Tuesday, June 08, 2010

Characters on The Underground




The man with the glass-ball – 16th January 2010 (Piccadilly)

A wild haired man with blonde hair curly and pointing in all directions. Large eyes, small jowls on his cheek, tiny chin. Stands next to door leaning on glass partition. Takes off coat. Rolls up sweater sleeves. Takes out a glass ball about the size of a small football. Holds it on palm then turns palm upside down and holds ball on top. Then glides it to crook of elbow. Up and down. Left to right. When Holborn hits, takes it on left side and makes a block gesture with his right. I pretend to look the other way and get off at Notting Hill Gate.


The girl without makeup – 19th January 2010 (Central)
Indian origin; camel haired coat, stockinged feet, Padukone lookalike, more rounded. No rings. Unusually large calves, firm and stockinged. No makeup. Plain well tended nails. No lipstick, no mascara, no rouge, no nail polish, no eyeliner. Maybe coming in from the gym? Rolls eyes to side and I see them... black. Black flat shoes with small silver bows. The crowd pushes us nearer but I edge away from the brush of her hair. It is, after all, a disturbing feeling. Gets off at Chancery Lane.


The kid with the touch-screen phone – 10th April 2010 (Central)

Little blonde kid, lavender crocs, tights with metal studs around the ankle, plastic hair-band. Black short-sleeved tee that reveals gangly, long arms. About 8 years old. Fiddling with a Palm Pre encased in florescent green rubber. Looks up at Mom who's busy reading a magazine. Turns away and licks touch-screen with tongue to see if it works. Tiny delighted smile when it does. Briefly struggles with thought of sharing discovery with Mom. Decides to. Mom nods, smiles and turns away. I nod to the little discoverer in acknowledgement. 1845 hours on the Central line.


Image from this Evening Standard article with Tube Trivia

5 comments:

Alaphia Zoyab said...

I love how kids tame technology. I am treating my new phone as nothing short of a deity, purified and worshipped every morning. And I like the fact that the mom smiled.

afan said...

Interesting. This post reminds me of the movie, "Following". (highly recommended)

I do wonder whether it's our curiosity or sheer boredom which prompts these observations...

Ganja Turtle said...

@Alaphia - LOL... thats a nice image you painted there, a daily morning session with the iGod! And yeah, like some of the differences in the way kids seem to be treated here... punishment that hurts: standing in a corner!

@ afan - Thanks for dropping by... will check out the movie soon... for me, its always curiosity and its easy too... esp if one doesn't have an interesting book or an iSomething at hand!

B said...

:) fun!

urvi said...

A stranger who stumbled upon this post says.. nice observations put in lovely words :) In a world where most are plugged and wired into their "iSomethings" it is nice to know there are people out there who are curiously observing the world =)

Have a nice day.