Namma Metro

Bangalore Metro – A Carnival on Wheel

By Smriti Rao
Commuting in Bangalore isn’t for the faint-hearted.
Almost three months after moving to India’s IT hub, I had barely ventured out of my apartment. Shifting to the city from Mumbai, where I had navigated short distances by puttering about in an auto-rickshaw and traversed larger areas by hopping on a local train, my mobility was ruthlessly curbed.

If you wanted to go anywhere in Bangalore, you either used your own car, begged a friend for a ride or took a deep breath and prepared to take on foul-mouthed and greedy auto-rickshaw drivers who thought nothing of cheating you and then lecturing you on the immorality of refusing to pay an extra 20 rupees above the meter fare.

You could rarely ever “get going” in Bangalore. The norm was endless waits at traffic junctions, cheek-to-jowl with the hundreds of other two wheelers, cars, autos and buses that were trying, just like you, to get somewhere in a timeframe that didn’t resemble an inter-galactic space journey.
IBM’s Annual Global Commuter Pain Survey earlier this year pegged Bangalore as the sixth most painful city in the world for commuting, while India’s capital New Delhi came in seventh. The survey said that commuters in Bangalore, on average, spent 36 minutes or more on congested roads trying to get to their workplace or school.
So, when the Bangalore Metro was inaugurated with great fanfare on Oct. 20, I was happy that for just 10-15 rupees a ticket, I could finally “go somewhere.” If all goes well, an estimated one million commuters in the city are also expected to take the train each day, according to The Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd.
The first time I went to ride the Metro I was pretty excited. Living barely a kilometer away from the new Baiyyapanahalli Metro station, I marched purposefully to get the train and ride to the city’s commercial hub, MG Road – the last stop on the line. The new train could get me there in a smooth 15 minutes, rather than a traffic-clogged 45-minute slog in an auto or car. I could finally spend a day shopping without worrying about getting stuck in traffic on the way home. I could eat chicken nuggets, try on new shoes, maybe get a new haircut…the possibilities were endless.
As I exited my apartment, I barged triumphantly across the road; pointedly ignoring the auto driver parked outside, with whom haggling and fighting over fares had become a regular feature of my life. I would ride the Metro and his business would be driven to dust.
Serves him right for never using his meter, I thought, smirking to myself. Who’s the winner now?!
But my mood soon changed when I arrived at the station. As I approached the ticket counter, I recoiled like a vampire in sunlight – yes, I had caught sight of the huge queue. A whopping 70,000 people had reportedly taken the train in just the first week of its launch and there were at least 200 people at the ticket counter at my station.
Normally I’m fine with long lines, provided that the person behind me doesn’t feel the need to attach himself/herself to my back. Knowing our propensity as a nation to press into each other when we stand in line, I slinked outside the station and sheepishly hailed an auto. Auto-wallah 1, Me 0.
For my second attempt, I timed my trip more carefully. Heading out almost a week after the Metro was inaugurated, I expected to see smaller crowds at the station. I was wrong again. This time I managed to get my ticket relatively unmolested, but the platform was another story.
Entire families, including grandparents, had decided to check out the new service. Ladies shimmered in shiny sequined saris, nervously clutching their babies swaddled in thick sweaters, while their IT husbands stood by like Steve Jobs replicas in their 80s-style jeans.
A harassed security guard frantically marched up and down the platform, blowing his whistle and manically waving his baton when people inched too close to the edge of the platform for a glimpse of the tracks. Having lived and taken the train in New York, I dreaded the thought of someone falling. I wondered morbidly how Bangalore would react to its first Metro death and imagined sensationalist media reports headlined “Death Train” and calling for the service to be shut down.
When the shiny silver Metro finally pulled into the station, a charge of excitement shot through the waiting crowd. As the doors slid open, the crowd moved en masse like a landslide. Used to long waits and elbowing their way into crowded buses and trains, these people weren’t going to let the train streak away without them. Like me, they were determined to get in, despite the next train being only 10 minutes away.
The excitement peaked as the train pulled away from the station. Passengers dug digital cameras out of bags and pockets for family photos on the new train, which had become pretty much a carnival on wheels. Babies were hoisted up and made to smile into cameras. Other children writhed excitedly in their parents’ laps. One family turned to face the window and burst open a bag of chips as if watching a movie. Conversations were loud, excited and for the most part everyone was thrilled about finally “going somewhere.”
The party reluctantly packed up 15 minutes later when we reached our destination. As the crowd spilled into the station, I saw my fellow passengers gleam with a bright glow that I previously only associated with a 60-minute spa session. Trooping out of the station into a wet Bangalore evening, I rejoiced at how soon I had got to MG road. To celebrate, I shopped and took the train back home when I was done.
Getting around Bangalore just got a whole lot easier.
Smriti Rao is a news anchor and producer. A graduate of Columbia Journalism School, Ms. Rao has worked with major Indian TV networks including NDTV and Bloomberg’s India affiliate-UTV.
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