Only in India
I have lived in U.S in mid tiered cities and in my 14 years there, never took the Amtrak(big surprise there). I had taken the metro/subway in chicago, Boston, London etc but I was a little hesitant of the metro in Hyderabad.
My in-laws live about 35 kms from where I live. This is the last station on the route for this metro (MMTS as its called). With the traffic as it is, it would almost take 1.5 hrs and the stress it would create with the haphazard traffic is pretty high. So I decided along with my brother, wife and kid to take on this challenge.
The stations are really clean. The trains are not on exact time but they are usually only 10-15 minutes late. I sit with my kid and lot of people come and start talking to the kid, mom etc. This is kind of little unnerving but starting to get used to it. One guy for no reason, starts telling us the history of MMTS. He seems pretty proud of MMTS.
I want to smoke a cigarette. One change I have noticed is that, there is no more smoking in trains and people really do not break the law. So I sneaked a cigarette at the end of the platform as I feel guilty.
The train comes and there is not realy a rush. People are courteous and give seats to women and kids. .....and people are friendly. They do not just bury their face in the newspaper or listen to their Ipod.
The journey was pretty comfortable and then we started back on the last train. There were not too many people at each station and the train would stop only for 10-15 secs. This went on until....
at one station, the train stopped for 10 secs and started to accelarate. far away on the other platform, there was a woman with 2 kids. She shouted, please stop the train. The driver saw this, waited patiently for 5 mins until she could get over the overhead bridge and get into the train. All the people, waited patiently, made sure she got in O.K and I heard couple of people say "God Bless the driver as she would have to spend lot of money if she missed this". Now this happens only in India.
My in-laws live about 35 kms from where I live. This is the last station on the route for this metro (MMTS as its called). With the traffic as it is, it would almost take 1.5 hrs and the stress it would create with the haphazard traffic is pretty high. So I decided along with my brother, wife and kid to take on this challenge.
The stations are really clean. The trains are not on exact time but they are usually only 10-15 minutes late. I sit with my kid and lot of people come and start talking to the kid, mom etc. This is kind of little unnerving but starting to get used to it. One guy for no reason, starts telling us the history of MMTS. He seems pretty proud of MMTS.
I want to smoke a cigarette. One change I have noticed is that, there is no more smoking in trains and people really do not break the law. So I sneaked a cigarette at the end of the platform as I feel guilty.
The train comes and there is not realy a rush. People are courteous and give seats to women and kids. .....and people are friendly. They do not just bury their face in the newspaper or listen to their Ipod.
The journey was pretty comfortable and then we started back on the last train. There were not too many people at each station and the train would stop only for 10-15 secs. This went on until....
at one station, the train stopped for 10 secs and started to accelarate. far away on the other platform, there was a woman with 2 kids. She shouted, please stop the train. The driver saw this, waited patiently for 5 mins until she could get over the overhead bridge and get into the train. All the people, waited patiently, made sure she got in O.K and I heard couple of people say "God Bless the driver as she would have to spend lot of money if she missed this". Now this happens only in India.
posted by Zaks at 8:50 PM
2 Comments:
I hope we dont become like our western counter parts and maintain the uniqueness such as people being friendly at train stations, the driver stopiing the train or bus for a lady or an elder person. Though these small things dont impact the people who r experiencing the situation, it somehow contributes to a well connected human life on some level.
Keep up the good work. thnx!
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