Words and I

I read in Time years ago that if you want to know about what the people of a nation is like, just travel by their trains. Trains tell a character of a nation, so it’s written. Well, what an interesting view. I am so intrigued by this because I travel by trains quite a lot. I can’t say that this argument about train and character is too subjective or too generalized. But then I started to notice the passengers more when I took a train from home to work.

There are two types of trains I usually take, the economy and the express one. The ticket price for economy trains is actually about one fifth the express’. The economy trains rarely leave on schedule, they are usually full (read my other post, May Day…May Day…), you can always find about… ehm, 10, 20, 50, or maybe more passengers without a ticket, you can also see a few passengers hanging on the door and sitting on the rooftop (with a smile on their faces).

What else? Let’s see… you can find big baskets full of various fruits (smell strongly, too), small baskets filled with chicken or ducks (if it’s your lucky day ), a few beggars, a few buskers (some with a full army: a vocalist, a drummer, two guitarists), and many sellers (they sale various things which are handy, such as….many things!)

The trains are mostly dirty, I guess the Train Management is only flushing the whole train with water every week (?) and let it dry. You can find no garbage bins around; no wonder garbage is everywhere on the train’s floor (as if there is a rule: no garbage bins, please throw away your garbage anywhere you like, thank you for your cooperation). Most of the automatic doors do not work nor the fans, the windows, or even the conductors who check the ticket. No offense, I am just trying to be objective here If the conductor is doing his job well, then you won’t find passengers with no ticket anymore, right?

Now, the passengers. The passengers of economy train are varied, just like the people of Indonesia. From beggars to the rich, from little babies to the elderly, from the uneducated to the professors, from pickpockets to hajj (a title in Islam, given after a person making a pilgrimage to Mecca, considered to be a religious person), from smokers to passive smokers, etc.

Now, let’s go inside the express trains. They are more expensive because they at least try to be on schedule but often miss. They have an air conditioning, windows, and doors which are working. They are clean because they have garbage bins…haha. The passengers can come from different background but at least they are quieter (I guess they are not quieter but sleepy because it’s cool inside, a great place to snooze), mostly dress quite neatly (I guess again, they have a good job so they can spend quite much money to take the train daily), and it seems, correct me if I am wrong, they are aware not to ruin their image as a good and civilized citizen. So you rarely find such occasions as passengers with no ticket; the conductor being given the money instead of the ticket; or passengers littering. I say rarely because those things happen, too, mind you. I saw it with my own eyes (because I didn’t know if other passengers using their eyes at the moment ) a female passenger who stood in front of me just gave some money (less than the ticket’s price, surely!) to the conductor while whispering something on his ear and the conductor took the money quietly and left as if nothing happened. Wow, what a drama!

Another drama I experienced on an express train one day was a well dressed man (looked educated, too, if looks really can tell who you are…) drank a glass of water on his seat, crushed the glass which is made from plastic then calmly throw away the glass under his seat. I couldn’t find a guilty look on his face, embarrassed or something. Nothing. He’s SO impassive.

Other drama was when the express train stopped in a station. I heard a loud voice of the head of the station through a speaker, asking people not to smoke inside the train. Whoa, amazing! So they think they can smoke when the train stops with the door open? Really amazing!

Back to the opinion about train and character of the people… can you tell or not?