As an agmark, chennaite, the only subway that I ever knew was the ever vivacious Duraiswamy subway which connects the east and the west mamabalam.My acquaintance with the subway dates back to the good old Jain school days. The entry to the school is couple of blocks from the entrance to the subway.
The already crowded and slow moving traffic in this area would get even more cramped during the beginning and end of the school hours when the countless rikshakaran’s and parents including my own folks waiting to pickup the children would block this area.11 years later, I started taking the same route resuming my acquaintance with the dear subway being precautious to avoid the school hour traffic or when it was time for a boat ride instead of the regular scooty ride. Since the early 80’s that I remember, the subway continues to be the same good old being unlike humans who change over a period of time.
A competitive project to reduce the traffic which was started couple of years back to connect the 5-lights area with T.Nagar with another tiny subway could no longer keep up with our ripened friend. The project was recently discarded owing to the soil issues after couple of years of digging the soil turning the area to a mini …..mountain…no… valley…. hiking trail with plenty of ups and downs to the dismay of the residents and comfort of the autokaran’s who could lay the blame on the road for the increased fare. A ride from Kodambakkam to Pothys used to be 15 rupees in early 2005 which is not less than 50 rupees now.
A 20 minute crawl on the Duraiswamy subway on a full-traffic hour could:
1. Include a scratch to your new or old bike for sure.
2. Change your dress color from any light color to various shades of black and brown.
3. Add an additional layer of dusty makeup would be applied to your beautiful skin.
4. Make you could feel and taste mud stuck to your lips if you are a lipstick/chapstick user.
5. See couple of 2 wheelers colliding and rushing to squeeze through the available space
6. Watch a mini movie ~ An over loaded bus struggling to move, mini accidents including toppled autos
7.Witness some interesting conversations and chew outs!
8.Encourage you to add a point to your to-do list ~ Test for bronchitis in the next medical-checkup!!!
After moving to the United States, I did miss my friend for a while and guess it missed me too. This time it took a different appearance from the Duraisamy subway in the name of MTA-Subway.
As most of you know, the Big-apple is comprised of the under ground subway system for trains and MTA (metropolitan transport authority) includes buses and the subway train service.
Some interesting facts:
1.The largest subway car fleet in the world that operates 24-hours-a-day
2.Ridership on NYC Transit is approximately seven million daily - more than 2 billion annually.
3.NYC Transit employs nearly 47,000 people in more than 20 major departments and divisions
4.You could teach you child ~ alphabet, numbers and colors through the number of different subway lines
5.STEEP fare hikes inspite of being used the most!
What could be the best place other than a subway ride to observe people from all over the world in this vibrant BIG-APPLE? The most interesting way to start a day would be to take up a 10 minute subway ride.
On any regular day, through out the year, you could see .......
1. The busy office –goers either rushing to work or back to home to take the connecting trains
from the Pennsylvania station with the heavy laptops
2. The religious Brown baggers who cannot start their day without the brown bag containing a coffee and donut/bagel from the Dunkin Donuts.Star bucks has become expensive after the onset of recession.
3. The health conscious brown baggers with a vegetable or fruit or veggie-fruit smoothie/juice/shake.
4. The curious ones checking for the mobile signal though they are aware that it does not work underground.
5. 90% of the people don’t even care to smile at you unlike the people in the midwest.If it was Chicago,you would befriend atleast 1 person a week on a regular ride.
6. 10% of the curious one’s who stare at your bindi and ask you to explain what a bindi is.!
The already crowded and slow moving traffic in this area would get even more cramped during the beginning and end of the school hours when the countless rikshakaran’s and parents including my own folks waiting to pickup the children would block this area.11 years later, I started taking the same route resuming my acquaintance with the dear subway being precautious to avoid the school hour traffic or when it was time for a boat ride instead of the regular scooty ride. Since the early 80’s that I remember, the subway continues to be the same good old being unlike humans who change over a period of time.
A competitive project to reduce the traffic which was started couple of years back to connect the 5-lights area with T.Nagar with another tiny subway could no longer keep up with our ripened friend. The project was recently discarded owing to the soil issues after couple of years of digging the soil turning the area to a mini …..mountain…no… valley…. hiking trail with plenty of ups and downs to the dismay of the residents and comfort of the autokaran’s who could lay the blame on the road for the increased fare. A ride from Kodambakkam to Pothys used to be 15 rupees in early 2005 which is not less than 50 rupees now.
