Why Every Metro Ride Feels Like a Story

I’ll start with a confession: travelling has never excited me. I don’t crave thrill nor do I enjoy the rush of metros. Yet, there’s one thing I cannot deny: the Delhi Metro is a living canvas of human stories.

Every compartment is a moving tapestry, each face carrying a character so easy to read. The workaholic tapping away on their laptop. The juiciest gossipers whispering with sparks in their eyes. The quiet book readers lost in their own world.

Sometimes, I spot small families and their togetherness reminding me of my own childhood. And though I belong to the grumpy kind, I always find myself softening,a smile escapes me when a child breaks into silly little mischiefs.

Once, I noticed a girl conversing in sign language and her hands painting words in the air. There was something beautiful about the quiet grace of her movements. Another time, an old couple sat across me, speaking in a language I couldn’t understand yet laughing so freely that their joy needed no translation.

Perhaps that’s why I don’t mind the metro as much. It may not thrill me but it does remind me that life in all its hues is always in motion.

A carriage full of strangers each carrying a universe and for a brief while our journeys overlap.