Tuesday, June 19, 2018

The 23rd Vaayana Dinam.

Today's the 23rd Vaayana Dinam(Reading day) - PN Panicker's remembrance day - and the commencement of the Vaayana Maasam(Reading month). The preparations had been made and it was the execution that mattered and it was a flawless one, thanks to the homework done. Not seeing Manu and the car that was supposed to pick me up, I'd jumped into an auto rickshaw from the stand near Indira kunjamma's house and reached the Foundation by 8 o'clock..

The things that were supposed to be taken to Kanakakkunnu Palace were loaded into our service vehicle and the group was dispatched without delay. The rest of the staff was told to report straight to the venue. The brief for Pannian Ravindran sir was prepared between Maman from Delhi, me and Shekhar. Earlier, Maman had told me that the pledge might be read out by the Governor and this point was discussed between Pannian sir and me, as we proceeded towards the venue. He'd insisted that I must say it as it would be inappropriate to make the chief guest to do it.

We reached the Kanakakkunnu Palace by about a 20' to 10 and my heart sank as a whole lot of empty chairs stared at me. Was my decision of hiring 300 additional chairs for seating the audience a mistake? To avoid an embarrassment, I'd asked a few in our team to stack up the chairs and presto, the first set of fifty students fetched up and from then on, there was a steady trickle of students and the crowd, ultimately making it a jam packed audience. Seeing Lekha and Rema among the audience - they'd started from Kottarakkara early in the morning, by bus - was heartening.

The guests on the dais arrived one after the other and the Governor arrived at 25' past 10, kicking off the colourful programme and for the next one hour, each of the serials went off as planned. Meanwhile, Maman was getting ready for the national 'Reading day-Reading month' programme at New Delhi scheduled at a half past 12 at the Vigyan Bhavan where the Minister of HRD was the chief guest.

After thanking the staff for their efforts, I'd gone off to Indira kunjamma's house for a quick pack up to set off for Raj Nivas. Rema and Lekha, soon after the programme, had gone to offer their condolences to Sathi. We'd set off for Kottarakkara by about a half past 4 by a low floor bus  and had reached here by a half past 6. Raj Nivas has taken a beating from the monsoon.

Around 13' past 7, we spent time remembering Muthachhan, the exact time at which he'd passed away 23 years back. It was a quiet evening subsequently.


Tailpiece.

Feedback about the Vaayana Dinam celebrations kept coming in from all over and it was clear that the day's activities were well conducted by our co-ordinators in each district.  

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