The chilly wind in January had failed to keep the city at home. The windy platform was crowded. The Delhi Metro train crept into the station accompanied by warnings over the PA system advising commuters on the patform to step back behind the yellow line. I took a step back, clutched my bag tightly and prepared to push through the crowd into a coach. Delhi Metro fares are reasonable so it is crowded. I managed to squeezed myself into half my body’s volume. The smell of sweat wafted from someone’s armpit against my face. The fourteen year old boy behind me played music on his cellphone’s speakers. The PA system requested people not to play music, announced the names of the stations and informed the passengers that doors would open to the left. I plugged in my ear pieces and turned on the music in my cellphone. Surprising how the same 12 notes played different  tunes in the ears and minds of the many passengers in the metro. The music drowned under the din of the announcements, the noise of the metro and the gibberish of the crowd. A girl read the latest Chetan Bhagat novel. I caught a few lines over her shoulder. A couple with a baby and 3 bags stood in a corner waiting for Rajeev Chowk. I guessed they would change the metro there for the New Delhi station. Must have a train to catch. The baby howled because of the crowd and the closed environment. The father and the mother tried to pacify her. A lady with a bundle sat cross-legged in the vestibule between two coaches. At one station the doors refused to close. The train stood at the station for a few minutes. The guard ran frantically back and forth to ensure no one obstructed the doors of any coach. Finally the doors shut and the train moved. I stared out the big windows of the coach. I got a new perspective of the city. The privacy of the big bungalows had been invaded. Their once private life was now rendred public because of the high vantage point the metro provided. I could see the posh colonies merging into the slums. The city seemed to have been invaded by construction equipment. Construction of flyovers, metro lines and facilities for the Commonwealth Games 2010 all seemed to be happening at the same time. The cranes moved across the roads and the cars would zip by under their hooks. Dust hung heavy at many places. The Ramakrishan Mission Ashram station’s platform looked like the waiting lounge of an airport with many foreigners waiting for the next train. In the distance Old Delhi was visible. As I walked through the turnstile at my station I wondered if I would emerge like Superman did everytime he walked through revolving doors!! Maybe someday a metro token would cover that change in the personality too.