From texting friends to watching a youtube video (Amit Bhadana), taking a nap or idly whiling away time with a poker face on and waiting for your station to arrive (which never happens until your phone runs out of juice), the Delhi metro has become a second home for students studying in universities of Delhi who traverse daily from far off places like Noida, Gurgaon (Gurugram, sorry!), Ghaziabad, etc, to attend their colleges.
Traveling in the metro is an experience in itself for University students for whom it is an inalienable part of their daily lives. The journey could be fun or boring depending upon various factors. Sometimes, students have to take a metro ride which is longer than the classes they have to attend (the struggle for attendance is real!) like Nischint Dhar, a student from SRCC, who says “Every Friday I travel for 2 hours on the metro just to attend one lecture and on top of that I have to change my metro line thrice after which I take a rickshaw to reach college. It’s almost as if I’m going on vacation every day, the only difference being that it isn’t fun as a vacation would’ve been.”
Many students like him face this situation, in which a lot of their time is invested in traveling by metro and obviously, this is unavoidable, unless one gets a PG or Hostel, or travels by car (which is really inconvenient and uneconomical).
Thus, it is essential to productively use the time students spend on metro rides by reading books, catching up on the latest news by carrying a newspaper, or using apps on their phones. In case you’re traveling with your friends, you can even debate or discuss various issues pertaining to current affairs, the latest movies that have been released or even new shows that you might’ve watched, since this way one can learn new things and at the same time improve your communication and analytical skills. “I always call on my friends from other colleges in the university and travel with them in the metro, which helps me in getting to know about the kind of life students have in other colleges and also share my experiences in college.” opines Bhavya, a first-year student at Delhi University.
Apart from the time factor, another thing that’s pretty annoying in metro rides is the huge crowds we have to battle every day, especially at Rajiv Chowk and Hauz Khas! “It is while traveling in the Metro that I realized the importance and need of a population control law,” says Deepak, a history student at Delhi University. “Further, while battling the huge crowd in the metro, we also encounter many irritating people who are overly immersed in themselves, jostling whoever is in their way just to grab a seat! It’s like a war zone and people just rush into the coach as soon as the doors open at a station, without even bothering to let those inside alight. Sometimes people also just stand in front of the doorstep but don’t get off at the station. I fail to understand what kick they get in doing that?”
However, despite all these issues that we as “Metro Hustlers” face, at the end of the day, one thing is for sure- The Delhi Metro is a boon and lifeline for us since it’s by far the cheapest and most convenient mode of transport! The distance is covered in less time between the stations which otherwise if traveled by road could be gruesome because of the scorching heat, rains, and traffic signals. Before the introduction of the metro, the majority of the students used to commute by the University special buses which were in pathetic condition and didn’t even have fans not to think of Acs, unlike the metro. All in all, the metro is an infrastructural marvel that makes our lives easy and not only connects people from distant locations of the city not only physically but also emotionally.