Tunnel Vision

By Behzad Bolour of the BBC Persian Service

Going underground, down the deep, roaring metal escalators is like a nightmare.

Londoners stand on the right-hand side and go down slowly, those in a hurry or with suicidal tendencies, run down the left-hand side, and tourists stand on both sides and get vertigo.

Underground People

As I walked through the rounded corridors, I noticed that voices and sounds have a different echo. I can hear things that I never noticed overground like footsteps and whispers. And Underground people look different, they have no shadows.

Train drivers start very early in the morning, about 5.30am. The Underground driver's route is a deep, dark tunnel. You must see it for yourself. What they see in front of them is like black ink. I would be terrified but for the drivers it's normal.

"It's just the fact you know you're totally on your own. It becomes extremely boring; there's nothing to see, nothing to alleviate the monotony of it. There's not anything fearsome", one driver told me.

Between 5.30 and 7.00 am, some red-eyed, sleepy workers use the tube to go to clean the offices for example. Then come the dark suits who use the offices, rushing to their jobs in the business district which Londoner's call "The City".

11.00 am, and the tourists take their turn, judging by the comments, some find the Underground a disaster.

"You feel it's very old. I mean, you know, obviously you know it's been here for a long time", said one commuter.

"I think it's dirty and disgusting to be quite honest. I've never seen a thing like it, but the positive side is that it is cheap-ish", said another.

Underground Culture

6pm and Underground Art comes to life with the musicians or buskers. They play their melodies and people throw their coins.

I used to stare at them and give them all my change because I thought that was the rule. The London Underground is truly a museum of city life. For the buskers, this museum is uncertain and insecure.

"I can be moved by police at any minute. You just take your chance and that's it, you know what I mean", whispered a busker.

"But it does sound better when you play in the tube because of the natural reverberation."

After 11 at night, the happy drunks go home from the pubs and bars. They mix with theatre and cinema goers who share their conversations.

It is time for the last train and the very last passengers like me, are dressed colourfully and outrageously, they are the disco-goers and among them are depressed people who have missed their last chance to say "I love you."

And a busker plays them home. It's his last sad tune until tomorrow.