The day had begun on a dry note as the lull in the rain seems to be getting longer. I'd skipped my morning walk as there were a few things that needed tying up before I left for Thiruvananthapuram in the afternoon. The PCI representative had given a call that he'd make a visit by lunch time to tackle the recent sighting of ants in a corner of the kitchen and outside the house in a corner of the kitchen garden despite the last visit for the quarter. My cousin, who's returned from abroad on two months' leave, had also called up Lekha that he was in Thrissur with his mom, visiting a doctor and would be dropping by sometime later on in the day, on their return to Kochi.
A quick lunch and as I was getting ready to move, the priest who'd conducted the puja had come by to hand over the charm that's to be worn by Lekha. Rajan, the auto rickshaw guy, was on the dot at 1230h to take me to the railway station but when I reached there my heart sank seeing the long queue of people waiting to buy the tickets and the scheduled departure of the afternoon shuttle was at 1255h! Ultimately, when it was just a few minutes left for the train to depart, I'd got it and in the hurry to get into a compartment had entered a 'ladies only' compartment. In fact, I was quite thrilled to see the compartment almost empty when a lady pointed out the obvious. Profusely apologetic, I'd quickly hopped off and trudged along to find a seat in a comparatively less crowded carriage!
The twenty minute journey to Thrissur was uneventful. The wait at the railway station was tedious to say the least but I was into my favourite pastime of watching and trying to understand people. There were two people who'd come into my critical view. The first was a serving army officer who was being seen off by four smart soldiers in smart fatigues. Sadly, the officer was not taking care of his looks; he'd an unwieldy paunch and my only doubt was as to whether he was exercising at all for his health's sake. To make matters worse, he insisted on speaking in Malayalam-tinged Hindi and Punjabi loudly over the telephone and tapering the conversations in chaste Malayalam towards the end, all through the journey. Why the hell couldn't he speak in Malayalam in the first place?
The second was a guy who switched on the fan, at intervals, watching the discomfort that it was causing to some of his fellow passengers. He had to be told to stop his nonsense after which he was well behaved for the rest of the journey! Was he psychic, I wonder?
The train reached Thiruvananthapuram smack on time. It was Gopee Krishna, my cousin who'd come to pick me up in his car and it was nice to see him after a long while.
Tailpiece.
After working out the strategy for the conduct of the 'Vaayana Vaaram' at the Foundation, Maman and I reached his place around 2230 hrs, my home for the coming five days!
A quick lunch and as I was getting ready to move, the priest who'd conducted the puja had come by to hand over the charm that's to be worn by Lekha. Rajan, the auto rickshaw guy, was on the dot at 1230h to take me to the railway station but when I reached there my heart sank seeing the long queue of people waiting to buy the tickets and the scheduled departure of the afternoon shuttle was at 1255h! Ultimately, when it was just a few minutes left for the train to depart, I'd got it and in the hurry to get into a compartment had entered a 'ladies only' compartment. In fact, I was quite thrilled to see the compartment almost empty when a lady pointed out the obvious. Profusely apologetic, I'd quickly hopped off and trudged along to find a seat in a comparatively less crowded carriage!
The twenty minute journey to Thrissur was uneventful. The wait at the railway station was tedious to say the least but I was into my favourite pastime of watching and trying to understand people. There were two people who'd come into my critical view. The first was a serving army officer who was being seen off by four smart soldiers in smart fatigues. Sadly, the officer was not taking care of his looks; he'd an unwieldy paunch and my only doubt was as to whether he was exercising at all for his health's sake. To make matters worse, he insisted on speaking in Malayalam-tinged Hindi and Punjabi loudly over the telephone and tapering the conversations in chaste Malayalam towards the end, all through the journey. Why the hell couldn't he speak in Malayalam in the first place?
The second was a guy who switched on the fan, at intervals, watching the discomfort that it was causing to some of his fellow passengers. He had to be told to stop his nonsense after which he was well behaved for the rest of the journey! Was he psychic, I wonder?
The train reached Thiruvananthapuram smack on time. It was Gopee Krishna, my cousin who'd come to pick me up in his car and it was nice to see him after a long while.
Tailpiece.
After working out the strategy for the conduct of the 'Vaayana Vaaram' at the Foundation, Maman and I reached his place around 2230 hrs, my home for the coming five days!
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