Long journeys via public transport can get tiresome, for many reasons. For one, it’s hard to find something to do with all the time you have on your hands suddenly—there’s only so much scrolling you can do through Instagram, you can’t focus on a book because reading in a moving vehicle strains your eyes, and in certain cases, you can’t even listen to music because you may miss an important announcement, or worse, your station! Eavesdropping is yet another option but do you really want to be that nosy individual everyone keeps an eye out for?
Turns out, Samar Khan managed to find a way to pass time during his daily commute via Delhi’s metro. He went back to the basics, and picked up on something we’ve all done in the middle of class; he started doodling. At 23, he is a software developer at an IT firm in Delhi and travels from Noida to Saket, daily. In an interview with Asian Age, he says, “I’d read books or listen to music sometimes but then I got bored of it but doodling hooked me. I began doing it for my entertainment and now it has become a source of entertainment for others. I took the inspiration from New York-based guy who runs the page ‘Subway Doodle’, but we have very different style.”
Khan’s process sounds simple—he takes pictures and when he’s inspired, goes back to them to draw over. “Sometimes my doodles are pre-planned — where I have imagined something previously but sometimes, it is impromptu. I keep clicking scenes from the metro and then later when something pops up in my head, I draw it,” he explains. While he remained anonymous on his Instagram handle MetroDoodle, we highly doubt his identity is a secret anymore, considering the media coverage he’s been receiving of late.
If you see Samar doodling away, don’t be afraid to say hi! Who knows, you may end up being part of his next creation.
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