Women, Commute, Makeup - Now and Then
Today as I was driving down to work from Beaverton to Portland I noticed that the middle lane was quite slow compared to the left and right lanes. As I drove past what seemed to be the delay causing vehicle, I noticed it was a one of those cheap sports car that goes by some name Porsche or something like that. Surprised at this car going slow I looked at the driver a bit more and then it dawned on me. It was a woman driver and she was busy applying makeup to her face oblivious of the fact that the entire lane was being slowed down by her actions. Now this is not the first time I'm seeing women applying makeup while driving but this is the first time I'm blogging about it.
This actually triggered some of my memories going back to 1990. This phenomenon of women applying make up while on the move is not a US phenomenon alone. In 1990 I used to travel from Tiruvallur to Perambur for my Higher Secondary education. Sometimes I used to catch the Jollarpettai express at TRL whose next stop after TRL is Perambur. The moment the train stops at TRL all the women folk in the train would start their daily make up routine.
For those who don't this express, it's the daily commute vehicle for many from Jollarpettai, Katpadi, Arakkanom to Madras. I believe it starts from Jollarpettai at around 4:50AM or so and reaches Chennai Central by around 9:00AM. I could be off a little at the timings but you get the idea. When it reaches TRL at around 8:00AM the folks from Jollarpettai and Katpadi would have finished their morning sleep and get ready for their office. Hence the makeup mayhem in the train. Trust me there were hundreds of people who make this daily commute of 5 hours from Jollarpettai. Similarly the return journey will start at around 5:30 or so and reach Jollarpettai at 10:30PM.
Till this day I wonder how those folks managed to go home after 10:30PM and get up to catch the train again at 4:50AM. Not much time with the family right !!! While makeup while commute is a necessity for these folks, what can I say about the woman in Beaverton. I just wish she was driving in India where an angry lorry driver would have taken her out, hey it's just one nature's selection process in action, one less not-so-desirable gene out of the gene pool. Yeah I know I'm not being nice.....
This actually triggered some of my memories going back to 1990. This phenomenon of women applying make up while on the move is not a US phenomenon alone. In 1990 I used to travel from Tiruvallur to Perambur for my Higher Secondary education. Sometimes I used to catch the Jollarpettai express at TRL whose next stop after TRL is Perambur. The moment the train stops at TRL all the women folk in the train would start their daily make up routine.
For those who don't this express, it's the daily commute vehicle for many from Jollarpettai, Katpadi, Arakkanom to Madras. I believe it starts from Jollarpettai at around 4:50AM or so and reaches Chennai Central by around 9:00AM. I could be off a little at the timings but you get the idea. When it reaches TRL at around 8:00AM the folks from Jollarpettai and Katpadi would have finished their morning sleep and get ready for their office. Hence the makeup mayhem in the train. Trust me there were hundreds of people who make this daily commute of 5 hours from Jollarpettai. Similarly the return journey will start at around 5:30 or so and reach Jollarpettai at 10:30PM.
Till this day I wonder how those folks managed to go home after 10:30PM and get up to catch the train again at 4:50AM. Not much time with the family right !!! While makeup while commute is a necessity for these folks, what can I say about the woman in Beaverton. I just wish she was driving in India where an angry lorry driver would have taken her out, hey it's just one nature's selection process in action, one less not-so-desirable gene out of the gene pool. Yeah I know I'm not being nice.....
posted by Karthik S at
4:55 PM
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