Delhi, An understudy

When travelling in the metro, one looks out of the windows, only to see darkness outside. In Mumbai, it is different, there is always a scene playing at the window.

The doors close. That is awesome. It is centrally air conditioned, so no one haggles to get the window seat, in the direction of motion of the train like in Mumbai. The best part there are no window seats at all.

The security is on par with airports, with luggage scanners and X ray machines. The ticketing is different with coin like coupons, eliminating the need for a ticket collector. But what if I drop my coupon somewhere in middle, a highly likely event from my perspective.

The beauty of doing a thing 100 years too late is that one knows all the problems of Mumbai locals, and then can easily rectify them in the new system. Not that the same cannot be done in Mumbai, but for that one would require a person who takes a completely different approach to things, and also who does not belong to the system. Like Mr. Sreedharan.

New Delhi station was a disappointment. The traffic, the honking, the hand rickshaw, the auto rickshaw.the taxi,the Marathon, the traffic jam just outside the station.

Somehow I did not want to take the auto. I get a trifle uncomfortable to talk with the aggressive delhiwallah. Though I skipped the auto, I did get a measure of that in a Sony world shop. The salesmen, of all people were pretty rude. Guess, our dressing was too simple, from their perspective.

Another strange feature was the practice of tying up ropes against parked cars, possibly as a deterrent against car thieves. That was funny.

Finally the road rage was inexplicable, the constant accelerating and braking was too much for my tastes. It was as if all the cars were driving blindly, with half a hope of returning home safely.

The roads were wide enough though. I did enjoy the metro, and have always wondered as to why did they not change the local trains in Mumbai when they were changing from DC traction t AC traction and overhauling the entire set up.