Being in ladies coach…

It has been two years, ten weeks and five days since ladies coach got introduced in the Delhi metro. It is a great gift to all the women and has made travelling safe and convenient for them.

Here, I would like to share my experience of travelling day and night in Delhi metro’s ladies coach. Since day one I have noticed a few things and, as of now, there hasn’t been any change in them. My observations are still the same – every day, every month.

Observation number 1- be it 6 in the morning or 11 in the night, you can always find ladies talking (read ‘gossiping’) and making you bereft of mental peace. Whatever time, whatever occasion, and whatever place, they will always have some worldly matter to elaborate their views upon. And the funniest part of the story is -they keep on asking others in between – ‘which station is this?’

Next, the Delhi metro is mostly occupied by school teachers in the morning. They are busy checking answer sheets with an un-measurable super speed- awarding more of zeroes than five on fives. You can find them completing their teacher’s diary on the move every day. They also discuss their kids, talk of their lives or complain about their maids with their companions.

Third, you will also find school girls travelling in the Delhi metro in school uniform (I doubt. Is it seriously a school uniform?). Seeing them, I often wonder ‘It has been simply four or (max to max) five years since I passed my senior secondary and see the turnover in the dressing sense of school children!’ I do not fail to ask myself a question- ‘Were we superlatively simple in our school days or have they turned ultra-modern?’ Our uniform would always be proper and we did not have even Nokia in our school days - let alone the BlackBerry. But today’s ultra-modern school students that I find in metro do not have anything less than a Samsung Galaxy note or an iPad. BlackBerry is un-trendy for them! They have altered the school uniform as per their wish and carry red, green, sky blue, black, orange and yellow nail colors (yes, even yellow is in fashion these days!). Oops! I forgot to mention the lip gloss. Needless to say, they go to beauty parlors every now and then. I guess the schools themselves have modernized.

Every alternate day or so, I am encountered with girls chatting with their boy-friends over phone. They laugh, they giggle and they talk endlessly for hours. At times I also find them arguing, quarreling, and fighting with their BFs on phone. Sometimes they get too loud and everybody in the metro gets to over hear their conversation. :-P

And then there are some who are busy reading novels (more of romantic pieces and less of thrill!) namely – I too had a love a story, Can love happen twice, Revolution 2020, Mysterious affair at Styles, The woman in Black, Immortals of Meluha, Casual Vacancy, etc. How can I forget to mention that I daily witness one or two reading either ‘Fifty shades of Grey’ or ‘Fifty shades Darker’! They are either extremely indifferent or completely crazy for having reading such a book in public!  

I often find a few, I repeat – just a few, ladies reading some holy books and one or two carrying out anulom-vilom yoga in the air-conditioned metro! Can you figure that out?

Of the latest, I am coming across young girls pursuing their Bachelor of Education degree course and wearing saris. They usually travel in a group of 5-6 and keep on laughing bitterly; thus disturbing the complete ladies coach.

Having gone through seven points, I pause. But I find I am not done with it yet. The list is endless… If I enlist all my observations, then I guess, I will be able to write a complete book on it! Better I end here and do not disclose rest of the secrets. What say, ladies?