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Friday, October 12, 2007

Riding a New High

A dear friend, J, was visiting Delhi and I went with a colleague, D, to meet her. Then J and I decided to drop D at the Metro Station. The station that we entered at Connaught Place was so beautiful. I forgot for a moment that we were in India. I was, in a flash, transported to Singapore and Paris. On an impulse, we decided to take a ride in the Delhi Metro. It was a ride that I will never forget.


The Delhi Metro has it all. Huge, sparkling clean stations, courteous staff, beautiful trains, clean compartments and something I only thought possible abroad: disciplined Indians.


more I thought about it, the more I compared it with the Singapore Metro. The Paris Metro, at least 7 years ago, reminded me of Bombay locals. The stations there being quite filthy. Filth is something I didn't find on my ride yesterday.


It was fun listening to the announcements, watching the people, and watching the city zoom past with all its glitter. (Yes, Rajouri Garden at night is a lovely sight!) All in all, it left me in awe of the system. We can be disciplined if we want to. We can have global standards and maintain them if we want to. We can be whatever we choose to be. We can choose to be the best that we can be, but the sad part is we don't take that choice seriously most of the time.


This is the India of the future.

2 comments:

Whizkid said...

For ages, the area around the India gate and parliament in Delhi and since it's inception a few years back "the delhi metro" have been the only two places that we have been bragging about !! Guess it s time to move on and probably focus hard on bringing about a change of that magnitude in other big cities too...

Rajitha said...

hey girl...came from ur food blog...u have to see the way we indians behave the minute we get off the international flight and set foot on indian soil...all that reserve adn please,excuse me, thank you...goes flying out of the window...they are back being junglees again!! shameful..but so true. btw. i love this spot u have here...