The Contrast

Few hours and it has been world of a difference. I had to catch a flight and to catch that I had to go to Delhi taking a 2 hour ride in general compartment of a train.

In the general compartment, it was not much overcrowded, maybe 120 odd people in a bogie that can seat around 80 people. Not overcrowded by any standards in this part of world, and they all were comfortably adjusted at their seats. There was a teen smoking his beedi, who reluctantly put it off after I complained that it was causing uneasiness in me. Then there was that lady in her teens probably married who was hollering on probably everyone out there. Then there was a group of 3 ladies, of whom one was a grandmother, and 2 had probably 9 kids between them (I could count only till 9!). They seemed highly ignorant about where Delhi was and were reluctant to believe that they had still more than an hour before Delhi came. Yet they were adamant on being close to gate as they had kids and didn’t want to be left behind when Delhi came. Then there were people who were trying to catch precious moments of sleep as they snuggled themselves into positions of comfort amidst uncomfortable seats, filthy aisles and mild stink. Most of the people, I felt were quite ignorant about things and probably knew very little about what was outside their ‘world’. Maybe it was due to lack of opportunities owing to socio-economic status or lack of willingness to learn or restricted view of things (which is often a product of above two!) or probably they are not motivated or willing enough to learn or probably a combination of few of these.

Completely different was the scene at the airport with all its ‘pseud’ junta, mostly nibbling sandwiches or pasties or cookies and likes, with a newspaper in one hand and a coffee in other. Maybe a third of them had laptop in their hand, and they loved to flaunt it. The TV set gave all the current news about the happenings in this world, and most of them were abreast with them. Within the aircraft most kept themselves glued to magazines, laptops, ipods and mostly unaware of & least concerned about what was there 37,000 feet below them, and though aware of key happenings in world, they were almost completely oblivious of what was happening right under their nose.

These two worlds in a space of few hours presented a stark contrast. We often claim to be doing well; we often claim that India is shining but it is quite restricted. Maybe it covers only the second class of people, but like an iceberg, only the tip is visible but a lot of chunk is under the surface of water which is often unnoticed and uncared for.