2010.12.15
Early in the morning I took the subway to work. My workplace is about an hour distance from where I stay, but it’s normal for the city people. Most people travel to work every day and one hour journey is a very short one. Some take subways from the east of the city to the west which takes nearly two and a half hours. I used to know people who took trains from the suburban to come to school every day. At first, it sounded crazy to me, a person from a small town where almost everything is walking distance and no public transportation around. In my hometown, if you don’t have a car, you can travel probably with bicycle or a scooter or motorbike. But here in this city of ice, public transportation is widely available.
Today, the subway was as congested as usual. Standing in front of the fully taken seats, hoping for somebody to stand up; it was almost like warfare. Those that were sitting mostly reading or resting their eyes; those who were standing, like me, were mostly trying to be alert glancing here and there, sensing the movement around because every movement could mean somebody was standing up. And to grab a seat, speed matters. The most excellent “seat grabbers”, that’s what I would like to call them, are middle aged female who fight for most of the things in their everyday life. They fight to be in the front line to pay for their grocery; they bargain to get the lowest price in the market; and of course, they fight for their seats in public transportations. They are the best fighters. So, today I happened to stand in front of a male in his forties wearing his everyday suits resting his eyes, Next to her, was a middle size female who was resting her eyes too. However, this lady seemed to fall in her dreaming fantasy land as time passed by; she started to lose the balance and leaned towards the man. Her head was downwards and her arms were holding her bag tightly. As she leaned towards him, his immediately open his eyes and scanned around. At then, he gave a disgusted facial expression and pushed her slightly. She got up. For five seconds. And the same thing happened all over again. This scene got me to think, what if the female was a hot and beautiful young girl, would the man had reacted the same? Well, I guess I would have to try it out next time, lol!
As more people got off the subway, I got a seat. There was another scene which I watched with the feeling of unreasonable and pity at the same time. Here, many old people go around collecting newspaper to earn a living. Every morning, you can spot people in their seventies pushing through the crowed trying to grab every single newspaper they can because every single one could add a little more food to their empty stomach. I have no idea why aren’t their children taking care of them, perhaps some are just alone. And today, when a man who was reading a newspaper moved, walking towards the door to prepare for getting off the train, the newspaper collector who was in her sixties with rough wrinkles all over her face said, ”Can you please leave the paper here before you get down if you have finished reading?”. Her shivering voice piercing through my eardrums, gave me a sense of bitterness. The man ignored her and left with the newspaper. There she was, staring in vain for a few seconds; and then turned around to continue collecting newspaper. It was sad. It could be unreasonable for the man when she requested him to give the newspaper, but she did not say it in an impolite or demanding way.
Here, in the public transportation, some fight for seats and some fight for newspaper that feed their hungry stomach.
