Keeping Company

I have been using the metro to get to work every day for two years now. Hopping to the station 100 metres away from home is the most convenient thing one could imagine for travelling to the dreadful Gurgaon land. For most part I have travelled alone. Spotting Lynn or Akash is rare. So is managing to coordinate with Vidha. And anyway I like my space, my alone time during commutes. But there are some people who are giving you company during the ride anyway. Make that many. Some manage to catch your attention though. Here are some people that I remember. I don't know any of them. But I know quite a bit about some of them. It's amusing. 

In no particular order:

Man with the funny bag 

Pretty decent to look at. One of those faces that you notice in a crowd. Also because he must be about six feet tall. But his bag! That weird, shiny thing with the Swedish flag  in B/W. Very odd!

Fat lady in cotton saris and big bindi

I saw her every other day. She used to get on from Hauz Khas, almost always running late. She was a lawyer. After a few weeks of noticing each other, we even started acknowledging each other. Then one day she disappeared. Or maybe I got too irregular with my timing and spot in the train. 

The polite sardar

Once he touched/poked me by mistake. His apology was one of the most genuine ever.

Woman with rebonded hair

Bitch! She copied my fourth coach, second door strategy, and then competed with me only! She is one of those people whom you dislike from the moment you first look at their face.

Hot guy

I have written about him in detail here. Hottie! :P

Man who gave his seat

I don’t remember his face. But I can never forget that he got up much before his station, and not once made eye contact or gestured that he was vacating the seat for me. Was rather sweet! 

The two fair-skinned, curly hair women 

They looked amazingly similar. One was a consultant, probably at KPMG. The other was with a market research firm and always travelled in a large group. The latter was quite pleasant. She often ate fruits in the evening. But I always got confused between the two. 

There was another such pair of similar-looking women. Again, one was the harmless type, and the other one was loud and annoying to look at.

Lady who noticed my bandage

I was standing comfortably even though I had bandage around my left foot. Nobody gives you their seat in a crowded train. Especially in the women’s coach. But she noticed me and offered her seat.

The Rites bitch

Her expressions screamed of ‘judgmental bully’. Hated her to the extent that I had started believing that my day would go bad if I saw her in the morning train. 

The sad lady

I think she has some hormones troubling her. She looks different. And sad. She takes the late evening train from Saket. I see her almost every time I am returning late from office.

The one obsessed with animal print

No connect with this one, but she was always decked up, wearing animal print, bling makeup, last season’s ‘cool’ hairdo, and had two chiclets on her either side.

There are many more such people I know of. Like the Jat woman who starts from HUDA, wears very tight clothes, has a husky (manly) voice, and is always ready to pick a fight. Or the old man who gets on from AIIMS and goes straight to fight for a seat. Many like them!

There are so many faces I see every day that every new person I meet looks familiar. And yet everyone is a stranger. It is actually a little irritating to not be able to place people.  

There are days when I wish I didn't have any of these people around and feel that driving down is better. But then I think about the rage that I get into while on the road, and feel that blocking the noise out with some Porcupine Tree is a better option. It is! And there is always the option of taking the next train. Or the one after. :)

My Delhi Metro Muses

I do not think I want 80 work hour weeks, but a 20-something hours week plus 2 more similar days have made life quite a drone. And therefore...

1. Firstly, yes, it is called a train.

2. I don’t know why DMRC is trying to cut costs by not keeping the air conditioners at stations on this season. Aren’t they making enough thanks to the millions who use the trains everyday?

3. The woman who thinks she has an ass small enough to fit in a space where a woman half her size was sitting earlier is quite funny.

4. The embarrassment that the same woman goes through when her ass doesn’t fit is even more fun to witness. :P

5. The people pushing their way through to that half a seat are the evils that I would like to wish away.

6. The woman who boarded the train over an hour ago, had a nice sleep, and is now getting ‘ready’ for work is entertaining. Eye makeup, hair brush, et al – everything is there in the bag.

7. Woman who fails to understand the concept of personal space. If a train is crowded, she will not keep her bag under the seat. She will make sure she is carrying a big bag or multiple bags. And then irritate all others around her.

8. The category of women who carry bags which are bigger in width than in length do not seem to have discovered yet in life that their bag pokes the life out of the person standing behind them.

9. The ones who are too short to hold on to the handles above – them, I sympathise with. I didn’t say I like them crowding the space around the doors!

10. This one’s more of a unisex phenomenon – people not realizing that their earphones are behaving like Dolby Digital speakers, not earphones. Of course, nobody around them can figure the song that they are listening to – it’s just an endless cacophony of annoying beats.

11. Poor women who try to entertain their infant/kid in hazaar ways over 30 minutes.

12. Oh, the men who have the nerve to voice opinions like, “women have the 1st coach of the train reserved and thus should not enter the other coaches”!

13. The men who gape at you endlessly – because you are travelling in their coach. Or maybe just because they are m*&^%$fu^&*ng bastards!