Metro Diaries # 3

I can't just help it. I know I pledged not to write on my Metro stories anymore, considering it's becoming a part of my daily conversations as well as my posts, but it's just such a big part of my life, I thought it deserves an honorary place (in the form of a separate post!). It's going to be a story within an article. Heard of it before? Don't even think, you wouldn't have, I just invented it (and if by any chance you have, that plagiarist has superpowers and stole my future thoughts! :P).

                                                         Something typically new!

Right, so I began my day with the usual speed (I swear I could win a marathon, if I ever got around to running in a real one, that is), getting into a Metro and being a victim (again) to shameless staring by middle aged aunties. I hadn't got a newspaper or any magazine with me (damn!) so I passed my time looking out the windows. And Thank God for that; I was so lost in my thoughts that I realized I had to get down when I looked at the signboard!

After classes I had to go for college work to some other part of the city. (We do SUCH hardwork which totally goes unnoticed; I really hate those shirkers who show up confidently when it's time to receive credits.) I usually don't mind travelling for (useless) work, BUT my bestie wasn't feeling well and I wasn't so happy going without her! (Apoorva- get back on your feet in no time! I miss our trips, however useless they might be :P). Anyway, the work was completed and none of the other fellows in the group was going the same way that I was. I wasn't too worried, it's only the Metro, right? I could find my way!

I looked up the map and found that I was on the red line, I had to take a train to one of the central points and find the right green line. Then board the right train and enter another major station that would take me to my own blue line. And to think someone like me was to undertake that journey on her own, someone with whom God got really generous while putting the characteristic of klutziness! Whoa! I boarded the train and found myself glancing at the map at every station while ignoring every other girl/woman/oldie there. I have no clue what gives people the right to shamelessly stare at strangers up and down! I don't even know why I write it here, some people just-don't-get-it!

Anyway, I hopped out on reaching the central station and followed the crowd, keeping both eyes open for signboards, something unusual for me. I was pleasantly surprised to find colored paw shaped marks to guide commuters to the right platform. It took me a while though, to register that I must be looking like a total nutcase to be walking the way some kids do, stepping exactly over the paw marks which are quite wide apart for normal humans! I quickly curtailed my steps and walked 'normally' towards one of the platforms, coming out of my mindless reverie. It was such a confusing place, two platforms going towards where I had to go! Thankfully, Shivani called at that moment (a friend who wore a hoodie that day and we had casually dumped stuff like pen caps and paper boats in it. She called to say she had found out- on reaching home! :P Hey Shivani! Shruti, Sunmeet and Apoorva were in on the joke too!). That's when I somehow actually used my brain and asked her if I was standing at the right place (since she frequents that station). I was guided to another platform, the one opposite to where I was originally standing.

A train rolled in and I was told I could take a 'direct' one instead of getting on this, due to which I would have to change from the very next station. It was so irritating! The train had been standing there, gleaming proudly in contrast to my weary state, for whole 3.5 minutes (I calculated) and didn't move an inch. People kept coming and boarding, as if it's the last train ever. I decided to forget my friend's advice and got on it, pretending to read signs and maps, just in case I would have looked stupid (which I most certainly would have) standing in front of the train with open doors, not getting in. After two more minutes it finally started and I thought it would do better if I somehow got on to the tracks and gave it a push! It was THAT slow! But it was one of the new models and I had something new to notice. It wasn't very interesting though, so I gazed out of the windows and saw a weird collection of city life zooming underneath.

I stepped out at the next station and it seemed as if the whole world had an invitation to where I had to go! Trying to adjust my small self among the rushing horde of super enthusiastic people (wouldn't they ever go a bit slow???) I simply walked with the crowd. Not that I had any choice, either. I would have found myself in a hospital ward with broken bones had I tried to go against them. I followed them all along a huge bridge, then turning to the right platform (I'm already getting better at it!). I saw people crowding around something and I was beginning to think something might be seriously wrong, when I saw they were preparing to board the elevator! I never use elevators. They're for the Old and Physically Challenged, and I'm neither. But nor were those people. I guess they can't read. Anyway, I skipped up the stairs and finally! Finally I got onto my own beloved Blue line, and felt the familiar warmth and safety. (No, I don't actually 'feel' anything for a train. If you're smart enough, you wouldn't even have thought about it). The oh so lovely train (still don't think) sped through the familiar tracks and the lovely stations (OK, that's enough. Control) and I even managed to grab a seat! Though that's a different matter it was only 45.50 seconds that I had placed myself there when an old lady found her way to me. (It's so creepy to think old ladies always find ME among the huge crowd!). I stood waiting and finally, happily de-boarded at my station, dashing through the gates, eager to get home. 

Tiring as it was, the experience certainly had a lot to teach me. For instance, I know sometimes I can NOT follow my friend's directions and still do well ;). And contrary to what I thought, I'm not as much of a threat to normal human population. Apart from stepping on a couple of people's toes and getting smashed into three more people, I didn't really do any damage. Not anything 'serious' at least! I'm planning on getting lost and traveling and exploring two more routes I've never been to. All of you who've read this, if I ever go mysteriously missing, search the Metro routes first! :P

(The Previous Metro Diaries- Diary 1, Dairy 2)