As my flight was delayed by yet another hour, it was becoming amply clear that the additional time was adequate for squeezing in enough work that needed to be done. Lekha and mom had kicked off by a quarter past 7 towards Guruvayur and subsequently, Palakkad. Savitha and her mom had fetched up for work at their usual time.
I'd left home by a quarter to 11 and we're speeding by comfortably by the airport-seaport road. Vincent, our saarthi, had a fund of anecdotes to regale us with! But what I was really enthused was by his unique idea to release our country from the wretchedness caused by our political dispensation and to quote him, "Sir, our entire country must be given on lease to some other and just like the Britishers had ruled us, we must be taken charge off to deliver the targets set by them and we shall deliver".
A crazy yet thought provoking statement. And he was speaking from his bitter experiences, beginning with a six year's hard work in Trichy in Tamilnadu, another six years in Bombay followed by twelve years in Saudi Arabia. He was the third sibling and the eldest son out of eight siblings and his mother had carefully utilised the funds provided by his bank balances to nurture every one of them. The beauty was that he did not bear any grudge or ill will towards anyone of them despite the fact that two of his nephews had taken him for a ride and made him lose a substantial amount of his savings! He was running his car as a taxi for an agency that was exploiting him and his counterparts.
What was intriguing from his narrative was that the owners of the taxis along with the drivers were being exploited while the agents and the middlemen earned their 'cuts' without doing an iota of work. What are the trade unions doing about this exploitation?
The sight of the Coromandel coast was as elegant as always. And Devinder Singh, along with Palai, were waiting with the vehicle - they'd been there for more than an hour as the flight was late.
The evening's farewell in my honour was a fantastic affair and I'd tried to keep the crowd amused with my anecdotes! The narration - for a change - flowed without any interruptions!!
Tailpiece.
A short yet heavy trip! And my last, in uniform!!
I'd left home by a quarter to 11 and we're speeding by comfortably by the airport-seaport road. Vincent, our saarthi, had a fund of anecdotes to regale us with! But what I was really enthused was by his unique idea to release our country from the wretchedness caused by our political dispensation and to quote him, "Sir, our entire country must be given on lease to some other and just like the Britishers had ruled us, we must be taken charge off to deliver the targets set by them and we shall deliver".
A crazy yet thought provoking statement. And he was speaking from his bitter experiences, beginning with a six year's hard work in Trichy in Tamilnadu, another six years in Bombay followed by twelve years in Saudi Arabia. He was the third sibling and the eldest son out of eight siblings and his mother had carefully utilised the funds provided by his bank balances to nurture every one of them. The beauty was that he did not bear any grudge or ill will towards anyone of them despite the fact that two of his nephews had taken him for a ride and made him lose a substantial amount of his savings! He was running his car as a taxi for an agency that was exploiting him and his counterparts.
What was intriguing from his narrative was that the owners of the taxis along with the drivers were being exploited while the agents and the middlemen earned their 'cuts' without doing an iota of work. What are the trade unions doing about this exploitation?
The sight of the Coromandel coast was as elegant as always. And Devinder Singh, along with Palai, were waiting with the vehicle - they'd been there for more than an hour as the flight was late.
The evening's farewell in my honour was a fantastic affair and I'd tried to keep the crowd amused with my anecdotes! The narration - for a change - flowed without any interruptions!!
Tailpiece.
A short yet heavy trip! And my last, in uniform!!
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