Life in a Metro
and works in Noida, the Metro has brought places she had not heard of within reach. “I didn’t know about Shahdara, but I’m going there today for an engagement party,” she says. She’s travelling in the general coach, where she doesn’t feel unsafe but where she has ruled out conversation with strangers – which the automated playback keeps announcing in between stations. The Metro has made accessible places on the outer rims of Delhi. It has turned the likes of Dwarka, once considered an almost-hinterland, into a real estate developer’s dream.
We decide to take the underground Yellow Line from Rajiv Chowk in central Delhi to Kashmere Gate in north Delhi. From the stifled heat of Rajiv Chowk, the crowded train winds its way to Kashmere Gate. At Kashmere Gate, when we emerge from the bowels of the underground train to take the elevated Red Line, the minarets of Old Delhi are visible in the distance. The Metro has taken care to preserve Delhi’s heritage (the construction of Chawri Bazaar station is an engineering marvel). The familiar semi-circular domes of the Metro open on to narrow, busy streets of Chawri Bazaar and Chandni Chowk. Traders, shoppers, residents and tourists alight from the controlled environment of the stations and blend into the chaos of the street. Within the chrome, glass and steel interiors, people move cautiously, taking care to form lines, offer seats, submitting to checks but once outside, the street takes over.
The train traverses through densely
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