Lady on the Metro

Lady on the Metro.

This is not meant to be a something like ‘lady of the lake’, or ‘lady on the water’. This is a description of something I saw on the metro. First a few lines on the metro itself. The metro was built over a really long 14 year period in the 1980’s. The streets of Calcutta were dug up and filled again ad nauseum until the city had that most wonderful magical thing; an underground train. I have been a big fan of the metro train because this was my primary mode of transport to college. Me and a few of my friends became metro fanatics; as in had specific compartments where we used to rush to and specific doors near which we stood. The reason, of course being that this door opened right in front of the exit gate at Tollygunge, where I got off. In fact, Calcuttans are divided into two classes; one who do not use the metro as part of their daily transport, and do not see any reason to (unenlightened heathen that they are). The second category of people believe very firmly (and sometimes incorrectly) that the metro is the easiest, and fastest way to get from any point to any other point of the city. Somewhat like Einstein Rosen Bridges, in fact. This is not a conclusion drawn by me, it was drawn by one Prof. Siddhartha Bhowmick, one of the most interesting people to have taught us at Presidency.

The other day, I was on my way back from Park Street to Tollygunge. There was this lady on the platform, who got onto the same train as me. She was solving a crossword in Bangla. The first impression that one would get looking at her was that she was a schoolteacher, or perhaps a principal. And that one would be badly mistaken to cross her. Well, she got off at Tollygunge, all the while balancing herself against the door and concentrating on the crossword. This was something of a feat, given the crowd on that train.