Bye To Chennai and Hi To Pune !!

Friends,

The recent development in my career has made me to take a decision to leave chennai and move to Pune. On one hand I'm extremely happy with this development, while on the other hand its as if im moving out of my home town even though Chennai wasn't. This city has a magic of it's own though not as effective as that of Mumbai (which always remains as my first love).

First impression of Chennai was never good, as it tends to bog you down with its humid and dry climate, but when you start spending time over here you begin to realise the true aura of this place. U get everything at a cheaper rate than any place in India (at least when compared to other metros in India) and high availability of public transport at any time or at any point on a given day is truly comforting. If the "too conservative" nature of this city is a let down then the humble and down to earth natured locals are its great assets.

My travel across cities in India started from Mumbai , Gurgaon, Bangalore, Pune , Chennai and eventually Pune again in search of a good career option. I believe I carry the sentiments of half a billion young Indians who are in search of a good life in this fast growing democracy. Its not just the demographies of these various cities but even the type of people found in each of these cities are quite contrast in nature except for the fact that they all want to jump into the bandwagon of growing India. Before I venture into a social topic such as India's development, let me do justice to this post by getting back to the core subject.

You normally consider yourself to be very lucky or.fortunate if you end up getting your preferred job at your preferred location, but believe me it doesn't take much time for you to start romanticizing with your temporary options and probably even consider them to be the permanent one. It is a common human tendency that when you dream for something and it takes longer to fulfill, you tend to accept the reality as it is and start being happy with it. Also you start finding the commonalities between your dream and reality. Well I may sound crazy with these words but believe me thats the way it happens. Perhaps in my case it was little different - the dream didn't take much longer to fulfill and I'm still stuck to my dream come true experience.

I never liked Chennai but my stay over here for 6 months started with disappointment so much so that any little incident which went my way made me happier, like getting a 50% discount on a Arrow shirt, finding a ultra modern mall in the middle of the city (which would give tough competition to the one's in Bangalore, Pune or Mumbai) or to be able to watch a good Hindi movie in Chennai.

I have tried to describe my quest to find a peaceful life through the following words.

" Here is a man who goes places,
in search of peace and comfort corners
Ends up looking everywhere
Only to be found here and there !!
Until he realized what he seeks
perhaps to be with his family & friends is what he needs!!

So he embarks on a journey to seek happiness
With tons of hope, dreams and expectations.
Plenty of options it was difficult for him to choose
Was like opting to follow a flock of geese or just a goose.
Until he realized what he seeks
perhaps to be with his family & friends is what he needs!!

His search didn't go in vain
As he found his abode without much pain.
At last he got what he needed,
much better it happened when it mattered.
Good that he realized what he sought
To be with his family would always be his thought !!

(Sabareesan Sankaran)


Please shower your views in the form of comments and help me in understanding many things in Life better !!

Wardle Place - Heaven where some kind hearted Demons lived and still live.....

Disclaimer :  All the characters involved in this narration are true to the core and the incidents related to them follows the same suit as well, though they might sound a bit exaggerated. I know that I would recieve some serious flak but tell me seriously which author in the world doesn't get some. I have tried to describe some of the characters with some humour added to it so as to bring some smiles while reading the same. And sincerely hope that it doesn't offend anybody.
I would like to convey this message ecspecially to all the ex and current wardelites " Please be sportive in discovering yourself through the writings of a part time wardelite, and be generous enough to comment about this poor soul whose only intention is to make people smile and not hurt anybody. If I have in anyways done that, please forgive me or write a comment or two swearing me to quench your fiery angst against me"

What can I say about this place? I have very fond memories of this place and would like to recollect some of those moments along with the funny characters " the so called kind hearted demons" who are the integral part of my fond memories. Let me start of by introducing the kind hearted demons who had the privilege to stay in

No-3 wardle Place
Oldbrook
Milton Keynes
United Kingdom

Prabhakar Shetty - " The tireless Lover "
He is one of those intelligent, helpful, kindhearted and a charming person (to an extent that even some oldies would fall for him). If the young wardelites were jealous of him the older one's would curse at their misfortune and the rate in which they grew up to become old. I have tried to pen a poem which probably portrays the thoughts of Prabhakar as a "tireless lover".

" It’s difficult to live without love in your life ,

Whether its from your girlfriend or  your wife.

You need to experience it, to understand it’s might !!

Though you never know when it would smite.

There’s love everywhere

It’s just that we are unaware.

To test its existence
Wait for the inevitable

with some patience and perseverance
Believe me it’s possible.

Trust on the fact that There’s love everywhere

It’s just that we are unaware.

People fly over continents and oceans

To meet their love, and to get swayed by emotions

Now boys & Girls, men and women  never feel sad

If u lose your love, because its what you had

So as the saying goes - There’s love everywhere

Its just that we are unaware

Whether its your first crush or the last one

Don’t take a count, as its not something that you lost or won.

