Metro and Population

Two Indian girls point me in the direction of the North moving train of the Delhi Metro’s yellow line. I call to Kunzes to follow me and we run onto the metro. Women, mostly young women the same age as us fill the seats and stand around in small groups either talking on the phones or with each other. To be sure we are on the correct train, I ask one of the girls if this is the metro towards Vidan Saba and they shake their heads pointing to the South facing train across from us. I hop off but Kunzes is too late. We face each other through the glass and I don’t know what to tell her or how we’ll get in touch without phones on us. She shrugs her shoulders and we just stare through the glass. The train begins to take off and suddenly out of nowhere the door opens for just enough time for Kunzes to hop out. With no words we rush across to the opposite facing train about to leave. We don’t have time to make our way to the front sections.

Our rush onto the metro consequently put us the men’s designated end of the train. I stand crushed up against the metro’s wall on the yellow line towards our stop of Vidan Saba. The metro underneath the city of chaotic Delhi’s streets is a different world of modernity. It far out beats Boston and New York's subways in terms how advanced and contemporary everything looks. At the next stop more men pile in. Kunzes and I are split up by a man breathing heavily from the bodies crushing into his chest. He says something a bit harsh in Hindi to the man closest to him and they begin to break out into an argument. There’s not enough room and hands are everywhere. The amount of people on this metro would be considered a health hazard back home but by now, especially after taking micros and buses in Nepal, it doesn’t phase me except when personal space is violated a little too far. I decide to kneel down on the floor below their legs and look all the way down to the end of this first section in between shiny shoes and pressed pants. I imagine what the city of Delhi looked like before the metro came into being a mere eight years ago. With the existing bus system hardly able to bear the loads of people, more are taking to private motorcycles and cars. The streets of Delhi would be a nightmare. I think back to the accident we saw yesterday on our way to Delhi. Three giant buses obliterated one another. Our bus, along with other traffic stopped just to see it. A man bleeding profusely yelling out to the crowds but no one could do anything. Accident after accident fills the streets of Nepal and I think of the wonders such a metro could do for that city.

Men are staring down at me so I take out the latest National Geographic Article I just awarded myself with to revert my eyes to something. The second page, the Editor’s Note, is a photograph of crowds surfing the annual Rath Yatra Hindu festival in Puri, India. Underneath the crowds it reads,

“The world’s population will reach seven billion this year. But you don’t need to visit Delhi, India (population 22), or China (home to a fifth of the world’s people) to grasp the consequences.”

Men above continue to argue with one another above. A fight couldn't even begin here because there is no room to move a finger.

The metro stops and I slip out between the legs of men. Kunzes looks at me laughs and says, “How did that happen Holly? How did that door open like that for me?”

“Perhaps, making friends with Karma in Nepal really did bring us good karma.” :)