Sea of people... in the rain..

The typhoons in Hong Kong are probably starting to have a spill over here in Singapore too or its just the global warming taking its course because the rain in Singapore is just getting worse and worse every year.

Take this morning for instance. It was raining cats and dogs when I woke up, but when it stopped by 8 am, I was very glad that I would be able to walk to the MRT station in peace. My joy, however, was short-lived. It started raining shortly after I came out of my block. Thankfully I always have an umbrella handy.

Now, one of my newest colleagues, Ms Feisy, lives right across the road. So my house is on her way when she walks to the MRT. Today she was waiting for me downstairs when I left my house. This girl doesn't like carrying umbrellas though (unless it raining when she leaves the house!) :P. So we had to share mine and run. Considering mine's really small, we were kinda wet by the time we ran across three blocks and crossed a road towards the sheltered path that leads to the MRT Station.

Even an umbrella wouldn't have helped much at that point in time. Rain was falling in sheets and there was a very strong wind blowing. Thankfully we had the sheltered pathway above us to save us from getting drenched.

We finally reached the MRT Station and not wanting to endure 45 mins in a train on the North-South line, I decided to follow Feisy to work on the East-West line. Another 5 mins and I realised how big a mistake that had been.

The East-West line is a nightmare to ride on normal weekdays. Today it was so crowded it made me feel like I was at a mini Kumbh Mela in India. Although, I do believe that there is no way MRT stations in Singapore can ever recreate that experience. There was a sea of people at every door to the train. More people were pouring into the station every second. And to top it all off a train from the North-South line had just arrived carrying people who wanted to transfer to the East-West line. 

Someone who has ever taken a train from Jurong East during peak hours might still not be able to imagine the sight that met the eyes. The entire platform was full of people crowding to get into the train on the East-West line.  As soon as the train arrived the enormous body of people behind us instinctively started moving towards the doors. This meant we were involuntarily pushed into the train as soon as the doors opened. If it was hard for us to get into the train (which was already crowded), imagine the plight of those who were trying to get out! No one wanted to budge and give them way in order to leave.

I've never seen this ugly side of behaviour in Singaporeans before. Not to mention that I've never travelled in a public transport carrier which was this crowded. Once inside the train, it was so crowded that there wasn't even space to move your hand and bring it to your face! Even the bus we took back from the Singapore Airshow last year (which I thought was utter chaos) wasn't as crowded as this!

Amid this fiasco, the train doors had somehow closed behind us and it had started moving towards Clementi. Only then I noticed that a female standing quite near me was crying. She had been fighting a bit more than the others around her for space when people were coming to the train. It was only now that I realised she was at least 6 months pregnant. I was so shocked! Why she had even taken this train and not a cab instead, was a mystery to me. She could've waited for the crowd to subside. If not any of these, she could've at least voiced out her trouble when people were actually squeezing in and hurting her and her baby, in the process.

Since I was standing next to her, I tried my best to give her more space and ensured this for the next few stops when I had to move to the centre of the car. After a while, she stopped crying and seemed to be ok. Especially since she had just about enuf space to stand in. 

This episode, however, raised quite a few questions in my head. Why are Singaporeans so scared to voice out their questions, views and generally anything? They never ask questions during lectures, they never talk to people they do not know, and they never speak publicly of things which are quite important. There are very few exceptions to this that I know of. 

If this episode had happened in India, the people around the pregnant lady would've started shouting "stop pushing! she is pregnant!". And if she was lucky enough, there would be a really angry older lady who would've told off a few people for not listening to her! 

And then they would've all talked about this loudly, until they found someone willing to give up a seat for her, so that she could be comfortable and definitely away from the sea of people pushing their way in from the door. 

Sometimes I really miss that. Although, most people in India do not take public transport to travel to work on a regular basis (at least those from the Middle class), you would definitely see this happen whether you take a train or a bus. People in India are a lot more outspoken. They like to talk and air their opinions. If you travelled to work on public transport, you'd know about most of the newspaper headlines, plus any cricket/political news and definitely a lot of views on each of these, by the time you reached office.

Compare that to public transport in Singapore? Everyone carries a book/MP3 player/radio to occupy them during the commute. If you even try to start a conversation with someone, they will probably look at you, as if you are out of your mind trying to talk to a stranger. Having been here for 8 years I think I'm starting to become one of the quiet people with the book in their hand. After today's event I'm beginning to think maybe I've become more of a Singaporean than I would like to admit. Maybe it is time I started contemplating when I would like to move back to India...