(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Next time you step into the metro pay a little attention to your co-passengers says Ambica Sachin Red alert: Man on board
KT illustration by Rajendran
Imagine you’e a woman - (If you aren’t one).
Now imagine accidentally walking into the men’s locker room at your gym after your workout.
How long would it take for you to notice that you are in the wrong place and hotfoot it out of there a) 5 seconds b) 5 minutes c) An entire ride down the red line of the Dubai Metro
Now reverse the equation. Imagine you’re a man. Or let’s make things easier here. You are a man. You saunter into the metro on your way to work find an empty seat in the middle of a long row and decide to plonk yourself there. After all you are a legitimate NOL card holding member of the club and should be able to park yourself wherever it suits you. You take a leisurely look around and realise you are surrounded by the fairer sex. Not a single testosterone-filled body in sight. ‘Hmmm isn’t it funny that today only women seem to be travelling by the metro’ you ask yourself before turning away from the hostile glare of the woman to your left (in all probability me).
‘Must remember to tell my colleagues this’ you think to yourself before spending the next 20 minutes or so gazing around the compartment serenely.
So what if 14 out of your 16 co-passengers are taking turns to glare at you hoping their eyes can convey the message that the written words on the sidewall have apparently failed to.
“Wow is that woman in the corner seat giving me the look-over” you proudly compliment yourself on your sartorial office attire before smugly continuing the journey seated next to a squirming woman who just can’t understand why ‘the look’ that she has perfected over the years with her husband and children doesn’t seem to be working on this specimen.
Now I am no raving feminist who believes that women should be treated differently. What’s good for the gander is good for the goose. After all we live in an age where women are crying themselves hoarse to be treated as equals. Though admittedly I do enjoy the ‘special’ treatment Dubai Metro metes out to the fairer sex during peak hours.
Most of the men who travel in the women’s compartment do so out of ignorance I am sure. But I am always bemused that what would have taken a woman a few split second to figure out takes a man more than an entire ride in a constrained space (and sometimes not even then) surrounded by women who have all been eying the “intruder” in their midst from the second he invaded their territory. And the female species as National Geographic so graphically shows us can be very territorial.
Or could the whole befuddled incomprehensive look on their faces when confronted by a helpful co-passenger and asked to move to the next cabin be put on Nah I like to believe that men are just a little bit slow on the uptake. It’s not for nothing that women are called the smarter sex. (ambicakhaleejtimes.com)
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