A 20 minute crawl on the Duraiswamy subway on a full-traffic hour could:
1. Include a scratch to your new or old bike for sure.
2. Change your dress color from any light color to various shades of black and brown.
3. Add an additional layer of dusty makeup would be applied to your beautiful skin.
4. Make you could feel and taste mud stuck to your lips if you are a lipstick/chapstick user.
5. See couple of 2 wheelers colliding and rushing to squeeze through the available space
6. Watch a mini movie ~ An over loaded bus struggling to move, mini accidents including toppled autos
7.Witness some interesting conversations and chew outs!
8.Encourage you to add a point to your to-do list ~ Test for bronchitis in the next medical-checkup!!!
After moving to the United States, I did miss my friend for a while and guess it missed me too. This time it took a different appearance from the Duraisamy subway in the name of MTA-Subway.
As most of you know, the Big-apple is comprised of the under ground subway system for trains and MTA (metropolitan transport authority) includes buses and the subway train service.
Some interesting facts:
1.The largest subway car fleet in the world that operates 24-hours-a-day
2.Ridership on NYC Transit is approximately seven million daily - more than 2 billion annually.
3.NYC Transit employs nearly 47,000 people in more than 20 major departments and divisions
4.You could teach you child ~ alphabet, numbers and colors through the number of different subway lines
5.STEEP fare hikes inspite of being used the most!
What could be the best place other than a subway ride to observe people from all over the world in this vibrant BIG-APPLE? The most interesting way to start a day would be to take up a 10 minute subway ride.
On any regular day, through out the year, you could see .......
1. The busy office –goers either rushing to work or back to home to take the connecting trains
from the Pennsylvania station with the heavy laptops
2. The religious Brown baggers who cannot start their day without the brown bag containing a coffee and donut/bagel from the Dunkin Donuts.Star bucks has become expensive after the onset of recession.
3. The health conscious brown baggers with a vegetable or fruit or veggie-fruit smoothie/juice/shake.
4. The curious ones checking for the mobile signal though they are aware that it does not work underground.
5. 90% of the people don’t even care to smile at you unlike the people in the midwest.If it was Chicago,you would befriend atleast 1 person a week on a regular ride.
6. 10% of the curious one’s who stare at your bindi and ask you to explain what a bindi is.!
You would burn the energy from your breakfast if you had kept a sindoor which means a double explanation for the bindi and sindoor.
7. Tourist searching the FREE subway map (who said nothing is free in america???) for their next destination trying to memorize the number of stops that have to be bypassed.(you can ask for a subway map in any of the subway stations and they are given out for no cost)
8. " Lost in their own world " award goes to the following people :
* High volume on their ipods disturbing others
* Busy with their books waiting to complete the novel
* The spiritual ones chanting their daily prayers
* Students doing their home work
* browsing through their black berry checking for emails
* quick touchup to correct their makeup
9. Passionate lovers who couldn’t resist.
10. Tiny tots excited by the train ride
11. Gothic dressed souls wearing a red or black dress,spiky neck chain.You could feast your eyes looking at their pierced nose bridge,eye brows, over painted eyes
12. A home-less person narrating a story on how he served as a veteran but got AIDS or a
formally dressed young woman with a back-pack asking you to lend a hand.
13. A person giving a religious sermon who expects your utmost attention and not the money.
Men may come and men may go but subways go on for ever!!!
There is yet another subway which is also an integral part of my life and you know what it is :-))
7. Tourist searching the FREE subway map (who said nothing is free in america???) for their next destination trying to memorize the number of stops that have to be bypassed.(you can ask for a subway map in any of the subway stations and they are given out for no cost)
8. " Lost in their own world " award goes to the following people :
* High volume on their ipods disturbing others
* Busy with their books waiting to complete the novel
* The spiritual ones chanting their daily prayers
* Students doing their home work
* browsing through their black berry checking for emails
* quick touchup to correct their makeup
9. Passionate lovers who couldn’t resist.
10. Tiny tots excited by the train ride
11. Gothic dressed souls wearing a red or black dress,spiky neck chain.You could feast your eyes looking at their pierced nose bridge,eye brows, over painted eyes
12. A home-less person narrating a story on how he served as a veteran but got AIDS or a
formally dressed young woman with a back-pack asking you to lend a hand.
13. A person giving a religious sermon who expects your utmost attention and not the money.
Men may come and men may go but subways go on for ever!!!
There is yet another subway which is also an integral part of my life and you know what it is :-))
