Fellow metro passengers ...

I have been wanting to write on this for quite some time now however due to scarcity of time , couldn't pen it down.

Traveling by metro is an experience in itself and one does come across interesting set of people. More so when, daily commute is of two hours.  Let me jot down about the most interesting types that I have observed:

1) The narcissist: Boys/men of all age groups, who spend good amount of their commute time by observing their own reflections on door/window glasses and feeling happy and contented. Never mind the occasional bald patch or the paunch.

2) The showstoppers: ladies/girls fit the bill. Perfect height, perfect hair, perfect skin tone, enviable physique combined with tasteful clothes and accessories. Time of the day doesn't matter to them. Whether it's the morning commute or late evening return, they appear just perfect.

3) The Music Jockeys: Another interesting lot; they tend to play their preferred music so loud that even if you are two coaches away, the music will be clearly audible and you can dance to the beats! I really don't understand why do these people use headphones/earphones?

4) The Book worms: These set of people are very much attached to their books and journals. So much is the attachment, that they tend to continue reading even while walking down the platform, sometimes coming dangerously close to the edge.

5) Sleeping beauties: These people manage to take power naps even if they are standing. While seated, their snoring keeps other passengers awake and wide eyed!

6) The foodies: Though eating is prohibited inside the metro trains, somehow these people manage to smuggle in their burgers and shakes and have good time while traveling. Bon appetit to them..

7) Chatterboxes: specially the women/ girls fall in this category. They have inexhaustible energy and can yap for hours without showing any trace of tiredness.

8) The web series enthusiasts: These group is always hooked to their mobiles or tablets, devouring the episodes of current popular web series. Their engrossment level sometimes make them travel beyond their designated destinations!

So these are few of the passenger types i daily find during my metro commute..

Now, one may ask in which category do I belong? That I leave on my fellow passengers to decide ..

Signing off /-

Slow annihilation of greeting cards

Among-st other things, sending and receiving good wishes are an integral part of the festive season.It is as important as sharing sweets and candies or buying new purchases.

During this time of the year, I feel bit nostalgic about something that was so much inherent to the festivals. Buying, sending or receiving or even making them at home, was so much fun.

I am trying to revive our fond memories of Greetings cards. Unfortunately, due to technological advancement and changing dynamics of human needs and preferences, this once important article has seen the sunset.

I vividly remember how I would wait for greetings cards to be delivered by the post man during the Christmas and New year period.

Once I had received a Santa shaped card from one of my aunt (who was based in abroad that time) and had kept it with utmost care for many years. I even had made copies of it using drawing paper and crayons and had gifted to some of my close friends and class teacher.

Some of the cards received were pretty good. Nice paintings, sketches and photographs were depicted on them. I was particularly interested in the sketches and paintings. They provided good fodder to my personal drawing endeavors.

At that time, there used to be regular markets full of vendors who would sell cards of all shapes and sizes on footpaths and push carts.

They were very economical and appearance wise, some of them were excellent, though paper quality of some weren't upto the mark.

The artworks on the cards, though bore artistes' signature, but most of the time they weren't legible. However the quality of the sketches/water coloring/ pastel work was always commendable. I still wonder how such good work , was available in such attrociously low price ( most of them would come in 5- 10 rupees range !)

Then came the dot-com boom. Physical cards were being replaced by e-greeting sites.

Then came the mobile revolution. Greetings were exchanged via SMS.

And now we are in smart smartphone era, and our greetings exchanges are being taken care of by various mobile apps.

Greetings messages have lost the personal touch that they are supposed to have. Nowadays, it's only "forwarded".

The "forwards" don't have any true feelings associated with them.

Sadly, the old world charm has vanished..