Reserved
“I’m not sure if they should be doing that”, I said. Rachel was engrossed in her iphone and hardly paid heed to what I had just said. “Hey!” I said as I jolted her back out of her phone much to her annoyance to gain her attention.
“What do you want?” she said, visibly irritated at me for breaking her flow of whatsapp conversation with her friend.
“Did you not see what just happened?” I said clearly pissed off by her ignorance towards me. “No, I didn’t! And calm down boy, you almost made me panic by that sharp gesture of yours”.
“Do you see those of girls to my left, wearing black and blue tops? They just asked that man to vacate seats for them.” I said.
“So what is wrong with it?” she interrupted. “Those seats are reserved for ladies. Not a big deal, it happens every day. Men are asked to vacate seats for ladies if they happen to be sitting on seats reserved for women”
For those of you who aren’t familiar, apart from a whole coach being reserved for women, several seats in the remaining 6 to 8 coaches are also reserved for them in Delhi Metro trains. Metro trains are usually very crowded even in the not-so-peak hours and if you manage to find a seat for yourself then you are a one lucky commuter. So, people occupy whichever seats they get irrespective of the reservation category mentioned on them. Some do vacate these seats as and when any women or elderly citizen comes in, others simply refuse to give away their precious seats and continue their nice and comfortable metro journey much to the annoyance of the women commuters.
“Look at that poor guy, it seems he is pretty tired and he is carrying that bag which also seems quite heavy. They shouldn’t have made him vacate the seat and stand for his remaining journey.” I felt sympathetic towards that man who seemed to be a middle aged fellow probably in his thirties. The train was not that crowded. For all the chit chat the girls were doing, they could very well do that standing comfortably.
“You can’t do anything about it. Government made the rules and you’ve got to follow them. Everybody travelling in this train at this point must have had a hectic day at work. Everybody must be tired and this is no excuse to sit on a reserved seat and then refuse to vacate it. Men who refuse must feel ashamed of themselves” replied Rachel.
“The next station is Rajiv Chowk, please stand clear of the doors”, I heard the recorded female voice in the metro when Rachel pointed that we must move towards the door to de board the train. I gave one final glance towards those girls who looked chirpy and were busy gossiping about things I couldn’t hear. Rachel and I got off the train and headed one floor down to catch the yellow line train towards Huda City Center.
“But don’t you think it was a bit too harsh? For all that I could notice the girls looked fresh as a daisy and all the talking that they were doing could very well have been done while standing too!”, I said as I caught up with Rachel, rushing down the crowded stairs towards the platform.
The train entered the platform and we boarded the compartment. The train was fairly crowded with no visible space to sit but, seemed like one could stand and still manage to have a pleasant journey. Just then, Rachel went up towards a seat which was reserved for women where a young lanky guy was seated. She told him to vacate the seat for her. He looked at her once and obediently got up without any defiance.
I was infuriated at Rachel’s gesture. “See, this is what I was talking about!” I said.
“Now what is your excuse? That this guy was tired or too old to stand? Sure as hell he wasn’t. What’s your problem?” she blasted at me with irritation clearly visible on her face. “Government has given women this facility so that we can travel comfortably. I don’t see any reason not to make use of it”
“Making use of a facility is one thing and exploiting is another thing” I blurted.
“Look”, she said with calmness in her voice. “Men outnumber women by a large margin nowadays. There are only 944 females to every 1000 males. It is only fair that women are given some additional advantage so that they are in the race. This is one of the prime reasons for women reservations. Women have been exploited badly in the past. Female infanticides and feticides are still one of the primary reasons for less number of women present in the society. Not just that, the reservation given in terms of an entire coach in the metro is due to a need for women to feel secure. Government has to take steps towards their upliftment so as to encourage them to go out to work. It is probably a way to embolden them to jostle out of the crowded stations and travel as freely as men do”
“Fair enough, I get your point. Reservation is something that is the need of the hour and I won’t say anything against that. My problem here is the exploitation of a facility being provided to women. Let’s take a small example here. Here is a situation when it’s the peak office hours where the train is extremely crowded with hardly any space to move. A situation like this is a difficult one for a woman considering that men outnumber women and women need to bear the jostles and shoving of some indecent men who make their journey very uncomfortable. In such a case, I won’t mind women to occupy the reserved seats. I’d be more than happy to vacate a seat for them considering that I know there are some very filthy men out there who’d pass glances and shove women deliberately had they been standing and travelling”
“Now here is another situation which we are in right now, you can’t say that the train is extremely crowded because one has enough space to stand peacefully and continue their journey. This isn’t a circumstance that demands extra privilege to anyone. But still women deliberately make people stand from the reserved seats. Some of them even go to the extent of making people vacate the normal unreserved seats. Now let’s imagine that the guy is defiant, the woman would scream at her and everybody would look at the man as if he committed some heinous crime. The society has become like that. If a woman shouts at a man in public, automatically the blame is on the man. Fingers will be raised at him and he only would have done something wrong. Anyway, my point being, if equality is what women talk about, they should also recognize the situation they are in and make use of the resources provided to them in a sensible manner. It is okay if you let a man sit on a reserved seat. Who knows he might be dead tired with wanting some rest when some girl asks him to get up”
“Hey! Not all women behave like this. There are except…”
“I know that there are exceptions” I interrupted her. “Not all women are ruthless who argue and shout at men and order the seats to be vacated for them. I found it was my need to bring this issue up after witnessing the scene in the previous metro. If women claim to be equally strong they don’t require support in the form of reservations all the time. Sometimes it is okay to let go off that reserved seat”
Rachel didn’t answer. She seemed to be in a thread of her own thoughts. Maybe the fact that after all I had recognized the need for reservations made her think a little more openly. Otherwise usually males put arguments totally against reservations which on hearing make women go crazy as they start narrating the trauma and problems they face while travelling due to the indecent male population.
I moved towards the door and stood there listening to some music. I pondered more on the scenario that we were discussing. I couldn’t ignore her statement of women facing a lot of trouble by cheap people who harass them by passing lewd comments and catcalling. To be frank, it is indeed unfair to them. No matter what, they’ll never be able to avoid such situations in their lives. Some or the other jerk will always be there to ruin things. Just like one fish spoils the entire pond, similarly a few men are enough to bring bad name to the entire lot.
I glanced at the seat where Rachel was sitting but found some middle aged man in her place. I turned to my left and Rachel was standing beside me near the door.
“Our station is 20 minutes away” I said.
“Shh! You are probably right. I don’t have any luggage nor am I tired. The metro is also not crowded and I don’t have any work that needs to be done while sitting and I do have company. So it doesn’t make sense for me to unnecessarily tell someone to vacate a seat”
A part of me was shocked that she admitted her mistake and corrected it. Usually we just keep arguing and never really listen to what the other person is trying to say. She listened to the point I made, pondered over it and maybe thought that it did make sense.
“The next station is Qutub Minar, please stand clear of the door”. We got off the train and I glanced through the window when I saw another young, lean, middle aged woman occupying the seat which Rachel had just offered to the man who was now standing. The train zoomed past me and it was a facepalm moment for me and I felt the need to repeat all that I had just said to Rachel to that woman also.
