Once reliant on rickety DTC buses plagued by poor service, Delhi now boasts a state-of-the-art metro network, revolutionising travel and making commuting a breeze
Can you drop me at the Dhaula Kuan Metro Station in your car? I must catch the 1800 hrs train from there!, requested my colleague, Madhu Jasrai, as we were leaving the office in the Bhikaji Cama Place complex. “Sure, why not!!” I replied nonchalantly. “I have some work on the other side of town, and it is prudent to travel by the metro, instead of taking risks, and getting gridlocked in the peak traffic” she explained. I could not have agreed more.
After she got off at Dhaula Kuan, I resumed my journey towards Dwarka, and instinctively, my mind, always in a mad rush, raced back in time, to the days when Delhi didn’t have a mass transit system. When we, the people of Delhi, had to depend entirely on the rickety, black smoke-spewing Yellow-Green DTC buses which operated at the base level of punctuality, hygiene, customer service and safety. So much so, that the monster red buses earned the well-deserved sobriquet of being a ‘killer line’, due to the number of fatal accidents in which they were involved. Mercifully, for a long time, my exposure to this horrible service was limited, as I had the privilege of travelling on the school bus.
Although the situation changed when I moved to college, and then university, there remained a saving grace, the University Special, which, with a monthly all-route student pass for a measly Rs 12.50 was the lifeline of students. But, despite these safeguards, it was difficult to remain isolated from the scary DTC, where the drivers behaved as if they owned Delhi roads as if it were a grand prix track. And the less said about the frequency & punctuality of the service, the better it is, as quite often, one had to wait for hours on end before an overcrowded bus appeared on the horizon, heaving like a fatigued tortoise. Expectedly, even before it came to a halt, a virtual stampede ensued. In the melee, there was an exchange of choicest Punjabi abuses, fisticuffs, an occasional physical altercation, lucrative business for pickpockets and chain snatchers, and worst of all, a field day for eve-teasers. It was while travelling on these buses that Delhi denizens earned most of their characteristics- of being brawny, insensitive to women and disorderly.
During this hullabaloo, the role of the crew was unpredictable. Sometimes they preferred to be mute spectators- watching over the fracas with the serenity of a smiling Buddha. At other times, they were grumpy, with a short fuse, and embroiled in heated arguments with harassed commuters, with hard-to-imagine ferocity Nevertheless, once the confusion sorted, as if by divine intervention, and there was no space for more passengers- as every nook and cranny, including the windows, footrests and the rickety bars at the rear of the bus had been gobbled- the driver pressed the accelerator, to bring the bus into painful motion. Hereon, the law of the jungle took over, as rules were flouted with impunity, without fear of the law- seats reserved for women, the elderly and the physically challenged, hardly, if ever, went to those for whom these had been earmarked. Signs of ‘no smoking’, ‘no tobacco’, ‘no litter’ and ‘no spitting’ were ignored callously, without an iota of deterrence. Hygiene, well what is that?
At the end of this mayhem, those who missed boarding the bus had to wait, patiently, for their next attempt. And the wheel started moving in the same pattern, once more. This long reverie concluded when I reached home and parked the car in its slot. As I walked towards my house, I thanked the stars (not any politician or bureaucrat) for the winds of change that have blown across the face of my city, transforming it in three decades, heralding the era when state-of-the-art Metro crisscrossed Delhi like an octopus spreading its tentacles, when radio cabs whizz around, when CNG & electric buses is a common sight. Delhi’s public transport system has indeed come of age.
(The author is a freelance writer; views are personal)
