I was on the 8:05pm train from London Victoria,heading to Horsham!
Initially I was quite busy, texting to a few friends on matters of the feature articles for the upcoming Olympic special edition of Gaian Times e-magazine.
Then I suddenly became aware of 3 people sitting in the group seat adjacent to me – a man and a woman on one side and another man opposite them. The man (one of the couple) had both his feet on the seat opposite him, albeit on a small plastic bag. This effectively hemmed in the other man. And the other man took out his wallet-like object and showed them, and said, `Can you please take your feet off the seats?’
The coupe were obviously not English (I could not see their faces). So some polite explanation took place. The other man turned out to be a Police officer. I have no idea if he was one of London’s Met Officers, or one outside London…but he obviously was out of uniform – maybe going to or from work, or juts on his day off, or perhaps, on plain-cloth duty. But he said he is a Police (as the other one didn’t fully comprehend the badge! In the ensuing polite (and hardly audible) chat between the three of them, I could only hear what the police-man was saying.
He made it very clear to the other visitors, that in this country we don’t put feet on seats in trains. The others tried to explain something about their country, where no one does, so the police-man asked, why they would not put feet in their country, but thought it was okay here (in UK). I think they answered something to the effect that they had seen so many youths put their feet on train-seats here! The police-man talked about showing respect.
The foreign couple got off when their stop came. And after that, I turned to the Police-man and actually thanked him for doing what he did. I briefly said I’d tried doing that in trains (asking people to take their feet off seats) and I’ve often encountered aggression and have even had to move train carriages! I mused about how dirty seats ruin people’s suits!
When my stop came, I got up, and nodded a `Take care’ to the (police) man, and he returned a smile and a bye.
For a brief while, I felt justice had been done…right in front of my eyes, on a crime that has been going on for so long – one that irritates me whenever I see it.. people putting feet on train seats- despite signs saying `do not put feet on seats’.
What’s worse is that I see people in suits packed to the hilt in carriages in the morning en route to work..but in the evening, those very same (some) seem to think it’s okay to put their feet on seats – whilst still wearing their suits and boots, but now en route to their homes or some socials.
I’ve even cleverly taken photos of a few of those people.. and video clips.. I switch on my camera on video mode, pretend to rummage through my bags while leaving camera on the side.. which continues to shoot their misadventure!
It’s not the only anti-social behavior have seen in society! Antisocial behaviors are committed not only by thugs, delinquents and hooligans in late night travels, but by otherwise ordinary people – who think that a few drinks,or just the fact that they are going on a party night gives them some social authority to misbehave!
Gone are the days I have put up with it. Misbehaving people – watch out, Beadle’s not about – but I am- with my secret filming tactics!!
-Mani
QuantumPhoenix 