Get into this feeling with a blank mind

As you never know what’s there at the end

You need to believe that there’s love everywhere

Its just that we are unaware. "

- From an aspiring poet, novelist, blogger and what not

The above poem is dedicated to Shetty - a great friend of mine whom I would treasure for a lifetime.

Guru Prasad Balachandra - " Grand Old man of Wardle place "
He was one of the elder wardelites and the thronless king of Wardle place - was mainly into performing the administrative duties of wardle place such as ghar kharcha compiling etc:- . Also one his key interests was to bet on bet365 website, didnt win anything special. Well to be frank u can't expect a big return when u are trying to bet with a pound or two. One interesting fact about Guru is his unique capability to drink beer like a seasoned drunkard drinking his "on the rocks scotch", also his taste for drinking vodka with orange or Leechi juice was unique and worth mentioning. And last but not the least his age seemed to catch with his drinking ability as well, it was difficult for him to last beyond a peg of Vodka.
One more key characteristics of Guru was his hatred towards Mallus, according to him all the mallus in the world were shrewd, cunning, deceptive, and probably u can  associate all the negative human traits that this world has seen with mallus. Well his reasons for the same were justified especially after he was cheated by some three mallus - this is all we got from him as he got intoxicated after his "one great peg of Vodka". :-)


Umesh Timoli - " The smiling chef Of Warlde Place "
As the description goes he was one of extraordinary cooks I have ever seen but his cooking style was never meant for people with weak taste buds. Especially the English men would dread him for his spicy style of cooking. He was a smoker to the core and had this ability to make people smoke out of their nostrils, ears and probably everywhere after eating the delicacies offered by him. Its as if he has picked his adversaries and silently relishing his revenge against them with a smile. He was the man of the hour especially when there is need for a party over the weekend. I can still remember our Sr Deployment manager offering him to take an off after lunch on a friday just to cook some great delicacies and prepare the food for that night - such were his cooking skills - and there's always something cooking about him as well, but he used to cover them all with his innocent smile.
|
Vimal Mishra - " Mallya's little Friend "

Though the description is a bit satirical and not literal, it is true that he is one of the serious contributors of wealth to the great Indian liquor baron. Vimal aka Tukky was a person who believed in size doesnt matter, especially with his well known drinking capabilities. With Tukky u always need to be prepared for any eventuality while drinking, so we always used to create some space for him especially when he gets on to his nagin and Osho's trance after drinking. Not many can be proud owners of such a flexible body tied together by group of bones !! ( from distance he always looked like the Walt Disney Pluto's bone to me). I still remember the first day when he entered wardle place, and Guru along with me were in the mood to test him out, to be frank he outranked us with his wit and drinking skills. He was very eager to make a mark in cricketing world and made some tall claims even to the extent of being a fearsome fast bowler. Prabhakar and me took that statement with a pinch of salt. Eventually we realised that he was a unique fast bowler who can regularly flight the ball. Well whether he is a great bowler or not but he was and would always be the Tendulkar of the drinking world.

Harish Karkera - "The Deal Wizard "

Probably the only one in this world who can credit a success rate of more than 90% in their search for cheaper deals. His motto was always "cheap and best in everything, but at times best can be compromised for dead cheap" . A unique character with an unparalleled ability of googling to find cheaper deals.. Ebay was the secondary source for his daily bread. He also holds the distinction of buying a car through online source, not many indians would dare to do that. Though luck favoured him for the most part of his online deals, the one with the car was a let off. Such was the state of the car that probably the founders of Rover(John Kemp and William Sutton) would have raised questions about the quality of the car. Though I was not part of the incident but it is a well known story in Wardle place about his Rover which didn't show its magic when the great wardelites wanted to place a visit to Alton Towers. That's when people got to know the truth abt Karkera's Rover.

Ajith Singh Patil - "Patil the Politician"

Born Politician would be the best fit description for him. It's very hard to find a person who is equally good in mediating a solution, fuelling a fight and escaping when things go wrong but he was the person with all these three qualities carefully programmed in him. only to be executed appropriately whenever and wherever the situation demands to do so. To catch him red handed in action is very difficult as he has got some strong convincing ability/skill which can be used to even convince a dog that its tail can be straightened. If he can do that to a dog, then our poor soul Shetty doesnt have a chance before his skills. Ajit actually convinced Prabhakar Shetty to go for an insurance package (which cost shettly half the amount as that of the camera) along with the camera. He relishes the experience and improves his understanding of new things, process etc: at the expense of others. The last I heard about him was that he aspired to contest state elections from Pandharpur, I sincerely hope he hasn't become a politician yet or if he has then hopefully he doesnt try his skills with the people of Pandharpur :-) . During his course of stay in Wardle place he has earned some distinct and honourable titles some worth mentioning and some not such as " Patil the Player", "The fueller", "Crook who never cooks", " Next Gen Narad" etc;.


