Life In A Metro - The Train I Am On...

If you miss the train I am on
You will know that I have gone
You can hear the whistle blow... a hundred miles

Life in a metro - Delhi for me, not Mumbai, can be a real task - especially for a single girl. Having a female chief minister here does not help, or so it seems! Who hasn't heard of the horrors of Delhi when it comes to girls in the city, although I would like to believe things are changing (that's the Saggitarian in me! :P)

The Metro in this metro has been a boon for the city goers... well mostly. Having a sister live in Rohini and an office in Sarita Vihar, has made me a very frequent traveler of the Delhi Metro, though not daily. Thank God for that! The network is expanding and making things easier for the public.

It was a crowded experience, but it was easier than the other options available. Besides crowd is something that we cannot do without having 1.20 Billion people in the country!

Few months ago the Metro converted the first coach of each train into the "Pink Brigade" - the Ladies Compartment. We have heard or seen incidents of female officers punishing the bravadoes who have tried to refute the government edict of allowing no males in the Ladies Coach on the metro.

The first time I traveled in the Ladies Coach on the metro, it was such a relief. There were spaces everywhere to see. Though I did not get on the train at the starting stop I had my pick of seats! A heaven in a metro in those days! After taking the corner seat near the door, I chanced a look at the connecting coach.

Over-crowded! Over-filled! Brimming with guys hanging on top of each other. This was the fate I had been expecting for me, but thanks to the decree of an Only Ladies Coach, I had my choice of seat and some more empty beside me. While I shot sympathetic looks at the guys in the adjoining coach, they were throwing resentful glances at me and my fellow travelers in this female haven. I even heard few of them murmuring the point of such a prejudiced approach favoring the fairer sex. And I felt a little guilty for the joys of being a woman.

But that feeling lasted just a few moments as I thought back to my travels and travails before this blissful day. If a guy harassed a lady, these guys would not protest that shameful action or these guys would not support the lady if she gathered the courage to protest on her own. They would just snigger and pass comments or at best be silent onlookers. These incidents still happen in the DTC buses. Sadly we cannot have a Ladies Coach there. And guys in Delhi are shameful enough to sit on ladies seats in buses and not stand up when they see a lady standing. Chivalry is a lost concept here. And then there would be the "road chaap romeos" who make the traveling experience in buses hell!

And so I felt vindicated. Good that they had no seats now! Should have thought better than to stay silent at best, eve-tease at worst! Sorry dudes, its the turn of the dudettes to ride the gravy train! :-)





On a side note:
Often I see females travelling with males in the metro. Some of these females are not sensitive enough (an appalling quality in the fairer sex, if there ever was any!) They insist their male companions to sit out with them in the ladies compartment!

Where is your sense of responsibility, my dear lady? No matter how well you know the guy or how much you are ready to vouch that he is the epitome of sainthood, next only to sweet Jesus... do you really think it is right to flaunt the rules? When you do it once, how can you expect others to follow any? And why do you think just because you are comfortable with your travelling companion to be with you in the same compartment for a less than 30 min ride, why would the female standing next to you be as comfortable?

Tell me my dear girl, would you be comfortable if the tables were turned and some other female would ask her male friend to travel in the female compartment while you didn't have any around? Or would you sit in your ladies seat and shoot daggers at both the male agreeing to disobey the rule and the female encouraging such blatant disrespect of authority?

It would serve you right, if the CISF authorities dedicated to the metro would catch your male friend and make him a "murga" and do "uthak-baithak".

An insulting sit-up would at least shame him into not going against the rules, if not shame you!