Sunday, December 18, 2011

Palakkad to New Delhi, Train to Metro



I have spent my entire school life in Palakkad, my home town. Palakkad is a town with small shops and recently some five six years back somewhere in 2006 Palakkad got its first shopping mall – Big Bazar. This itself was a big thing to happen in a small town like Palakkad. This had made me really proud that I have got a shopping mall in my home town. During my school days I used to go to Mumbai every year in the summer vacation to meet my relatives. Having spent my entire life in Palakkad, I had too many things to be excited when I was in Mumbai – the wide roads, the tall buildings with glassed facades, high end costly cars, busy life of people, etc. That is when I decided that whenever I get a chance I should stay for some days in a ‘developed’ city. The opportunity came when I had to do my final semester eighty days internship programme, for which my college gave students the choice to select the industry and place where we would like to do our internship. I selected New Delhi because it is a great city and it is the best place for civil services preparation in India. To my luck I got a confirmation letter from The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), which is a premier institute working in the field of renewable energy and sustainability for doing my internship.


I was waiting for 29th of November for long, the day when I would have a chance to step in New Delhi. After a much awaited forty three hour train journey in the Kerala Express, at 2:00 PM I was in the New Delhi railway station. I had to catch the Metro to go to Green Park, where I was to stay with my seniors temporarily until I locate a room for myself. Lucky enough I found a person in train who also wanted to go in the Metro to some place. He helped me in getting the token (not ticket), as it is called in a Metro. I was shocked to see the crowd there and I had two huge bags and a heavy backpack with me. Just like in an airport I had to place my baggage on a rolling belt which was checked by a police personnel through the computer screen where a scanned image of my baggage were being displayed. I had to pass through a personal security check where another police personnel scanned me using a hand held metal detector. After all this security check I had to place my token on a small screen for the doors to open the way for me to reach to the stairs. The screen immediately showed the value of the token which my friend had taken for me. I had to walk down the stairs as it was an underground Metro route. Within a minute’s time came the Metro and it had ‘HUDA City Centre’ displayed at the front lit with Light Emitting Diodes (LED) and not the conventional painted boards. I was so happy seeing the Metro that suddenly I thought – am I in India? Seriously so good it looked. Such a sight in India made me feel yes my country has developed.



The platform, at some places had stickers ‘Women Only’. The Metro stopped. It had the first three compartments for ladies. The doors opened automatically. Thanks to the hydraulic technology. I got in, the doors closed behind me and off the Metro started rolling. The interiors were very good, well lit, neat seats, a plug point, good handles to hold on, seats reserved for ladies, senior citizens and the handicapped, etc. Next my eyes fell on a classic route map of the Metro with a red LED glowing at the start and end station of the Metro.  Then an orange blinking LED which showed the next station the Metro is going to stop at. This avoided the need for passengers like me, who were new to the place to ask the co-passengers how many stations more should I be going to get down. I was truly impressed by the intervention. And in some time I heard a female voice announcing “the next station is Rajiv Chowk” followed by a male voice repeating the same in Hindi. Few more minutes passed and I was busy thinking how well planned the Metro system is, the announcement came again breaking my thought. But this time the female voice said “Rajiv Chowk. The doors will open on the right”, followed by the male voice repeating it in Hindi. This made me happier as it guided the passengers to get themselves queued near the correct door where the platform would arrive. In some time the Metro reached Green Park and I came out of the Metro. I walked to the escalator which took me to the security check where I had to insert my token into a slit and the doors opened before me and I walked out. The station was maintained very clean, was well painted and lit, had a lot of security guards, toilet facilities, an entire New Delhi Metro map, etc. Seeing all this I thought this is surely the best mode of transport we can have in crowded Indian cities. I wish many more cities in India get such facilities.