The Violet Tube Prance

 The exercise was to explore and curate the experience of traveling in the Delhi metro on the violet line, with Kashmere Gate as the beginning, up till Escorts Mujessar and back. Tiresome and a little too mundane in between, we completed it nonetheless. To be honest, we had no clue what we were to expect from it, hence the narration thereby turns completely subjective from here onwards.

It was a humid day and all of us huddled into a semi crowded metro in the violet line. As told, we tried to be ‘as dispersed as we felt we were’ which was in groups of 2/3 for the first 10 stations. Usually I would refrain from travelling in general coaches if alone, but that day I had company, so I entered a general coach with my friends. 

Being no stranger to uncomfortable stares, I noticed how men, especially, reacted to my friend’s colorful attire which is a definite jibe by heteronormativity at my said friend’s non generic clothes. As always, I felt sad at how toxic masculinity pushes most men into a space of non exploration in terms of fashion and expressing choice of outer appearances. A middle aged man, a little too ‘intrigued’ by us, moved closer to listen to our conversations and even check my friend’s phone while he checked his messages. Even my obvious stare back didn’t move his eyes away, clearly invasion of privacy seemed a redundant concept to him. I stopped paying him any attention further. I joined into a rant of mundane adulating issues with my friends.

Moving along, at a short distance was a young guy who had a newspaper in front of him. It felt good to see such a sight amidst the otherwise ping-ping of smart phones and dangling coils of earphones from almost everyone’s ears. But even before I could finish my thought, I saw the guy click pictures off of the newspaper, ‘content’ are what I thought( Sigh). Who am I to blame! I myself only read newspapers only when I visit home and the hard copies of BOLD information guilts me into reading them. Like that guy on train, I too rely on people who sometimes transmit news through social media. Guess I am too part of the smart addicts club.

As the metro moved over-ground and cruising through the privilege of an upper view of the city, I noticed the usual transition between glass paneled buildings (with probable over priced coffee while everyone pretended they had the best job) and also children playing with tire tubes on the side of the streets, with absolute 0 care to the speeding vehicles who probably drive with lesser caution to their (children) safety but more to their vehicle. I start mulling the concept of development then. Playing food for thought is when we reach Sarita Vihar. Lying to south east pocket of Delhi, this town is highly industrial and has posh localities as well. Limited to viewing only from the moving metro, first I noticed the All India Institute of Ayurveda, whose existence I wasn’t aware of earlier, and in about 500 m distance, was an old age home. Now 500 m more distance was a thermal plant situated. The obvious irony here is also the common thread combining the three: health. While the first institute is built for bettering health, the last one isn’t a facility that is supposed to exist in amidst of a residential area, I believe. The old age home seems like the irony of it, existing in middle with very little to resist or complain.

The metro kept moving further and I tried to expand my ‘content’ and experience (?) as well. Inside the tube, it felt like the presence of earphones were more than the actual number of people. Or maybe my mind was exaggerating in order to amplify my line of thought. It somewhat went on like this: the use of earphones began with two intents-assist in hearing music better, which was earlier restricted to walkmans and i-pods but slowly smart phones began their hegemony all over. The second intent was to offer privacy to whatever one was listening to. Like all others, the good side of an invention can easily turn into evil, as very often visible. We saw the rapid growth of earphones turning into accessories and mandatory equipment in our attire. From noise cancelling headphones to replacing speaker phones, we weren’t that quick to realize the transition of assistance to dependency. I cannot imagine how many times a day I ignore the warning box my very SMARTphone displays about increasing the volume above the recommended level. I am optimistic I am not the only one and in a large demography of millennials, earphones are meant to do singular job-disconnect you from the world. For all we desire is isolating our thoughts and feelings from an ever growing chaotic environment we created ourselves. Hence we call our earphones savior now. This also makes me think of what would be the next couple generations grow up with?Mass impaired in hearing conceived at birth because the parents’ disconnection had turned survival instinct? Ironically I continue wondering all of these while cranking my volume to the maximum for the Dreamcatcher tune. It was my disconnection jam, you see?

Another very common phenomenon on a metro is people dozing off and even snoring loud enough for an entire coach to hear. Hell I have even witnessed people sleeping while standing up! How one does that is beyond my comprehension but definitely deserves some respect as well as sympathy as to how awfully tired one has to be to fall asleep upright. I too have this ability to fall asleep while on a vehicle in motion but I definitely prefer to be seated or lie down comfortably first. What is unusual is how sleeping people are found at metros at any time of the day. Even if one is finishing sleep during the morning or dozing off while returning from office, how does it explain people sleeping during rest of the time of the day? Exhaustion is a definitive reason and sleep deprivation another. This, points towards the growing amount of people suffering a burn out at an earlier age in the last decade or so. Health definitely occupies a bottom place in our priorities list.

We reached out last station and boarded another metro for the return journey. The other side of the same route was now up for exploration. Enroute, a large ornamental piece of elevated land in the middle of an urban space caught my eye. Like the mantle piece at home that Maa would very carefully keep neat every morning, Mohan Estate seems to have decorated erected their own matle piece with a small mountain sized garbage dump right in the middle of the area. Just as the government in India slyly hid away (literally) slum areas with clothes during the Japan’s Prime Minister tour of Delhi, Mohan Estate too adorned the immediate sides of the metro with scores of showrooms of popular car brands like Mercedes, Audi, BMW, etc. As if it makes up for the not-so-hide_able centerpiece of garbage not too far behind.

One hilarious encounter did happen in this entire journey. So when the class was asked to also explore the ends of the metro coaches, most of us sat away from each other and at one point, scattered evenly. So while travelling from one end to the other, I would say hi or simply poke on the hand to each of my classmate and to any onlooker, it appeared as if I was waving and posing random conversations with complete strangers. The reaction was absolute hilarious and video-worthy (!)

The long metro ride had almost come to an end with discussing fashion choices and hunger pangs all of us had by far, then collected in the pit of our stomach. With recommendations of kebab places around Jama Masjid, we eventually had a large glass of juice outside college once we reached. The impending rain did trap some of us for awhile outside the shop but all in all, we had completed our task for the day. Delhi weather, I tell you.