“The first coach of every train is reserved for ladies only, male passengers are requested not travel in this coach”, this is a very often heard announcement in the metro stations of the Delhi Metro. The reason for providing the one full coach for ladies as we all presume is to provide the lady commuters a more comfortable and convenient travel. We all, male or female understand that travelling in the public transport with the crowd makes it inconvenient and uncomfortable. The various reasons we all are aware of and need no revision here.
All this said I would like to narrate some parts from my day to day travel diary
There was as usual lot of crowd on the Kashmiri gate metro station; I was to board the metro going toward Rithala. As usual the guards were fighting their luck to persuade the lady passengers to stay in line and leave the centre space for the passengers to de board the train. But somewhere in their heart they also must be aware that their efforts will not bear any fruits as they see daily. Other than that another problem for them was to move the male passengers out of the ladies coach and they shouted and told to hold the train if they don’t move. They warned to call the authorities at next station and fine the guilty and train rushed on amidst all this. The next two stations saw the officials and the policeman respectively to buzz off the men out of the first coach. I got down when the policemen were still persuading the abettors out of the ladies coach. I felt sort of pity at the sight of mockery done to the laws and provisions made for the women in the society. The incident is nothing new and rare and is enacted in the public transport very often.
The coming one is even more interesting
I overheard a lady commuter one day suggesting a friend of her to travel by general coaches rather than just the ladies. The advantage according to her is that as the metro in peak hours are crowded and hence there are rare chances to get a seat at her station. But if you enter a general coach and as it is that the metro coaches a few seat reserved for ladies/senior citizens/physically challenged so you can always get the ladies seat evacuated. Wow! I thought even when you have got a complete share of yours in the pie you are still busy in penetrating to others zone and snatch away as much as we can.
The above two incidents can be ignored very easily in our busy daily lives. But if we just stop for a few minutes and give it a thought, we realize how these two actions are not good for social life. I mean taking the first incident how could we expect these men to educate their kids, son to be more specific to respect the dignity and space of women. How can we expect that we will have the future generation with the morals and learning to respect the women and her rights when the upbringing of them is in hands of such people? How can we say that we are not moving towards the time when society is bound to see more cruel happenings as the Keenan Rueben case has been? There are various reasons given by men to board the ladies coach, the most frequent one is this. As the ladies coach gate is the first one near to the escalator or the stairs, we may have to miss the train if we move towards next gate. I would like to remind here that the frequency of the metro is 3 mins on these lines in peak hours. 3 minutes I don’t think is as much time that forces you to behave in such a way.
The other one is even more dangerous as the culprit here is a mother. Mother is ought to be the first teacher in everyone’s life. Now what to expect from a mother so desperate to get a seat?
Such actions when added up tell you the state of society and health of its civic life. I feel sorry to say that the condition of the civic life is very pathetic. We all move on roads and behave in public as in we have no moral responsibility for being part of society. Our behavior is even more shameless that the stray animals roaming around.
Science tells us that we human beings belong to the larger group that is of animals only; it is just the wisdom to use our mind that we have got from God that separates us from other animals. But the behavior of above type puts us back in the group along with other animals. Man evolved from the family of apes and it seems to me as if our ancestors are calling us back to their world. Even a pet can be made good mannered if trained well, then why cannot we groom our ways. The only point I wish to put across is that let us stop just living the life but live it in a more aware state of mind.
Our epics and spiritual preaching always warn us to watch our actions as they one day will become our character. And the very character of ours will then add up to make the character of an area, a country and the complete planet as whole. Let us wake up from the sleep we have induced ourselves in and our ways. If we will keep sleeping the way we are now, day is not far when the world will resemble more to a concrete jungle with each one running around for his/her carnival needs and not worried for others and love and life will become extinct. Let us pledge to save our character and hence the life on earth.
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