MRT enabled
Yes, i am proud to say that i am mrt enabled ;in fact yesterday.There are a good number of people who will be perplexed saying what is the big deal. In Singapore and elsewhere, it is the easiest and most efficient way to get around. But then they miss the point. I have been visiting yasaswini for the last few years that she has been here. Either use the taxi or brother takes us out in his car. If you start using taxi on the first day, there is every chance that you will stick to them time and again. They are that addictive.They are friendly, give you correct change back, the taxi meter is not doctored, they dont say nasty things and they know the routes and take you by the nearest one.When there is a choice of equally good roads, they ask you for your preference; no, dont get me wrong, they dont ask to check out whether you are new to the place, so that they can fleece you.You book a taxi to go to the airport, it is just a phone call and not only that, immediately the time and address is played back to you. I found that amazing.Found our address in the small screen in the taxi in front of the driver.The entire operation is technology enabled. There is no room for error.No need to make a call and check and recheck every time.
Coming back to the main story, never had a chance to get into the mrt till now. Some hesitation to try something new. Yesterday, yasaswini got a plastic card which enables me to use the trains and buses while at singapore. She put me through the paces and i followed everything like a dutiful pupil. Yesterday i went and met her in Buona vista station on the way from her workspot; my first mrt ride unescorted!Big victory.
Actually travelling in the metro rail recently in Hongkong has helped, i guess. We did not have a choice there, as we were told that taxis are really not an option, as traffic jams are notorious. And no sibling there either!
Yasaswini told me it is all quite easy,the nameboards are in English. But then, there is so much written all over the place, so many signboards, telling you so many things; it takes a while to sift out the unwanted from the necessary ones .I remember reading that there are so many millions of images that the eyes see every second, and continuously keep erasing what the mind thinks as not relevant. If it were not so, then the harddisk gets overloaded, i guess.
So i confidently told myself, i will take the mrt to raja's house tomorrow.
Life is made of small successes....
posted by vasukumar @ 3:48 AM
2 Comments:
Well indeed I can understand what it means to get 'mrt enabled' Well three years back I visited Singapore as a tourist and an escort to Aruna and family. As hubby dear had some work, and Vinu was yet to shift to Singapore, I had to take the responsibility of guiding. After lot of enquiries in and around 'little India' we ventured to take the mrt. I was surprised that during my earlier visits I had never noticed the station which is just opposite to 'mustafa' Getting the ticket in the automatic vending machine was an experience. when I did the calculations I found it to be more expensive than taxi!! Then I realized like you say after reading the details on the board, we were charged one sing dollor extra for each ticket, and when we came out in the destination station, we had to put back the ticket in another machine to get back our one dollar. It became a game after some rides for the kids to collect the dollars from the machine. The tickets are reused and hence this method. The mrt is the safest and fastest mode of transport.
The continuous drone of 'for the attention of passengers' keeps going on and on, be it to announce the next station, or the interchange to other mrt lines, or to say to mind the platform gap. I wondered about the noise levels in suburban trains in India and whether there is any chance of any public announcement being heard anywhere in and out of the train. We do like to talk and Singaporeans like to keep mum!
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