RIFLE RANGE BOY: underground

https://www.ndtv.com/feature/video-indian-woman
-eats-rice-with-bare-hands-on-london-tube-divides-internet-8530127

One of the most pressing dilemmas currently facing Londoners is whether it is acceptable to eat on the London Underground trains. This issue arose when a video surfaced of an Indian-origin woman eating curry and rice with her hands aboard a London Tube. While she was eating with her hands, she was also talking loudly on her phone. This has sparked a fierce online debate about cultural differences and public etiquette, eliciting a wide range of reactions.

About thirty years ago, during my maiden trip to the UK, as I was travelling on the Tube, I noticed a seemingly mildly spastic young person making himself a sandwich on the go, putting his meat, salad, ketchup, mayonnaise, mustard, and the rest on his bread. His tremors and poorly coordinated hand movements were obvious. Bits of crumbs and other contents, along with juice, seemed to smear the whole area—the seat and the floor. Fellow curious passengers were observing from the corners of their eyes but said nothing. In my mind, his act was a public nuisance; dirtying the place and making it inconvenient for the next person to occupy it. It was also my first lesson in personal space and liberty. It only became a problem when my space invaded yours. For that, we have rules and laws to sort it out.

I also thought that eating on public transport was forbidden. Or it is a Malaysian thing, not wanting to bring non-halal food into the public sphere. According to London.gov.uk and tfl.gov.uk, food and drink are currently permitted on the London Underground. However, it is mindful to ensure that food does not emit a pungent odour that would inconvenience fellow commuters.

Then there is the matter of preserving public peace. Perhaps due to tradition or the unavailability of a clear telephone connection, Asians have a peculiar habit of shouting on the phone, as if we are still using STD (Subscriber Trunk Dialling) calls. For people in the UK, seeing a person savouring her finger-licking good Dhall and rice while yelling instructions at the top of her voice to her subordinates was too much to stomach. Hence, there is a call for some kind of social etiquette for train travellers.

When in Rome, do as the Romans do, but beggars cannot be choosers either.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Alan White

BuzzFeed News Reporter, UK

Circa 1950: London Underground rat-catchers with their net and ferrets.

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1952: A group of women cleaning one of London’s underground tunnels.

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Known as ‘flutters’, they would clean the tunnels at night, after the last train had gone and the current had been switched off.

1952: Advertisements being pasted up.

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1952: Tube cleaner.

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Harry Weatheley, surfacing from a vent under Piccadilly Circus underground station.

1952: Tube train at Piccadilly Circus.

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1952: Liverpool Street.

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1952: Kingsway Tram

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1954: Underground fluffers.

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1955: Underground life.

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1955: All-night dancing.

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After leaving the ‘Club Americana’, a Saturday night jazz club open from midnight until 7 a.m., American troops and their girlfriends wait at Piccadilly Circus Station for the first train home, London, 25th November 1955.

1956: Downtown Soho.

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1956: Piccadilly Circus.

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1956: Rush hour.

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1956: Rush hour, London Bridge.

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1957: Tube music.

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1957: Silver trains.

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Sir John Elliott, Chairman of the LTE shaking hands with the driver of the new prototype ‘silver’ tube train at Northfields station on the Piccadilly line.

1958: Bus strike.

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1958: Oxford Circus.

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1958: London Bridge

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1960: Publishing liberalised.

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1963: Frenchman in London.

Georges Bidault (1899 - 1983) wanders through London’s Piccadilly Circus during his period of exile from France.

1963: Oxford Circus.

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1964: Mystery package.

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West Ham manager Ron Greenwood holds the F.A Cup, won by his team against Preston North End the previous Saturday, as he waits for a train on the London Underground, 5th May 1964.

1964: Sikh underground.

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3rd September 1964: Amar Singh, a sikh who works for London Underground, has been allowed to pin his badge to a turban after a protest against having to wear the standard uniform hat.

1966: Piccadilly Circus.

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1966: Matching fur.

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26th August 1966: Actress Louise Thompson crossing the road outside Earls Court underground station, London, with a portable radio covered in ponyskin to match her fur coat.

1968: Tea on the Tube.

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A London Undergroung official drinking a cup of coffee during trials of new automatic trains on a section of the Central Line. The trains are intended for use on the newly opened Victoria underground line.

1968: Station telephones.

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1969: Foot sore.

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3rd July 1969: Footsore office girls rest their weary feet in Bow, East London, as they make their way to work during a one-day strike by Underground signalmen.

1969: Bus queue.

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A large queue of commuters wait for a bus during a one-day strike by London Underground.

Circa 1863: The first Metropolitan train on the underground line passing through Praed Street, London.

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Chancellor William Ewart Gladstone on an inspection tour of the world’s first underground line, 24th May 1862.

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Liverpool Street station, circa 1890.

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Map and illustrations showing the new Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton underground tube route, linking London stations from Hammersmith to Finsbury Park, 1906.

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Hammersmith Broadway, 1910.

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The interior of a District Line Underground carriage, 1911.

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The ticket hall of Liverpool Street Station, 1912.

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The platform of the Central London Railway extension at Liverpool Street Station, 1912.

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Interior of an all-steel London underground train, circa 1920.

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A man writing on a complaints poster, 1922.

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Farringdon Street (Farringdon) Station in March 1924.

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The entrance to Blackfriars Underground station, 1924.

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Clapham South, 1926.

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London tram workers queue up for their pay at the tram subway in Kingsway, High Holborn, 1926.

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An underground train being transported on wheels through the streets of London, 1926.

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The Mayor of Westminster turns on the escalators at Piccadilly Circus in 1928.

British director Anthony Asquith (1902-1968), right, directing his new film ‘Underground’ from an escalator on the London underground, May 1928.

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Construction work at the ticketing area of the new Piccadilly tube station, 1928.

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The Hon Anthony Asquith filming commuters for his film of the underground, 1928.

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Platforms are lengthened at Euston Square underground station, 1930.

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A passenger takes a ticket from the machine at Piccadilly Circus, 1930.

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A traveller buys a London Underground season ticket from a vending machine at Highgate Station, 1932.

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Passengers on an escalator, September 1932. The posts were erected to avoided a crush during rush hours.

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Leicester Square, 1933.

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A group of Sikh men outside the entrance to Hyde Park Corner, circa 1935.

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New interiors in 1936: more seating, better lighting and ventilation and a more streamlined shape.

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A passenger opening one of the doors on the Hammersmith and City Underground Line, which have been fitted with new buttons for opening and closing doors, 1936.

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London’s Charing Cross Road with the Hippodrome and Leicester Square station on the left, 1938.

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The entrance to Embankment, 1938.

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A strike causes huge queues to build up at the bus stops outside Liverpool Street, 1939.

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Stockwell station, 1939.

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City gents, 1939.

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A guard outside a station which has been closed to the public two days after Britain’s declaration of war on Germany, 5th September 1939.