Among the many things that my student ID unlocks, topped up with a monthly MRT transit pass for which I pay NT$1280, are unlimited 30-minute rides on the ubiquitous yellow frame YouBikes available on so many stands littered all over Taipei city. All I need to do is press the green button on the bike's console. It prompts me to tap my card, and given I have enough balance or a pass, the bike unlocks. All societies have a vision of a good life, and a host of ideologies that are

Just as I land in Taipei, a friend from college arrives in Kaohsiung. On the first weekend out of Quarantine, I travel to meet her. Taipei Main Station is a maze of concrete tunnels and metal tracks, underground platforms, and a multistory depot with gates for arrivals and departures, housing the MRT, the bus stop, the local railway station, as well as the High-Speed Rail. Used to the meanderingly long journeys of the Indian Railways, prone to such delays where arrival become