Evolution

Here’s something I don’t see often.

The train was already full when I boarded at GMA-Kamuning MRT station, and as always I took my position at the corner. The usual scenario was there: young, able-bodied men comfortably seated while right in front of them women stand holding on to handrails.

Among the crowd that boarded at the next station was group of seven women, mostly elderly – and one of them blind. To my utter horror, none of the able-bodied men made any move to offer their seats.

And, mercifully, it happened.

The eldest of the group squeezed her way to the nearest seated man, who was listening to his MP3. She grabbed his arm and said in a calm but firm voice, “Tumayo ka. Paupuin mo kami.”

Without a word the guy stood up. The old lady then proceeded to call her blind companion as she pulled the next able-bodied guy off his seat. Perhaps anticipating what will happen next, the three other guys seated nearby did not wait to be grabbed, and silently they vacated their seats for the other elderly ladies.

None of the nearby young, able-bodied women vacated their seats, but eventually all seven of the elderly ladies were seated.

It was not long ago when I carry some rules of my own on chivalry. For me to offer you my seat, you should be any of the following: 1) an elderly; 2) pregnant; 3) disabled or visibly ill or injured, or; 4) in care of a child or children.

However, after some enlightening discussions with my better half, those rules evolved to add one, all-powerful item in the list: 5) woman/lady/female.

And so I have resigned myself to the fate of never having to get seated in the MRT or LRT. It was a relief to my psyche, I must say, since it rid me of the effort to assess my surrounding of anyone who needs to be seated – because now I don’t even bother getting a seat. All the time, I just choose to stand.

For someone who takes the train only on weekends, it was an easy sacrifice for me to make.

But for those who spend their daily, working lives commuting these railways, battling it out amid the stress and fatigue from the daily grind, chivalry must have taken an entirely different form -- something I find hard to understand.

Assuming it is still there.



More rare sights I had yesterday: the Lovapalooza at Baywalk, as seen from a small ship cruising Manila Bay and from the 5th floor of Grand Boulevard Hotel, and; my relatives and family friends who made it at the dinner cruise at Baywalk for a small gathering.

Tomorrow we re-visit Corregidor.