A metro ride with an adventurous and tiring twist
Welcome To CitySpidey

Location

A metro ride with an adventurous and tiring twist

"There will be a short delay, sorry for the inconvenience", what a joke

A metro ride with an adventurous and tiring twist

Delhi: After a long tiring day of work, one thing I look forward to is getting home for a hearty dinner and good night's sleep. On May 20, 2022, as I stepped out of office, the cool breeze brushed my face and hair and oh lord, it was a respite from the scorching heat Delhi has been enduring lately. However, what happened next broke that little bubble of happiness of mine.

As usual, I boarded metro from Barakhamba station on the blue line of DMRC at 7 pm and it was packed. It usually takes me close to one hour to reach my home in Dwarka Sector 8 and as I waited for my destination to come, I like to spend my time with my earphones plugged in, listening to music. However, as soon as the metro reached Shadipur station, I could see it was raining outside. After a halt of 15 minutes, I heard the announcement "There will be a short delay, sorry for the inconvenience", however, the delay was not short at all. For almost an hour, I with hundreds of other passengers waited for the metro to move.

While the metro pilot was enquired about the delay, he said, "At Nawada metro station, the wire has broken and also there is some technical problem in this metro. Dwarka to Noida and Vaishali, the whole blue line metro service will be disrupted for quite a long time". Following this, a technician came and checked the metro and informed us that everyone needs to get off the train soon. "Please cooperate with the metro staff and get off the train soon, there is some technical issue in the train and also at Nawada metro station. All the metro trains on this line will work with delay", he said. A wave of frustration and worry surfaced and almost everyone started calling their home informing about the delay.

Credit: CitySpidey

I messaged my brother about the problem and checked the Twitter handle of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) and saw their tweet about the delay. A lady again went to the metro pilot and asked "When will the next metro come? And where will it go?" to which, the Metro pilot answered, "It will take a half-hour but because of a wiring problem at Nawada station. The service will be very slow."

Hundreds of people are waiting on both sides of the station, trying to figure out a way to reach home. The rain which seemed like a respite from the rising mercury now stood in the way to people trying to go home. As we all were waiting, a lady approached my and asked for water because she was feeling anxious. She tells me, "I am new to this place and I live in Dwarka Mor, I don't know the other route to go there. Do you heard what the driver say, when will next metro come?". I gave her water and helped her with the bus route and we both decided to wait for some time for the metro.

Also read: Greater Noida West- Will the metro arrive this time?

After a total of one and a half hour of waiting, a metro came and all the passengers boarded the train in hurry. It almost looked like a stampede as the children and elderly people were struggling to get through. From a distance, I could even see an old lady falling down. The metro was so crowded, it was difficult to even get a little aside. But we all managed, we had to go home after all.

Credit: CitySpidey

I was standing for the last 90 minutes, tired and irritated. The metro started to move and it was a good 2 minute ride as it stopped again at Kirti Nagar station and took a halt of 20 minutes. The train again moved forward and stopped at Ramesh Nagar for 25 minutes. The announcements of a technical problems were still going on.

Credit: CitySpidey

With time, it got so overwhelming that I lost my trust in the metro for the night and decided to ditch it. I tried booking a cab but now the network decided to leave my side, courtesy rain. I called my brother and asked him to book a cab for me. Luckily he found one cab near my location and booked that for me. But again it started raining heavily. When I was trying to exit, my card didn't work as we had exceeded the time limit of being inside the metro station. So was the case with everyone else as well. The customer care executive asked us for money and when we denied saying that it wasn't our fault, he again asked us to wait for fifteen minutes.

Later, they allow us to exit the metro station from the door meant for the metro staff. I exited and waited for my cab at Ramesh Nagar metro station in the rain for five minutes. At around 9:15 pm, my cab arrived and I finally saw a hope to reach home. But hey, a little adventure was still left for the night. Because of the rain, the roads were traffic jammed and I got stuck at Dhaula Kuan. While chitchatting with the cab driver, I told him about what went down at the metro station today and he called his son to warn him not to take metro for his night shift. It felt good as I saved someone from what I had just gone through.

After two and a half hours of trouble, I reached home at around 10 pm and that's where my adventure came to an end.