Valentine saga

It being a Valentine's day, I imagined most of the girls will be carrying gifts and flowers. I am sure the crowded Delhi metro will not act as deterrent. I was not entirely disappointed, there were few girls with beautiful flowers with them. Today I was lucky enough to get a seat. Not very fond of this seat, its at the trailing end of the coach and often have lecherous men lurking around. The seat also has electrical charging points right at the top for mobile/laptop chargers. I met my namesake here who mumbled a "sorry" before hovering over me to plug in her mobile adapter. I noticed she had just cried, her face looked flushed and eyes brimming with tears. She was accompanied by another friend who was busy typing messages.

As usual I had a strong urge to play Agony aunt, but before I could say anything her friend looked up and said "What is wrong with my boyfriend calling you?". Technically everything, if you ask me; golden rule says 'no calling my girlfriends and certainly never late at night'. My namesake was annoyed by the question, "He called just to ask if I was talking to you. What is wrong with him?". Her friend said, "You know Anuj he is possessive, unlike my earlier boyfriends, he was not believing me. He told me that he has tried my number some 30 times in 40 minutes. So I asked him to call you and confirm. But why did you tell Rakesh that Anuj had called?". "That's because I felt it was funny , Rakesh would never do such a thing", replied my namesake. "Yes, that's why he fought with you and then called me tell Anuj is not supposed to call you?, said her friend. "If I were you I would have yelled back and would have decided against meeting him today. You are too soft on him. I guess he is your first boyfriend, I had many since school, I know how to handle them. I fought with Anuj yesterday and will not meet him today", she continued. My namesake retorted, "He is not my first boyfriend. He got me a very pretty dress for this Valentine and he is taking me to  'Ek Main Aur Ek Tu' evening show. That's a good enough reason for me". Her friend realized her loss, "How did he manage the tickets, Anuj has been trying for a while".

Just then her mobile rang, "Hi Anuj, no I am not upset with you. I was just messing around last night. Do you remember there is a sale at Select City Walk, let's go there today. We can also watch 'Ek Main Aur Ek Tu', everyone has seen it except us. You can at least try for getting the tickets".

My namesake seemed to have won this round. A triumphant testimony was in her playful pat on her friend's head while they got down at Saket metro station.

Faulty gates

Imagine your anxiety when the elevator door fails to open, I am not claustrophobic but I can get reasonably anxious. What if this happens to Delhi metro, not something you want to imagine. But this is exactly what happened. I boarded a train from my station, which was not very crowded  today. For the next seven stations everything was normal with no one trying dare devil stunts either (extremely rare, if you ask me). Then suddenly it happened at the next station. Metro was slowing down before approaching the station, it came to an abrupt halt just before the station. The stoppage time was unusually long. Metro resumed speed again and reached the station.  There was a customary announcement about the station name and need to "Mind the gap". But the doors didn't open. There were at least twenty passengers at each gate ready to board the train and a lesser number ready to disembark. Initially people were puzzled, looked like disoriented teenagers (well some of them are) who have not attended any kind of crisis management classes.

Not all doors were stuck, it was just the first boggie which had the malfunction. Rest of the coaches had their doors open up in time. Nevertheless ladies exclusive coach having a door malfunction is a perfect recipe for disaster.

The most interesting part was to hear what the ladies had to say on the incident. One passenger observed the problem is occurring due to regular interruption in gate functioning. She said, "Everyone wants to board the metro at the last moment. They don't care about their safety or damage to gate sensors". While somebody thought it was an electrical problem and there would be low voltage supply leading to circuit damages, others quipped about the low quality coaches (probably China imports!!). The most interesting explanation came from an old lady, she vouched its due the hard braking that drivers resort to, that the doors are jammed.

Listening to all these interesting theory, I realized it took almost 30 minutes to fix the problem. I was already late for my meeting and this was not very helping.