A busy Monday, and you need to get to a destination, lets say A. An obvious choice of travel, the Metro. The Metro in question, the travel lifeline of erstwhile Delhi. Welcome home to the Delhi Metro, and the package-deal junta who travel by it on a daily basis, with not so much a glance at the fellow traveller next to him. And if you take five minutes out of your rush-to-get to A-time, you can actually notice patterns in the way the metro bound population moves, or not moves. My take:
-Superfast : I need to get going asap, dont have a minute to waste - A simple rule to keep in mind while taking the tube is that you can only get somewhere as fast as the metro does, and the latter is compassionate enough to wait for most people stationed for it. If not, there's always another one barely arriving at a five minute interval. But our folks here bluntly push their way to board the train, before the disembarking people are completely through. And yes, this is irrespective of the availability of seats, which could have been the lollipop on bait.
-Sluggish : I have a boss who's either supremely understanding or doesn't care about my being late- As a stark contrast to the above, these people have all the time in the world - they don't attempt to move faster by a cm/hr at the sight of a train, at the announcement of it, or upon de-boarding it to get to their destination.
-Stationary : I am pissed by the blistering heat outside, station cooling is a relief/lets catch up for a chat at the station : Yeah, these are the people who remain permanently seated at the platform. At any point of time they have absolutely no desire to rise up and make their way to the train that has come in. They're chatting away, often animatedly, often otherwise, train be damned. Serious envy targets of category 1, provided the latter have the time to look.
-Ultimate entropy, the brownian motion :My kids were blowing my brains out, thought a train ride would help - yelling, screeching little ones, throwing tantrums, right, centre, and mom's in a brownian motion act to pacify. Threats, candies, clucking noises fall on deaf ears, as these kitten make tears. Sympathetic co-passengers cast a look, alternatingly at the terrorist kid and the sheepish mother, thanking their lucky stars for not being in her shoes. Relief finally comes, when she disembarks with the kid(s), ending everyone's agony.
I'm sure I'm missing quite a few here, will be more watchful on my next metro yatra...:)
-Superfast : I need to get going asap, dont have a minute to waste - A simple rule to keep in mind while taking the tube is that you can only get somewhere as fast as the metro does, and the latter is compassionate enough to wait for most people stationed for it. If not, there's always another one barely arriving at a five minute interval. But our folks here bluntly push their way to board the train, before the disembarking people are completely through. And yes, this is irrespective of the availability of seats, which could have been the lollipop on bait.
-Sluggish : I have a boss who's either supremely understanding or doesn't care about my being late- As a stark contrast to the above, these people have all the time in the world - they don't attempt to move faster by a cm/hr at the sight of a train, at the announcement of it, or upon de-boarding it to get to their destination.
-Stationary : I am pissed by the blistering heat outside, station cooling is a relief/lets catch up for a chat at the station : Yeah, these are the people who remain permanently seated at the platform. At any point of time they have absolutely no desire to rise up and make their way to the train that has come in. They're chatting away, often animatedly, often otherwise, train be damned. Serious envy targets of category 1, provided the latter have the time to look.
-Ultimate entropy, the brownian motion :My kids were blowing my brains out, thought a train ride would help - yelling, screeching little ones, throwing tantrums, right, centre, and mom's in a brownian motion act to pacify. Threats, candies, clucking noises fall on deaf ears, as these kitten make tears. Sympathetic co-passengers cast a look, alternatingly at the terrorist kid and the sheepish mother, thanking their lucky stars for not being in her shoes. Relief finally comes, when she disembarks with the kid(s), ending everyone's agony.
I'm sure I'm missing quite a few here, will be more watchful on my next metro yatra...:)
