#MetroDiary 38: Dropping Off/Running out

The invitation of the other train in
the same platform

I have written about the people who help us cover  the last mile in the Metro Diary 34 (https://dillimetrodiary.blogspot.com/2018/08/metrodiary-34-covering-last-mile.html). However, I realised later that I forgot mentioning the ones I see dropping the metro-commuters early in the morning. 

I used to think only men would be dropping women, like many years ago when we used to catch a rare DTC bus plying between UP and Delhi, my bus-friend used to be dropped by her father to our bus stop where we waited for the illusionary bus that appeared at its own sweet will. Minor details: I used to walk to the same stop and she lived in an apartment next to mine. There are some definite advantages of living with your parents, I guess. Oh let me qualify! A father with a car, who is even willing to drop you at a bus stop, early in the morning. But, then who does not know walking is good for health! Huh! Coming back to my commute-by- metro-days, I have realised that there is a vast difference between the first decade of the millennium and the second decade of the millennium. I only saw my bus-friends' husbands and fathers dropping them in the last decade. Whereas in this decade, I see wives dropping husbands, husbands dropping wives, fathers dropping sons/daughters (touching their feet to say bye), daughters/sons dropping fathers ( touching the feet, here too),  parents dropping school-goers, school-goers dropping office-goers, and amidst all these my rickshaw-puller drops me! Amidst that overflow of emotion, the calm transaction of Rs 20 between us is almost relaxing ;) The evenings are a different story all together (as there is much commotion on the money to be paid),  but I like to carry the calmness to the escalators which do not function 2 out of 5 days at least. DMRC is very mindful of your health. It wants you to climb up. I am waiting for a day when I will see an automated ECG machine at the top of the stairs with a sign, "Now that you have climbed up 60 steps, you are eligible to check your heart condition for free" but till then I am the only one who pats my proverbial back for climbing without panting (..too much, that is). 

In many a stations the janta rushes out to take the train standing on the other platform. Central Secretariat is one such station and so is Yamuna Bank. The latter is more interesting than the former. In the Yamuna bank metro station, you see people leaving the Vaishali train to board the Noida train. No. They are not Vaishali bound or Noida bound. Both of them are Dwarka bound. However I guess, the regular and observant metro commuters know which train will follow the other as one has to follow. After Yamuna Bank, the Blue Line has only one track. If you board the one going in front, you can reach 2 minutes earlier. The whole TWO minutes! You might find it funny and unnecessary but the crowd swells by the minute in the morning metro if you want to change in Rajiv Chowk or Central Secretariat.  In the evening however, it is a different reason. A bunch of boys rushed to the other train as it seemed more empty. They wanted to all sit together. During the festival season one could see people in the metro with shopping bags and dressed in festival clothes. I frankly expected more to ride the metro in eye catching clothes. I could not find enough. I think my timings are wrong. You can only see a sea of people rushing and rushing through the stairs to the concourse, from the concourse to the foot-bridge, and from the foot-bridge to the waiting cabs/autos/ rickshaws. No one waits to pick them up, both literally and figuratively. Well! That is what it is, for most of us, anyway!

Foot-over bridges carry a river. A river of people