Don't Go Anywhere

If you don't have anyone to hold hands and walk with, put your hands in your pockets and walk alone. (Anonymous - translated from a post in urdu on Facebook). I don't know if this should make someone happy or sad but I think it's quite profound. I'm guessing the young lad sitting opposite me (wearing a burgundy jumper over his grey shirt, black framed glasses and his work pass around his neck with a lanyard) doesn't like walking alone and he wants to hold this youngish lady's hand (who was sitting next to him) while he's walking (or even when he's sitting in the train). I say this because he constantly kept turning his head from time to time and kept looking at her. He looked sad when she got off the seat to get off and it felt like he almost wanted to say, 'don't go anywhere' to her. 

I've realised how calm the tubes, dlr and Euston-Station can be later in the day after I travelled around two hours later than my normal time yesterday. Everyone including me was walking at normal walking speed, people allowed others to pass, no one was running to their trains, the concourse was almost empty and there was a sense of calmness to everything. The tubes had a lot of free seats and it almost felt relaxing travelling in the tubes for a change. Even the people travelling at that time looked and acted really calm.

As I entered the New Street station this morning, I could see 4 police officers standing by the barriers and then suddenly they started running towards a man who looked like he was dressed to go to the gym. While they were running after him they were shouting something which sounded like 'Don't go anywhere, don't go anywhere'. Or I could be that I heard it like that from far and I thought that would be the best thing to say in that type of situation. They arrested that man and when I walked past them the man was saying something like, 'I got nothing, I haven't done anything'. But they didn't believe him and took him with them. I wonder what he'd done to get arrested this early in the morning. He looked like the type of guy that must've wore gym clothes regardless of where he was going. The police must've arrested him for making them think he's going to the gym but he came to the train station instead. They must've been watching him do that everyday.

There's so much going on in the train station this morning. When I was going down the stairs towards the platform, a man holding his  foldable bike came running down the stairs, rolled the bike on the floor while running with it and then jumped on it like a cow boy on the horse. He rode it to the train that was a bit further down the platform. He is not allowed to do that in the station. I'm sure if the staff had seen him, they would have shouted, 'don't go anywhere'. Since I've seen Ferdi's hilarious video when a cyclist hits into him and he keeps saying, 'don't go anywhere' to him with his angry voice (with a funny accent) , I've been thinking that could be said in many scenarios to many people randomly. One of my friends actually says it randomly to random people and I find it really amusing.

When you are calm inside, you tend to enjoy things more. Like the guy who was talking to someone on the phone in the train back to Birmingham yesterday. He was loving life, laughing and talking in his strong Ghanaian accent (to me it sounded like a live comedy being PERFORMED by a natural actor. It wasn't like someone trying to copy that accent, it was being done by a pro) . He loved what he did as a field engineer for an IT company (I heard him tell someone on the phone with some pride in his voice) in Milton Keynes. I know he was really happy with the way things were in his life because he had a constant smile. His smile was so big that I could see his gums. He must've been really calm inside.

Later in the same train I almost chuckled when I seen two ladies dragging their big luggage cases up and down the carriage a couple of times and then one of them said, 'where is da door'. She said that loud in an African accent and I think her tone became louder because she was trying to express her frustration. I'd seen them go upto the door a couple of times and then turn back around. They looked like they were struggling to remain calm in that situation. The station wasn't even any close yet so there was no need for them to rush or panic.I felt like saying to them, " Keep calm and don't go anywhere.. Because the next station is still 10 minutes away".

Thanks for reading and keep your comments coming 

Adeel