Mexico Metro

Metro

The metro station was just 50 meters away from my house. It acted as a landmark to explain my address. The metro is serving the Mexican people for about 37 years. The design of the system is French. If one has seen the Paris subway system then he can immediately co-relate this system to it. The metro stations are neat and clean. The ticket for the metro is just two pesos equivalent to Rs 8/- . This two pesos single journey ticket enables a passenger to travel upto the farthest point in the metro system. Delhi Metro seems to be very costly in comparison to the Mexican metro. Stations which act as junctions are huge and at some places one has to walk for about a kilometer to reach the desired platform. These stations have many vendors and shops. The common products on sale are chewing gum. Here it is pertinent to mention that the origin of Chewing gum (Chiclets) was in Mexico. I was surprised to see the high demand and supply of Chewing gum but shortly I discovered the reason which I will share later.

The rush hours are from 8.00 am to 10 am and from 5 pm to 8 pm. The crowd ranges from immaculately dressed office goers to the typical daily laborers with clothes stained with grease and dirt. My Language classes were in UNAM, Copilco. I used to change the metro twice to reach my destination.

The area where I used to stay is called a Polanco. It is one of the most posh localities of Mexico. Embassies, commercial establishments and top notch hotels, gourmet restaurants and exclusive showrooms adorn this locality. As my class was at 9.15 am I used to start my journey at about 8 am. Normally if you are at any station at the same time everyday means that you see many familiar faces. But this is not the case in Mexico because the frequency of each metro is about 2 minutes so there is not much waiting time and hence the possibility of meeting the same people or getting in love with someone is meager. That was bad luck for a bachelor like me!!

As explained above Polanco is a business center so the metro comes with full load of people who alight at this station. People used to tell that Mexican metro is overcrowded. I used to think in my mind that if these people had seen India especially the Local Trains in Mumbai or the DTC buses in Delhi then they would not have told this to me. The crowded metro in winter is of added advantage. One can never feel the cold due to the warmth of all the people!!

I was a non participant observer (I love this term which I learnt in sociology). Let’s start by the working class ladies. This class is very interesting and attracts immediate attention of a non participant observer who is also a bachelor!! I guess that the behavior of this class in all the major cities of the world would be the same. Immediately after ‘acquiring ‘a seat they open their make-up box. These working ladies carry two bags. I don’t know what do they carry in their second bag but the first one is their make- up box!!!

The Mexican girls are ‘crazy’ about their eyebrows. They have special tools to prick the small hairs from the eye brows. I really wonder how can they mange this finesse in the crowded wagon. Some are busy in blackening or coloring and some in trimming eyebrows. The immense dedication of these ‘Mexicanas’ (Spanish word for Mexican ladies) always keeps me wondering about questions like -Why only eyebrows? Is there no other facial part to ‘work on’? Some even shave off their eyebrows totally and keep themselves busy in coloring the same. Personally I disliked this shaved off eyebrows and hence I kept such people out of my ‘sphere of observation’. A mirror is the most important part of their make-up equipment. The make- up ‘business’ has many advantages. The first and the foremost is that look more presentable in the office, second advantage is that it is an excellent time pass in the metro. The monotony of the journey is changed into a time saving exercise because the ‘make up time’ at residence is used in the train.

The second class of passengers which I liked was students. If in group (rarely) then they keep on chatting and chatting on almost all topics on the surface of the earth. But in the morning hours I saw them studying or completing their home work or cramming for the exam .Metro is clean so many students prefer to sit down on the floor. I enjoyed students studying maths, applied mechanics, fluid mechanics, medicine, law etc. I had prepared notes for my Spanish grammar. I used to read the same regularly. Some teachers find it convenient to assess the answer sheets in the metro.

Lovers form an important component of the canvas of the metro system. They are least bothered (to say the minimum) about what’s going around them, how much crowd is there in the metro etc. They are too busy in love making and kissing. For a person from India where the majority says ‘Namaste ‘ from about a 3 feet distance (being an civil engineer I like to quantify things) this kissing business next to me within less than a feet distance was a bit surprising for me. Later on after some days I too got used to it and bothered least about this class of people. Kissing in public places in Mexico is very common and that the reason of the very high sale of Chiclets in Mexico.

In love making and kissing one can very easily see that Mexicanas take the lead. In lighter vein I always asked the Mexicans,” Hundred percent Mexican girls are happy, tell me why?” When they were unable to reply I used to give my answer. At any moment of time fifty percent of the Mexican girls are kissing, twenty five percent have just kissed and the rest twenty five percent are happy because they are going to kiss.

One very important observation which anyone can make is the extremely high use of hair products from styling gels to hair colors. Normally all men use the styling gel. The typical Mexican man will have will have shot, bright and standing hair. The hair colors range from green to coffee. There is hardly any girl who has not colored her hair. Till date I’m not able to tell the exact hair color of the Mexicans. Hair products companies like L’Oreal and Garnier must have tried very hard to get into hair product market in India but I bet they must have hardly got any success. Mexico is a huge market for these hair color companies.

There is one lucky class of transit sleepers. These people have a god given gift of sleeping till they reach their destination. It doesn’t matter if they are seated or standing. Nothing much can be said about them except envying and appreciating their ability to sleep and get up when desired. Other interesting class is of people who have had insufficient sleep. These poor creatures have got up against the wish of their body and are awakening in jerks after short sessions of sleep.

Other set of people are music lovers. These people are lost in their own world listening to their favorite music. Ipods, Mobile phones with radio, CD players have revolutionized the world of music. Now one can hear and listen to their favorite tunes as and when desired. Mexicans are great lovers of music. The CD/DVD vendors are a class which needs a special mention here. In no time does one vendor alights the bogie the other boards. They have a bag containing speakers along with the DVDs for sale. The DVD (audio or video) player is in their hands. The DVD cost is just 10 Mexican pesos equivalent to one USD. The range is from the latest hits like Spiderman to a special collection of all time hits of rock, salsa, cumbia, meringue and regetton. They play loud the best of the songs in the album .Thanks to these vendors that I too have my own collection of the best Latino music. People rich or poor, spare money to buy their favorite piece of music.

Then there is also the group of live musicians. I have frequently seen musicians playing guitar, accordion or just singing without any musical instrument. One musician I would never forget. During my return journey there was a tall young man with long hair. He carried a guitar, a mike, two big speakers and 12 volt battery for the speakers. I admire his skills to aboard the metro and single handedly arrange all the equipment in the metro. He had a nice voice.

There was one group of three musicians. I liked their comradeship and co –ordination. Generally these musicians completed one song till the metro reached the next station. On an average the travel time between two stations is 3 to 4 minutes.

Gays and gay couples prefer the last bogie and normally they wait at the end of the platform.

On weekends one can see families traveling to the main Zocalo , Bellas Artes etc. Zocalo, Bellas Artes, Merced , Salto del Agua , Tepito are the Famous shaopping areas f0r items ranging computer peripherals to candles, from Cutlery to clothes. Our Chandani chowk and Sarojini Nagar shopping areas of New Delhi seem much smaller in comparison to these markets.