EAST MEETS WEST : My first day on Metro from Attiguppe to Ulsoor.

Note : Time mentioned below may not be accurate due to time differences on my watch , mobile etc. ;-)

8.20 am – I leave home pretty excited to be travelling on Metro to the office for the first time. Concern – Parking space for my bike

8.25 am – Reach the Metro station. Can’t find the parking space. They say ‘Every Cloud has a silver lining, even little ones’. Every Metro Stations should have a parking space, even small stations. I park the bike in front of temple, just to feel assured. A guy parks his bike and starts running towards the station. I wonder why?

8.30 am – Standing at the ticket counter. 5th in the Que. As usual the other que is faster. The lady in the other counter has all the change and faster in explaining the pros of the smart card. The guy I saw at the parking is running towards the escalator. I still wonder…… why?
Lesson learnt – THE VERY BEST MEN STAND IN THE RIGHT COUNTERS

8.35 am or something – I climb the stairs and come to the platform. I have just missed the train. The running guy is inside the train. I stop wondering. Slow & steady may win the race for you, but makes you miss trains as well. Next train is in 15 minutes

8.37 am – Only few of us in the station. Feeling happy

8.38 am – Open watsapp, 150 unread messages and 10 of us in the station

8.40 am - 100 unread messages and 50 of us in the station. Feeling ok

8.45 am – More than 100 watsapp messages read and more than 100 people in the station.No feelings

8.48 am – Train comes. No new messages on watsapp, no vacant seats in the train. I step in for the first time with my right leg first

8.50 am – Stop at Vijayanagar. More people, no seats.
Realisation - DO THE BEST YOU CAN, WITH WHAT YOU HAVE , WHERE YOU ARE, I start updating all this on an office watsapp group

Around 8.55 am – Stop at Magadi Road. No seats, very less place to stand. People enter with sad faces. Meanwhile, a girl gets a seat from nowhere, much to the astonishment of many including me

8.57 am – Can see the top view of the city outside. No greenery. No wonder the 39+ climate. Updating on watsapp becomes difficult, no place to move the hand. Plus the curious mobile onlookers.

9.00 amish – Train enters the tunnel. Cut-off from the world. Can’t remove the mobile from the pocket. Railway Station, Kempe Gowda Stations come & go. All look the same. Vidhana Soudha, Cubbon Park, VV Tower Stations too under tunnel. Great scenery lost.

9.07 am - There is always light at the end of the tunnel and it is MG Road. Life is beautiful again. The girl who got the seat is watsapping. Still wondering how she got the seat.

9.10 am – Suddenly remember that I have not stood for so long in the recent past. Trinity Station arrives and some seats available. Girls take it. Men watch it.

9.15 am – Train reaches my destination. ‘The most difficult thing to open is a closed mind’, but the most difficult people to get through, are the ones near the door. Managed to get past them. Reality strikes, 36 degree climate welcomes.

Walk to the office. Meet two friends from office, who were on the
same trip. One happy and another not so happy. Me – happy for myself, not so happy for the bike parked at the large.

Overall, good experience except for the over the capacity crowd. Hopeful of things to get better. With frequency increased, commute could get more comfortable.

Thanks to all who made Metro possible. Special thanks to the people of Bangalore, including me who suffered bad roads, traffic jams and dust during the construction and to those who lost their properties.

Details of the trip back will be updated