Metro Diaries I

The best kind of stories and the best kind of lessons that I have learnt have been on/in a public transport. The Delhi Metro is an amazing platform to just observe people and learn from them. I am a silent observer. I am jealous of people who can make small talk with anybody and everybody. I just can not. I may even come across as a creepy starer who just stares at people, but I am not. I am just observing, making mental notes or sometimes, extremely bored!

Like everybody else in the metro, I am usually on a hunt for a seat but I don't ask others to adjust in the smallest of spaces. I am guilty of sitting on the metro floor as well and to my defense, I get up the second the coach starts to get crowded. I don't eat in the metro because usually I am on a metro because I am out on a food outing :D. 


picture credits-google

So, this fine afternoon, I am in a crowded metro, I have forgotten my ear phones and am extremely bored and there is a sudden hustle bustle around. I have missed the first thirty seconds of this hustle bustle but I can make out what has happened. Lady 1 has snatched packets of chips from two kids and tells them that she will return the packets back when she will get down. Lady 2 is the mother of these two kids and she is highly offended and angered. Lady 2 argues and makes perfect sense when she says, "You could have told the kids not to eat the chips or even reprimanded them. Why did you just snatched them away?" Lady 1 is least bothered but she does say that I had warned them the moment I saw them. Lady 1 is a regular at snatching stuff from the people in the metro. She is right, you are not allowed to eat anything in the metro. It is almost like people close their ears when this gets announced inside the metro. There is a heated exchange between the two and both are convinced that they are absolutely right. I am convinced that both of them are absolutely half-right. You should not encourage your kids do do what is prohibited. But you can't even snatch packets of chips or any other food item from small kids.I was the third party, an observer. That is why I could see the two sides of the coin. I was not going to keep mum here, I went to Lady 1 and got engaged in a conversation with her. I asked her what does she say or do to the people who sit on the floor. Deep down, I was thanking my stars for never being on the same coach as her before. (I am extremely guilty). She said she usually asks the driver to kick these people out. I am just divided. If Lady 1 would have purely relied on the fact that Lady 2 and her kids will stop eating the chips once reprimanded, it wasn't going to help. I am sure no body would have listened to her and asked her to mind her business. I am sure I would'nt have listened. But snatching seems completely out of line. Also, Lady 1 has been doing this for a while now, meaning she must have started from telling people, requesting them to not eat or drink inside the metro. To not litter around.

What cheap thrill do we get out of breaking these small rules, I would like to call them rules. The mere eating in the metro or sitting on the metro floor to the driving under age or driving under influence, we have accustomed ourselves to not obeying any kind of rules and taking things casually. I know living by the rules sucks. I know it is just a metro ride and everybody is tired and if they want to sit on the floor, it is no big deal. But it is still a deal. It is prohibited and hence you ought not do it. I have learnt a lesson and I hope Lady 2 and her kids have learnt it too, the hard way sure. I also hope Lady 1 is softer in her approach. But honestly, we need to look within. The traffic rules, the rules in a school, the rules in a public transport or the unsaid rules of watching a movie in a movie theatre are there for a reason and should be followed.
So, stay happy and don't do anything that it is prohibited :)