As a kid, I used to visit my maternal village in Bengal a lot. I still clearly remember the day I first tried fishing. A few friends of mine, from the Santhal community were expert at catching tiny “Puti” and “Chara” fishes from a fresh water canal and helped me try my hand at it. They used to carry tiny balls of atta (flour dough) in their pockets and use it on homemade fishing rods made with branches and nylon ropes gathered from the fences of farms. I remember watching in awe as the kids would fashion themselves a tasty side-dish for lunch in a matter of a few minutes. The small fishes are heavenly when fried crispy and served with chopped onions and steaming white rice. Strangely I still remember the smell of the homes with thatched roofs and mud floors with cow-dung layering where I enjoyed many such meals.

I couldn’t manage to catch any fish but surely contributed to losing much of the bait in the water.

Traveling within a city usually tends to become a hassle specially if it’s far distance, you’re an outsider and you’re on a budget. Commuting in the capital was largely a delight thanks to the lovely colorful strands of noodles spread all over and even outside the city. Although the Pink line was close to my heart for more than one reason, I enjoyed the punctual Yellow line too. The older Blue, Red and Yellow routes run Bombardier rolling stock which have a very soothing warm lighting.

What’s more soothing were the dot matrix displays running serif typography. There was something deeply satisfying in watching the beautifully crafted letterforms glide across the displays specially when in comparison to the LCD panels in the more modern Hyundai Rotem rolling stock. Granted the LCD displays are much more functional, in displaying various kinds of information at the same time, being easy to customize and monetized but there is something about the carefully arranged dots in the serif display that just feels welcoming, warm and human.

The soft curves of the serif work better with the Devanagari script and the use of color seems far more deliberate.

Other stations also use the dot-matrix display boards but with Sans Serif blood flowing in them. I’ll leave it to you to decide which one looks better.

The LCD display onboard the newer trains can fit the entire route in one screen however, from far you’d struggle to read it properly.

Regardless of these chotu-motu pangey itthe-otthey, the system is super efficient, regular and well-maintained which easily makes it the backbone of Delhi’s public transportation system. Co-incidentally it has led me down the rabbit hole of well planned and efficient public transportation infrastructure of many other cities which hold enormous potential in moving people, reducing the number of cars on the road.