[Reader-list] Delhi Metro: The change is showing, and how

[Ritika]

Ahhh metro is such a relief. Even if i have to stand from my place of 
work to my home...who cares...atleast i can be myself. I don't have to 
worry about who's trying to touch me and where should i be pinching him 
etc etc..

I am a regular in metro. From my home in pitampura to my work place 
till tees hazaari... it takes 20 mins and thats it.
The initial 3-4 months were extremenly irritating though. The people who 
would were new to metro ...would have similar type of conversations. 
STRANGE...but ALWAYS. It had almost become predictable.

The conversation would range from - the "tachnology" of metro...to 
expenses incurred on one glass window...to how the ac works...to how 
conveneient it has become...to whether it'll be vaible economically in 
the long run...haanji bahaai saab...metro ne dilli ko jeena sikha 
diya... hai ... everybody was a self proclaimed genius on Metro.
Interstingly i always noticed that it were only men who "always knew it 
all"...women were generally quiet...

After 6 months of regular use of metro, i am seeing a decline in the 
'inquisitive' type of conversations. They have almost died down (atleast 
the time during which i travel). Men and women look so bored...its not 
even funny.

The conversations are now limited to ... mota lalas who have to get down 
for sadar bazaar....at best shout at heir mundus over phone for not 
opening the shops on time...the lawyers are fun to listen to...some 
stray people ask for legal advice...some get..some don't...
Others still keep looking bored

SO far the metro is clean. people have not yet spat in it, its 
comfy...for me.

However, every time i heave a sigh of relief..i remember a colleague who 
did his research on people displaced during metro....and wonder..

cheers
ritika








Shivam wrote:
> Here is a very basic, indifferent newspaper feature on something that
> the papers have not been documenting: the vast cultural change that
> the Delhi Metro will bring about in the daily life of Delhi.
> Shivam
> 
> 
> 
>   Delhi Metro: The change is showing, and how 
> 
>   Chetan Chauhan
>   Hindustan Times | New Delhi, October 11 
>   http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/5922_1051129,0015002200000001.htm
> 
>  
> Shefali Gupta, a student of Laxmibai College in Ashok Vihar, Umesh
> Aggarwal, an Azad Market-based wholesale trader and Ushfak Amin, a
> worker in Ballimaran, have little in common, except for the fact that
> the Metro has changed their lives.
> 
> Shefali no longer has to suffer a private bus. She takes the Metro
> from Pitampura till Keshavpuram. "It is the most comfortable change in
> my life. There are no lewd comments or people brushing against you,"
> she says, while returning from her college.
> 
> It used to take Umesh over an hour to reach his shop from his home in
> sector-9 Rohini. "Time was not the only worrying factor. The entire
> route used to be congested and the drive used to be tiring," he says.
> Now, he reaches Azad Market in half-an-hour and that too without any
> hassles. "I drive a couple of kilometres to reach Rohini-West metro
> station and park my car there," he says.
> 
> For Ushfak, his daily cycle journey is a thing of the past. And he is
> not alone. "Many prefer Metro over the cycle even though it is a
> costly affair," he says. All this is visible on the first metro
> corridor between Shahdara and Rithala within a year of the line
> becoming operational.
> 
> Delhi Metro Rail Corporation officials say they intend to bring in
> discipline and make people believe that metro will be the city's
> lifeline. "Security guards will be reduced once riders get accustomed
> to the system," an official said.
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