The Delhi Metro

is convenient, dependable and clean. Like all things that are so well qualified it is high in demand and always crowded. But that day I was lucky.

I reach the clerk behind the transparent wall and bend low to speak into the round hole cut away from the screen. Two tickets, Noida sector 18 I say handing over 3 notes of ten rupees. Noida-sector-attara-keliye-do-parchi-chaar-rupay-hongey? He asks me in one breath. It costs 24 and he wants me to give him change. Ok. I forage in my purse and oblige. Two plastic discs are passed into the depression below the screen. I pick up the trophies and like a giggling teenager make my way to the platform.

The mandatory security checks are endured and we approach the magic gate that reads the plastic disc. You stand too close and some ray is obstructed and the gate maintains a stoic silence. You move back and try again. The gate beeps in recognition and gives a toothless grin allowing you to pass through. The moving stair takes you to the platform. NOIDA CITY CENTRE 0.02. Red lights gleam at you assuring you of the arrival of the metro train. Soon enough the train streams in and stops exactly where they say it will. The doors slide open and streams of relieved passengers get on and get off. We get in too.

Not many people today. I clutch at the steel pole and brace myself for a jerky full speed departure. I hear the lady’s mono tone- Mayur Vihar Extension, doors will open on the right, please mind the gap…

A man in his twenties grabs my attention. Please sit down madam, he says, surrendering his place to me. My instinctive reaction is no. I don’t need to sit. I shake my hand in a communicative gesture. Go sit, my husband nudges. Ok. I say. And accept the courtesy. The man who gave me his place is travelling to the last stop, while I will be getting off much sooner. He stands for 30 minutes. A price he pays for being nice while I enjoy the short ride and get off in 10. I did not need to sit. Perhaps he needed it more.

Age and sex give us advantages that we use at will.