Had got up at our usual time and gone through our chores. Attempts to contact Anil, who'd returned from Nakon Phanom late last night proved futile and therefore, I couldn't have a proper feedback about when and where the funeral was taking place. Anyways, by a quarter past 9, I was off to Thrissur by bus. Earlier, I'd caught an auto rickshaw to reach the private bus stand - getting an auto on Sundays from the stand near our house can be exasperating, after a long wait.
The bus had dropped me pretty close to their house and another auto rickshaw fetched me up at their place only to be told that the cortege had just left for the crematorium! There was a taxi that was taking in some of the friends/perhaps, relatives and I took it for granted that they're headed for the crematorium. Accordingly, I'd hired a third auto rickshaw for the day and my instructions to the driver was, "Follow that car." A stupid action as I was gonna find later and I hadn't even checked out on the exact location of my destination.
After a while, my sixth sense said that I was headed in the wrong direction as the cab was leaving the town and it was then that we decided to overtake the vehicle to ascertain the information. Sure enough, we're headed on the reciprocal! We, then, turned back and headed towards Poonkunnam where the cremation ground was - a place that I'd passed a while back on my journey to Anil's place, from Guruvayur. I could have simply got down there in the first instance.
By the time I'd reached the spot, everything was over and the body had already started burning in the enclosed pyre. The advantage was that I could meet the entire family and offer my condolences! Anil was quite thrilled to find me there because for him, at least a class mate of his was in attendance against a host of classmates/friends of Radha, at the funeral. I must admit that I felt a bit sheepish for fetching up after the event!!
Tailpiece.
Had returned to my place a trifle before lunch time. The rest of the day was quiet which found me doing the routine stuff.
The bus had dropped me pretty close to their house and another auto rickshaw fetched me up at their place only to be told that the cortege had just left for the crematorium! There was a taxi that was taking in some of the friends/perhaps, relatives and I took it for granted that they're headed for the crematorium. Accordingly, I'd hired a third auto rickshaw for the day and my instructions to the driver was, "Follow that car." A stupid action as I was gonna find later and I hadn't even checked out on the exact location of my destination.
After a while, my sixth sense said that I was headed in the wrong direction as the cab was leaving the town and it was then that we decided to overtake the vehicle to ascertain the information. Sure enough, we're headed on the reciprocal! We, then, turned back and headed towards Poonkunnam where the cremation ground was - a place that I'd passed a while back on my journey to Anil's place, from Guruvayur. I could have simply got down there in the first instance.
By the time I'd reached the spot, everything was over and the body had already started burning in the enclosed pyre. The advantage was that I could meet the entire family and offer my condolences! Anil was quite thrilled to find me there because for him, at least a class mate of his was in attendance against a host of classmates/friends of Radha, at the funeral. I must admit that I felt a bit sheepish for fetching up after the event!!
Tailpiece.
Had returned to my place a trifle before lunch time. The rest of the day was quiet which found me doing the routine stuff.
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