Title - Metro regulars ditch lifeline

Kolkata: If any proof was needed that most Kolkatans love a good bandh, the Metro provided it on Thursday. Trains ran on schedule all day — but they all went virtually empty.
    If you wanted to defy the shutdown and go to work, there was no better lifeline than the Metro but on Thursday the regulars — even those who live a 10-minute walk from a Metro station — stayed home.
    TOI was at Tollygunge Metro station on Wednesday and Thursday to see what difference a bandh call could make. At 10.30am on Wednesday, there was near pandemonium on the platform. There were no less than 250 passengers jostling to squeeze into the Metro. People made a dash for the doors even before they had opened an inch.
    But at the same hour on Thursday, there were barely 30 people wandering listlessly on the platform. Even when the train was spotted 30 seconds away, no one bothetred to take up position for the commando-style rush.
    Manas Bhanja, who works with a private bank and lives five minutes from the Kudghat station, chose to stay at home. “I am still recovering from yesterday’s wrestling match in the Metro,” he joked. The last few days had been hard on Metro regulars as thousands more packed into the tube because of the bus strike.
    Twenty-seven-year-old Deepa Bhattacharya, who had fought for a toehold in the Metro on Wednesday also gave it a miss on bandh-day although she lives a hop away from Dum Dum station. The coach was so crowded that she could barely breathe, she said, almost as if it were an excuse for her skipping work the next day.
    Only 83,000 people had travelled on the Metro by 2pm. On normal days, the figure around 250,000. At 6pm, the footfall had risen to 139,000 whereas on other days it would be 300,000.
    Even on suburban trains occupancy was amere 20%, said railway officials.
    While some feared violence and stayed at home, others simply took advantage of the situation.
    “I generally travel by Metro to my Park Street office but I decided to take the day off. There won’t be much work to do and, most important, there is always the possibility of violence,” said Sinjini, who was among those TOI spotted wrestling to get into the Metro on Wednesday.
    Shyambazar resident Ashwini Sharma finds bandhs useless and impractical and did try to get to her Camac Street office but turned back on seeing bandh picketers at gate of the Metro station.
    “I wanted to go to work but decided against it,” said 23-year-old Sharma, a company secretary. Deepa, a sales executive at an Esplanade firm, admits she wanted a holiday and decided to stay at home. “Because of the bandh, I got a chance to enjoy the day with my family. A bandh is taken as a holiday in this state,” she laughed.
    For 30-year-old chartered accountant Risabh Vaidya, the day was like any other. “I wanted to go to my office as I do not support the concept of bandhs. My company doesn’t support it either. It’s up to me whether I want to treat a bandh as a holiday or working day. We received a group mail from the company on Wednesday, mentioning that ours is a ‘continuous process plant’,” said Vaidya, who travelled to his Rishra-based office said.