Early morning crowded metro station leaves me in a fix every day. I see people running like mad to catch the train which is standing at the platform. The hurry is to reach before the doors shut. No offense but I laugh at them many a times, not because of those weird expressions on their faces when they are about to bang on the closing door but because all this reminds me of that wonderful place where life was never in hurry. The mornings used to start when the matador would start its first trip – that too dependent on the seasons. People never used to rush for anything. They had their own targets but were not afraid of the consequences they might have to face if they don’t complete them. No wonder why people in ‘city’ attend motivational classes of some gurus where they teach them how to be 'fearless'. Fear bounds you. Fear of expectations. Fear of performance. Fear of getting late. Its all too specific in city. The ‘9:15’ Metro which will come in ‘01’ minute and would take ‘51’ minutes to reach the destination. And there, people enjoyed being there in that moment. No one ever shouted on the conductor for prolonged halt at different places. No one even had the answer to the question, “Gaadi Kab aayegi?” What all they could say was, “Aajayegi abhi..” Maybe that’s why we used to treat it as the 'country' space. There is no fear. There are no expectations. The life goes on like an organism, which functions smoothly as all the parts are working in coordination, opposite to the city. I always used to call Mumbai a city of machines, where people act like machines operating on some pre-ordered instructions. Delhi is no different apart from the fact that this machine is noisier.
