machine. I collect it at the other end.
Huffing and puffing I reach the platform and wait for the train to come. It comes chugging, neat and clean, with beauty and grace. I hop on like everyone else does, making sure, when looking for a suitable seat that I don’t sit on the one reserved for ladies or senior citizens. No body likes to be asked to get up from a reserved seat and so everyone plays safe.
As the metro train makes its way from one station to another, people come and people go. The door opens and in comes a gush of cold wind and with it come people, their scents, smells, and most importantly their mobile phones. Every shape, type and make. Some use them to play games, others to listen to music, and some others to irritate others, with their cheap headphones, which blast music to their neighbours’ ears.
There is also a tribe of book worms you’ll find in Delhi Metro, who put their nose deep down in a book oblivious of the goings on around them. It seems a good ploy, if you want to avoid someone or sitting on a seat from which you may be asked to get up.
Young girls are noisy, talkative and blurt out whatever they feel. Ladies and men as compared, look somber and busy in their ever tangled life. The only ones who look happy are the young lads, who either are in college or just started working. They laugh, make fun of each other and move on. People like me look at them with envy. How can someone be so cool and carefree?
One station after another, I hear the announcements being made – “The next station is Karol Bagh. Doors will open to the left.” And so on. What will happen if the announcer misses a station? But I have never seen that happening. I see the landscape changing every now and then. Neatly arranged houses and open spaces in Dwarka give way to buildings jostling for space in Uttam Nagar. The big vermillion colour statue of Lord Hanuman and the Videocon building tells me I am close to Rajiv Chowk.
It is not uncommon to see people waiting in queues at Rajiv Chowk, the junction, from where one changes a train to Old Delhi or New Delhi Railway Station. It looks crowded no matter which day and what time of the day you travel. People are always going somewhere. It also presents a window of opportunity for getting a seat for passengers standing for a long time inside the train. As I can see a large number of people board and de-board at Rajiv Chowk. It looks as if a sea of people has just been released from a confinement.
For a city, which recently completed 100 years as the capital city of India, Delhi Metro is indeed a matter of pride. Not just because, it is there for you almost 18 hours a day every day but more so for being an efficient mode of transport, which is clean and runs on time most of the times.
