Every morning I take the Metro to my place of work, and accounting for the huge populace commuting each day, its not surprising that I meet a new set of people everyday. Looking around me, I wonder how strange it is for people of all age-groups, professions, religions and castes to have gathered together under one roof, en route to their destination. There may be an old lady, with a rosary in her hands, mumbling prayers, or a little child questioning her mother about everything she sees from the window, or a young lad deeply engrossed in his Chemistry book, or a Sardarji casually reading the newspaper, or a trader making deals on his mobile phone, or a salesperson settling his sales' sheets, or a clerk who closed his eyes for a nap to pass his long journey.
There are so many people in the same cabin, but there is no fuss. There are times when there might be haggling for a seat, but that's all in the passing. After the seat has been acquired by one of the competitors, there may be regret for a moment, but its all routine in the end. At other times there are chances of a minor push when you are trying to get off or onto the train followed by a stare at the perpetrator, but such occurrences too quickly fade off memory.
On rare occasions, I do come across someone I met in a previous journey, with whom I shared a casual word or to whom I offered a look into an ad in the newspaper I was reading. This time around the chance meeting results into a friendly smile. Even though I don't know the name of that person or where she lives, I feel very happy to have met a familiar face.
Today as I got off at the station, I thought that each day I spend time with a microcosm of the world we live in, and the interaction with it is, what can be described as, "amicable and calm". But, I am unable to understand why a drastic transformation takes place when such microcosms combine into what we call the World? It's not a new question at all. Just one of the few important ones that we have been unable to answer. In case you figured out the answer, please let me know...
There are so many people in the same cabin, but there is no fuss. There are times when there might be haggling for a seat, but that's all in the passing. After the seat has been acquired by one of the competitors, there may be regret for a moment, but its all routine in the end. At other times there are chances of a minor push when you are trying to get off or onto the train followed by a stare at the perpetrator, but such occurrences too quickly fade off memory.
On rare occasions, I do come across someone I met in a previous journey, with whom I shared a casual word or to whom I offered a look into an ad in the newspaper I was reading. This time around the chance meeting results into a friendly smile. Even though I don't know the name of that person or where she lives, I feel very happy to have met a familiar face.
Today as I got off at the station, I thought that each day I spend time with a microcosm of the world we live in, and the interaction with it is, what can be described as, "amicable and calm". But, I am unable to understand why a drastic transformation takes place when such microcosms combine into what we call the World? It's not a new question at all. Just one of the few important ones that we have been unable to answer. In case you figured out the answer, please let me know...
