To
understand the psyche of people of a city, I believe, one must travel in the
local means of transportation. During my posting at Kolkata I found it quite
common for a male passenger to vacate seat for lady or an infirm person. “Bengali
bhadrajon” (Bengali Gentleman) considered it insulting to remain seated whilst
a lady stood in front of him. Bus conductors are extra cautious when a lady
boards or alights a bus - more so if she happens to carry a child. The bus comes
to a virtual halt. Even in local train, which has a compartment reserved for
ladies, seat is vacated by a male if a lady happens to step in a general
compartment. Life moves at a slower pace in Kolkata unlike Delhi where it is
fast tracked. I was made to understand that people in Delhi are insensitive in
general and abusive, caring less for fellow commuters. This may however, not be
always true, and my inference is based on my traveling experience in Delhi
Metro. I normally commute by the yellow line metro in evening, boarding it at Central
Secretariat Station. The Yellow line metro connects Gurgaon and Jahangirpuri
and passes through Vishwavidyalaya station (North Campus of Delhi University).
It is therefore quite common that it carry students of North Campus in large
numbers, who board this metro to travel to Vishwavidyalaya station. Presence of
youths makes the atmosphere lively and energetic. However, once office
commuters starts boarding it from Udyog Bhavan, Central Secretariat and Patel
Chowk stations, the atmosphere turns somber and ultimately dull. These office
commuters are people who have had a hectic day at office or had a bad day with
an indifferent boss. They pass on this indifference to fellow commuters, mostly
students and youths, who become hapless victim of their impatience and intolerance.
Though normally these youths (who says there aren’t Samaritans in Delhi) do offer
their seat to elderly office commuters, yet the grudge remains. I have often
been witness to incidents where an elderly commuter loses his tempers and enters
into a tiff with a youth, if one fails to offer his seat. I believe the fault
lies with elders who have a grudge to the life style of present days’ youths.
It is no secret that youths today are much more career conscious and competition
is much more fierce compared to say twenty years back, when these elderly
commuters were in their youth. That the youth of present age manage to enjoy
life, despite living in an age of fierce cut-throat competition, defies the thought
process of these elderly commuters. These elderly commuters loathe the style
statement of youths which gets expressed in designer clothes and flashy gadgets
like i Pods and Smart-phone. Youths of the present era, I believe, tends to enjoy
every moment of their life. On the contrary the elderly commuters are a fearful
lot, surviving on medicines, stressing themselves in office and stretching every
moment of their life that remains on this planet. This contrast, I believe, lay
at the bottom of such clashes. As I stood at the junction of two compartments
in a metro, deeply engrossed in analyzing human behavior and attitude, I overheard
someone offer me a seat. I looked behind. A college student, my son’s age, stood
behind me offering me his seat. I smiled, thanked him and gestured him to
remain seated. I did not want to belong to the class of the cribbing elders- at
least not for the next few years- I said to myself.
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