June
2017
It was Saturday evening. I was on board the MTR on my way to Kwun Tong. The
weather with a typhoon lurking around had been humid and stuffy. The
compartment was not only packed but also filled with the rank smell of body
odour. Close to standing on one foot, I felt suffocated. There was not much
space to move.
Suddenly, the man standing next to me shied away from the woman in front
of him and started to lean back a little towards me. I looked to find out what
had caused the commotion. That woman who perhaps found her t-shirt wet with
perspiration too body-hugging had put one hand underneath her shirt to have it
lifted from inside! Cooling! I did one very unkind act - taking a photo of her
in action. Of course, I made sure her face was not shown.
Then there was a teenage girl with a big rucksack standing near the
doors. She was minding her own business – using her mobile phone. But unknowingly
she had occupied the space of three passengers – herself, her rucksack and her
two outstretched hands! As passengers elbowed their way to get off the train,
they all murmured and rolled their eyes upwards.
Earlier, the MTR had issued public announcements calling for passengers
with backpacks to unload them when boarding the compartments. There have been
many other reminders. The familiar ones include asking passengers to stand
behind the yellow line and giving way for passengers to get off first. Others
are meant to tackle some problematic phenomena – wearing flip-flops and using
the mobile phone when taking the escalators or wearing of thick clothing when
temperature in the compartment is warmer than outside during the winter days
etc.
