Experiences of a long weekend

Last Wednesday I took off on a long weekend and with the hectic schedule that I’d prepared for myself, I couldn’t get to my favourite pastime of blogging and every evening when I went to bed, there was this guilty feeling that I’d not lived my day completely! Is this addiction? I sincerely hope it isn’t. To make up for lost time, I shall put in some of my experiences and impressions of people that gave me added insight to my eternal quest about the meaning of life. And so, here I go.

Wednesday, 28 Apr.
(a) Onward journey. Totally uneventful on the flight that took off an hour later than its schedule to beat the evening thundershowers prevalent at Kochi, these days and reached correspondingly, an hour later. The cab driver, who drove me into town, was Sundaresan who gave me a rundown of his dreams and aspirations gone sour. He has been driving for the past six years and is trying to be a contended man. Before taking up driving, he was into the business of ‘brick making’ and the kiln that he owned once upon a time, is now covered under asphalt and concrete that forms the highway end of the Kochi airport’s runway. He was supposed to have been compensated for the land acquired by the airport authority but our man was not benefited from the transaction as his younger brother played truant and pocketed the money himself. He has four brothers and two sisters, who now find it infradig that their brother is driving a cab and keep away from him and his family. He has two children, a boy who’s studying in class XII and a daughter studying in class VIII. He’s thinking of buying a brick kiln in Wyanad, but has to reorient his workers adept in machine cutting of the final product to the nuances of manual cutting – a practice that’s popular in that part of Kerala. Bid him adieu wishing that his dream would indeed come true at the earliest.
(b) My stay for the day was at my cousin, Prabha’s place where it was a musical evening and I too contributed to the occasion by singing a few old Malayalam songs in my offkey voice but no one seemed to mind!

Thursday, 29 Apr.
Was off on my way to my parents’ house at Kottarakkara, early in the morning itself by the ‘superfast’ of the Road Transport Corporation. Had to change two buses though and reached home by lunchtime to give a pleasant(?) surprise to my parents as well as my sister, Rema who was there on a short break. My father looked good and my mother, as pretty as ever and I’d attribute this outlook to my sister’s presence, who can really take charge of my parents on their errant behaviour of quarreling with each other over trivia. My mother refuses to wear the hearing aid bought for her and continues to comprehend conversations in a manner convenient and suitable, as perceived by her. And my father, has this habit of leaving his walking stick aside and gropes the wall to propel himself to his destination and he desists from it, with a laugh, when I call him ‘Spiderman’. With Rema and me, all by ourselves with our parents, it was like a flashback to our childhood days and indeed with all the talking that we did that day, it turned out to be a very late night! She definitely is relaxed since her son, Achu has started doing well in his studies.

Friday, 30 Apr.
(a)Took off again by 8 in the morning and dropped in to see Murukesan, my brother-in-law who’s convalescing from a massive stroke. Partially immobilized on his left side, his health seems to be picking up but I did notice a flash of helplessness in his eyes with a tendency of giving it all up which is what the doctor has warned against. Hope he’s able to over come this.
(b) It was the Road Transport Corporation that brought me back to Kochi safely and on time though at Kottayam, enroute I almost lost my small overnighter while changing buses. I was able to take part in the meeting, at the shipyard, as scheduled which worked out to be fruitful.
(c) Stayed with my friends, Murali and Radhika and it was catch up time from where we’d left years back with their son, Deepak giving stories of his exploits as an engineer in the merchant marine. We also called on my classmate, Jojy , his wife Saly and their son, Felix who was getting married the next day.

Saturday, 01 May.
(a) Got up leisurely and we were off to the wedding by 1100h. The Christian weddings always fascinate me and this was no exception. But it was again a matter of great joy to meet people from the past and there were just too many of them like Rajan George-Rashmi, Ancheri-Geetha, Mathew George-Sarah, the Sasidharans, Laxman-Sindhu and so many more that I can go on and on. We exchanged telephone numbers and promised to keep in touch from now on and the chatting continued through the reception. And lest I forget, the newly weds, Felix and Mily made a handsome couple!
(b) Called on my course mate, Suresh and Supriya in the evening and it was something that I shall cherish for the years to come. I was privileged to meet Supriya’s parents, Mr and Mrs. Gopalan who are elegant in their simplicity and can laugh so very easily- especially, after the tragic loss of one of their daughters to cancer only recently. They patiently gave a hearing to my continuous verbal onslaught and laughed at my PJs with relish.
Supriya’s father is an alumnus of the famed Maharajah’s College situated in the heart of Kochi. He was doing his graduation during 1943-45 and was an athlete par excellence, his strong points being the 100, 200, 400 and 800 mts hurdles. In those days, there used to be ‘Kochi Olympics’ and during the occasion, he used to sweep the medals for his discipline. As he told us of his exploits, it was amply clear that his healthy physique without a hint of a paunch was due to the simple and Spartan life that he led. May God give the Gopalans a long and happy life. They’ve really endeared themselves to me and it was an evening well spent.

Sunday, 02 May.
Was back in Delhi and at my home by 1710h. The evening walk was indeed a booster and a necessity to get my system back to normalcy after my heavy indulgence, over the previous few days, of the finer things of life!