The day had begun at 4, thanks to the alarm set on Lekha's cellphone. Went through our chores and were ready well in time. Anto was at our gate by a 10' past 6 and he dropped us at the railway station without delay. Thankfully, the queue had not formed up and we could find a place to sit without problems. The advantage of going by the 0645 hrs passenger are two; one doesn't have to get ready too early and secondly, the train is parked on platform no.1.
After having selected our seats, I'd gone to pick up the day's newspapers from the lone vendor on the platform. Vidyadharan was thrilled that I remembered his name and casually, he'd inquired about me and my background. He was quite happy to hear that I was PN Panicker's grandson and went on to narrate the incident when my grandfather had provided him with his village library's membership owing to his keenness on the job. His hold on my hand lingered as he flitted back into the past.
We reached Thrissur by a quarter past 7 and settled down at the air conditioned retiring room, waiting for the Jan Shatabdi to Thiruvananthapuram, from Kannur, at a quarter past 8 which eventually arrived 10' late. The seats were comfortable and the journey was uneventful. Naduni Yadav, the bearer, gave us our breakfast of bread and omelette. Since he didn't have change, he'd promised to fetch us our lunch too, which he did!
Met Nileena, a young post graduate, who was preparing at a coaching centre at Thiruvananthapuram for the civil services examination and she wants to join the IPS. Wished the bubbly young lady the best in her endeavour as we got off the train.
Lekha does not enjoy travelling with her feet dangling and I had sorted out the problem by keeping one of our bags under her feet which seemed to be okay for her. The lunch of vegetable biriyani was okay. Meanwhile, the train had picked up speed and had reached the destination on time. As we got out of the station, Murukan, a taxi driver met us and offered to drop us where we wanted to go at a reasonable fare.
He dropped us at Indira kunjamma's house, where Lekha had disembarked. She'd be there for the next two days while I will be staying at Maman's house. It coordinates my moves to and from the Foundation, along with Maman. Murukan, incidentally, had worked for Muthachhan - in the '80s - while he was providing leadership to the literacy movement in the state! His eyes were moist as he recalled his days at the Kerala Association for Non-formal Education and Development (KANFED) and said some very nice things about me and also, that I resembled my grandfather!
After spending some time with Indira kunjamma, Murukan took me to the Foundation and I joined the others at work. The staff received me warmly with Indira ma'am giving me a nicely made filtered coffee! Wow, it was simply great. Over work, Maman and I discussed a whole lot of things regarding the Foundation and during the pace of the next four hours, met a lot of people who'd dropped by.
We reached home by 9 and it was nice meeting up with Ammayi and Chambu. It was a nice evening with plenty of yakkitiyak over dinner.
Tailpiece.
The journey by train was definitely far more comfortable!
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