Had got up with the alarm at 4 and went through my chores. I was ready well in time when Anto showed himself up and together, we left for the railway station without much ado. Lekha had given me a packed breakfast as she usually does during such forays of mine. I'd recited my prayers as the train hurtled towards Punkunnam, the first station after Guruvayur and immediately before, Thrissur!
At Thrissur, this young girl, Uthara had boarded the train along with her mom and sat in my coupe. She's studying in class VI of the Holy Family School in town. A beautiful, little girl brought up with the best of values and soon, we'd become good friends. She sat on the single seat opposite mine and was keen to know about the stations that came by. It was through her that I came to know that they're headed for Kayankulam as the little one kept wondering as to why the train wasn't reaching her destination fast and was wide eyed in that I knew the stations in the order of their sequence!.
The loco men were on strike all over India, but their counterparts in Kerala had decided not to strike work and instead, wear a black band around their hand to register their protest - was impressed at this attitude of theirs (It was Lekha who'd given me this information, when she'd called and I must confess that I wouldn't have embarked upon this journey had I known about it beforehand!).
The young chirpy Uthara, kept boredom away with her incessant yet lovable chatter and a great number of innocent questions. Soon, her mom, Rekha too, joined in the conversation and thus, I came to know that she was a teacher who taught classical dance to many students, both at Thrissur and in Guruvayur. In addition to it, she's also an 'Art of Living' guide and currently, was off to Kayankulam for a five day 'AoL' camp and had her little one tagging along with her to spend those days with her cousins during her ongoing vacation. They've agreed to keep in touch and to drop by at our place in Guruvayur - "We keep coming there every week as we've a lot many relatives out there!" - as they waved me good bye.
The remainder of the journey from Kayankulam to Kollam to Kottarakkara was very quiet as the train piled on a 11/2 hour delay! I'd to just grin and bear the agony. Meanwhile, had lunch at the Kollam railway station, courtesy its vegetarian refreshment stall. By the time I was at the bank in Kottarakkara, it was a quarter past 3 and had to wait a while for Ramakrishnan to come back from lunch. Earlier, I'd a bad experience when none of the auto rick guys, parked at the railway station, were eager to drop me at my destination as it was a 'minimum return' run for Rs.20/- and I'd to shout as to whether I'd reached Pakistan where an Indian would come across unfriendly people! My taunt worked wonders because there was a quick reaction.....we Malayalees will never improve because we're fundamentally bad and arrogant!!
After handing over the papers for mom's lifetime arrears, I'd told Ramakrishnan that the money, if received within a fortnight, would be of a great help in erecting the truss work over Raj Nivas before the monsoon sets in. I thought it right to tell him about the need so that he put in efforts to get us the money in time, otherwise such things have a way of getting delayed for no rhyme or reason!
On completion of work, I'd got myself dropped at the road transport corporation bus stand and clambered on to a Scannia volvo, headed for Bangalore. I would have reached Guruvayur before 9 but a rally sponsored by the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripaalana Yogam and blinding rains coupled with a dinner halt of half an hour enroute, saw us at Thrissur at a 10' to 10 with the rains still drip, drip, dripping......In the volvo, I'd to tick off an IT professional who had lowered the backrest of his chair rather hard on to my knee, in the process of making himself a convenient sleeping position. A Paulose from Canada - overheard his name from a few of his phone calls - was active with his crunch, crunch, crunching of a seemingly crispy and hard wafar that he was busy with. The journey had its share of an intermittent sound and light show, thus!
I was back at 'The Quarterdeck' at a half past 11 on completion of work. Phew!
Tailpiece.
1. Tomorrow happens to be our 27th wedding anniversary.
2. The results of the Karnataka state Assembly elections were fed to me, on a continuous basis, by a few of my friends through What'sApp.
At Thrissur, this young girl, Uthara had boarded the train along with her mom and sat in my coupe. She's studying in class VI of the Holy Family School in town. A beautiful, little girl brought up with the best of values and soon, we'd become good friends. She sat on the single seat opposite mine and was keen to know about the stations that came by. It was through her that I came to know that they're headed for Kayankulam as the little one kept wondering as to why the train wasn't reaching her destination fast and was wide eyed in that I knew the stations in the order of their sequence!.
The loco men were on strike all over India, but their counterparts in Kerala had decided not to strike work and instead, wear a black band around their hand to register their protest - was impressed at this attitude of theirs (It was Lekha who'd given me this information, when she'd called and I must confess that I wouldn't have embarked upon this journey had I known about it beforehand!).
The young chirpy Uthara, kept boredom away with her incessant yet lovable chatter and a great number of innocent questions. Soon, her mom, Rekha too, joined in the conversation and thus, I came to know that she was a teacher who taught classical dance to many students, both at Thrissur and in Guruvayur. In addition to it, she's also an 'Art of Living' guide and currently, was off to Kayankulam for a five day 'AoL' camp and had her little one tagging along with her to spend those days with her cousins during her ongoing vacation. They've agreed to keep in touch and to drop by at our place in Guruvayur - "We keep coming there every week as we've a lot many relatives out there!" - as they waved me good bye.
The remainder of the journey from Kayankulam to Kollam to Kottarakkara was very quiet as the train piled on a 11/2 hour delay! I'd to just grin and bear the agony. Meanwhile, had lunch at the Kollam railway station, courtesy its vegetarian refreshment stall. By the time I was at the bank in Kottarakkara, it was a quarter past 3 and had to wait a while for Ramakrishnan to come back from lunch. Earlier, I'd a bad experience when none of the auto rick guys, parked at the railway station, were eager to drop me at my destination as it was a 'minimum return' run for Rs.20/- and I'd to shout as to whether I'd reached Pakistan where an Indian would come across unfriendly people! My taunt worked wonders because there was a quick reaction.....we Malayalees will never improve because we're fundamentally bad and arrogant!!
After handing over the papers for mom's lifetime arrears, I'd told Ramakrishnan that the money, if received within a fortnight, would be of a great help in erecting the truss work over Raj Nivas before the monsoon sets in. I thought it right to tell him about the need so that he put in efforts to get us the money in time, otherwise such things have a way of getting delayed for no rhyme or reason!
On completion of work, I'd got myself dropped at the road transport corporation bus stand and clambered on to a Scannia volvo, headed for Bangalore. I would have reached Guruvayur before 9 but a rally sponsored by the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripaalana Yogam and blinding rains coupled with a dinner halt of half an hour enroute, saw us at Thrissur at a 10' to 10 with the rains still drip, drip, dripping......In the volvo, I'd to tick off an IT professional who had lowered the backrest of his chair rather hard on to my knee, in the process of making himself a convenient sleeping position. A Paulose from Canada - overheard his name from a few of his phone calls - was active with his crunch, crunch, crunching of a seemingly crispy and hard wafar that he was busy with. The journey had its share of an intermittent sound and light show, thus!
I was back at 'The Quarterdeck' at a half past 11 on completion of work. Phew!
Tailpiece.
1. Tomorrow happens to be our 27th wedding anniversary.
2. The results of the Karnataka state Assembly elections were fed to me, on a continuous basis, by a few of my friends through What'sApp.
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