"He dragged her up his winding stair, into his dismal den, Within his little parlor; but she ne’er came out again!"

After expressing Strong Feelings* against the Pink Coach (the Delhi Metro ‘ladiej’), I find myself frequenting it.

Most of the times this is because the first coach is the coach I’m accustomed to travelling in on the Blue Line and other times because the only coach that is relatively less crowded on the Yellow Line is the women’s coach. And sometimes, when I’m on the phone and blindly walk into a coach, I find that I have sub-consciously walked into the women’s coach. This is precisely what I was afraid of-women's space being indirectly shrunk. And I have actively let myself choose to be shrunk into one compartment; I am not proud of myself.

From tomorrow, I shall make it a POINT to NOT enter the ‘Ladiej’ even if I’m dying to find a seat so I can doze, or I have to let three trains go before I am finally able to stuff myself into a compartment**.  

* I tend to Feel Strongly about a lot of things in life. It's not an attitude I cultivate; I'm just built that way. 

I like to think that I keep my Strong Feelings to myself most of the times. I mean, if I meet you at the Dentist’s, I will probably talk about the weather (I do that a lot too). I will even nod my head non-commitantly (which spell-check tells me is not a word) if you raise an issue I have a Strong Feeling/Strong Opinion about (and I’ve had a lot of practise of that at work). But if you invite conversation, I will share. I will also listen.  

** Stuffing oneself into the Delhi metro is common practise (after all, we ARE fourteen million!). Stuffing OTHERS into the train so you can get on- NOT COOL. Do you hear me lady-who-prodded-the-manymen-on-the-last-coach-like-she-was-stuffing-cottonwool-into-a-box?