The day had begun at 4 when Lekha's phone's alarm had gone off. We went through our chores and were ready well in time. We left 'The Quarterdeck' at a 10' past 6 to a bright sunny day. The drive was flawless with not much of traffic and we'd our first stop, at a point a trifle ahead of Palakkad town. The stop was well timed for easing our bladders and for having our breakfast.
After a halt of about forty minutes, we'd resumed our journey. The scenic sights that whizzed past were a beauty to watch with the four of us maintaining a light hearted banter right through the drive. While passing through the numerous toll gates, I was exempted from paying the fee being a naval veteran at many points but not every one of them did give me that privilege. Probably, each one sitting at the gates had his/her own outlook towards collecting the payment and I wasn't unduly exercised!
While we passed through Perundurai, short of Erode, we called up Achu to say that we were passing through the place where he'd spent almost a year while working for the multinational, Marico. There was a dull ache deep within all of us that the difference between this trip of ours with the one that we'd made towards the fag end of 2014 was that Mom was not with us this time!
We stopped for a cup of filtered coffee around a half past 11, a trifle after Salem and the stop for lunch at a good wayside hotel at Krishnagiri. The vegetarian meal was nice and we'd spent about a little more than half an hour out there. The subsequent journey was a bit troublesome as I'd missed a turn to the left, immediately after the tollgate at the Electronic City, consequently, ending up doing an additional 8 km, through rain, bad roads, crawling traffic and in the process, touching hard the Chevy's undercarriage, twice, on loose granite stones/potholes - and it was my fault all through. The car behaved all right and we reached my sister, Mini's place at Gottigere by a half past 5. I only hope that there is no damage to the vehicle as we still have got our return trip of about 500 kms on Monday.
Sanil was back from work by then. It was a nice rendezvous with a free and non stop conversation. Sanil, Padmakumar and I went for a short walk and Mithun and Ammu had reached back from work soon after. The dinner and the freewheeling conversation went on till late in the night and it was good to relive the good ole times!
Achu was the only one, left in the quorum, who wasn't around on the occasion!
Tailpiece.
Ranjit Sarkar had given me a call on reaching Guruvayur, for attending a wedding. He's the one who makes it a point to send me a Malayalam film song, on What'sApp every evening prior to bedtime. He has promised to meet up next time when he comes by.
After a halt of about forty minutes, we'd resumed our journey. The scenic sights that whizzed past were a beauty to watch with the four of us maintaining a light hearted banter right through the drive. While passing through the numerous toll gates, I was exempted from paying the fee being a naval veteran at many points but not every one of them did give me that privilege. Probably, each one sitting at the gates had his/her own outlook towards collecting the payment and I wasn't unduly exercised!
While we passed through Perundurai, short of Erode, we called up Achu to say that we were passing through the place where he'd spent almost a year while working for the multinational, Marico. There was a dull ache deep within all of us that the difference between this trip of ours with the one that we'd made towards the fag end of 2014 was that Mom was not with us this time!
We stopped for a cup of filtered coffee around a half past 11, a trifle after Salem and the stop for lunch at a good wayside hotel at Krishnagiri. The vegetarian meal was nice and we'd spent about a little more than half an hour out there. The subsequent journey was a bit troublesome as I'd missed a turn to the left, immediately after the tollgate at the Electronic City, consequently, ending up doing an additional 8 km, through rain, bad roads, crawling traffic and in the process, touching hard the Chevy's undercarriage, twice, on loose granite stones/potholes - and it was my fault all through. The car behaved all right and we reached my sister, Mini's place at Gottigere by a half past 5. I only hope that there is no damage to the vehicle as we still have got our return trip of about 500 kms on Monday.
Sanil was back from work by then. It was a nice rendezvous with a free and non stop conversation. Sanil, Padmakumar and I went for a short walk and Mithun and Ammu had reached back from work soon after. The dinner and the freewheeling conversation went on till late in the night and it was good to relive the good ole times!
Achu was the only one, left in the quorum, who wasn't around on the occasion!
Tailpiece.
Ranjit Sarkar had given me a call on reaching Guruvayur, for attending a wedding. He's the one who makes it a point to send me a Malayalam film song, on What'sApp every evening prior to bedtime. He has promised to meet up next time when he comes by.
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