“I and my mistress, side by side
Shall be together, breathe and ride,
So, one day more am I deified.
Who knows but the world may end to-night?”
Kolkata’s metro railway has now entered the southern fringes of the greater city. The New Garia area still has a very suburban look and feel around it .The approach road to the eastern side opening towards Patuli Township is more or less ready. However the opening towards the western side leads to an unfinished road which links to the E M Bye pass and the Garia suburban railway station. There are still very few passengers boarding the metro from this point. The area is surrounded by unauthorized shacks inhabited by migrant population from rural Bengal.
My maid Madhavi lives in one such shack with her husband whilst her son and in-laws live in their ancestral house in Canning. On the day the metro carriage trudged into the new yard Madhavi’s excitement was at its height. The lights from the incoming trains lit up their dark homes, the compartments were smart and clean and they felt privileged to live so close to observe this wonderful spectacle every day. On the day of the inauguration of the New Garia station by the honourable minister news spread that everybody would get a free ride. Madhavi and her friends would skip their evening duty and take a ride on that eventful day. But it turned out to be a false rumour. They had to wait.
The festival season arrived. Four days of perfect revelry and time to take a dream ride on the metro. Madhavi and her friends would be working part-time during the Durga Puja days. Employers knew that the ladies would be joining the general merriment and pandal hopping so no service would be available.
Madhavi and her friends prepared in advance. They washed and cleaned their tired bodies, anointed their feet with alta, a red coloured liquid paint which women in Bengal traditionally use to decorate their dainty feet and got their best clothes ready for the eventful day. Madhavi like a new bride full of expectations, full of wonder and happiness would accompany her husband to conquer the world with a ride on the metro.
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