Jobit George - "Hairless & Crownless King George of Wardle Place"

God's creation of men is a good case study for the topic "Dnt put all your eggs in one basket". Its something which you would find in every man and woman ecspecially when it comes to their varying degree of Physical strength and weakness. In Jobit's case if his strong athletic body frame was his strength then his hairless head was his biggest downfall. He was an athlete in his younger days and it was only clear to us when we had a peek at his carefully preserved photo, which indicated that he had a black blooming hair once upon a time. Unfortunately he can't use that as his profile pic in either facebook or orkut as he looks way too younger firstly because he has grown up and secondly in the process he lost almost all of his hair.There are two small patches of hair in his head similar to a couple of water patches in the big Sahara Desert.


Arun Swaminathan - " Born with acess to youtube "

Well u would have already guessed his relationship with youtube is a romantic saga in itself. He hold the unique distinction of learning how to play badminton and driving in UK through youtube. It's as if youtube and Arun were meant to be together as long as they last. He is part of the current gen living in wardle place and possibly will see through till it's end. The last I heard about him was his new career option to join a company as Telecom billing director - quite interesting !! jobit would have pulled off his last remaining hairs after hearing this. Arun was also a smoker like most of the ex- wardelites upholding one of the key traditional values/rituals of Wardle place which was founded by Umesh & Prabhakar supported by Sabarish to some extent and then continued by Arun. Whether the smoke originated from the chimney or not but strong presence of cigarrete smoke was always there( there would be atleast one wardelite puffing cigarretes throughout the day). If youtube was Arun's first love then smoking was his second. He had a unique ability to listen to hard metal while programming batch scripts in Unix( something to do with BT bill generation program), and we all hoped that  the poor customers won't bear the brunt of it and start behaving like the hard metal rock bands - a mouthful of swearing headed towards the billing operations team.

Kapil Johri -   “Stealthy executioner“

“A very rare breed hard to witness in common” – Person filled with tons of humour and a practical perspective of life. If there is an adverse situation where he can’t get out of it then it means it’s just impossible for others. His well known capabilities of getting things done is the essence of his practical perspective – Otherwise more commonly known as the “Jugaadu” in our circle, it’s as if this man has 2 parallel minds running at the rate of intel core duo processors analysing the situation and coming up with possible solutions and executing them with probably four pair of hands.  Though this side of Kapil is something which probably most would like to have but then there is his other side where you are better off in avoiding the same - Yes u probably guessed it right!!  It’s the “Patil syndrome” – It’s very rare to see couple of people with similar traits only to differ with respect to their method of execution. If Patil is a shrewd politician then Kapil is a practical one. Getting things done stealthily is a virtue that he is born with, whether it’s about taking a single in the game of cricket or getting a salary hike (on rare occasions, kidding !!). I always felt that many including me tend to under estimate him only to realise his stealth potential with a bolt of jolt and shock. All said and done a great friend in need with solutions to almost every problem you might have, also a friend which many would crave to have.

Hargeet B – “The bold and the confused “

If people revered her for being bold, she seemed to be battling with an adversary within her mind called "confusion". Though I tend to associate confusion as an hallmark characteristic of any woman, however in her case it was more than normal. However the good part is that her confusion almost evertime leads her into a situation where she seeks good guidance from her friends, so in that regard she was lucky to have some good circle of friends. She was also an epitome/mixed bag of emotions, which you can make out by looking at her face though she doesn’t want everyone to make it out through her facial expressions. All said and done she carried herself with a good amount of boldness which is what marks her as a unique soul among others. The first impression you would get about her is – “A staunch feminist” at least as per the outside world, but her close circle of friends would differ with that and would associate that trait of her’s with her boldness to stand for something which she believes. 

Back to her weakness - Such was the extent of her confused mind that she mistakenly took the gloves of a poor old gentleman sitting right opposite to her in the train,  while returning from London to Milton Keynes and claimed it to be her- Poor old Englishman he was! If she had stuck to her belief for few more minutes he would have probably let her go with his gloves admitting he was mistaken. And thats when she earned the title “Sardarni whom the English fear!!”

Recalling my moments of happiness

" When i grew up, everyone used to say,
Hey kid I wish I were you !!
I never got it that day
Until I grew up to realise its true
As the time goes by
U wonder how fast you grew
Only to look at your kid and say I wish I were you"


Its been 29 yrs after my entry into the stage called life and I eagerly wish for a playback of all my happy moments till date especially the one's during my childhood & teen where every little thing mattered and not ignored with a reason coming out of a matured mind.

A7 Cartwright Place in Kolhapur ............

Trust me!! It's an empty wardrobe

Kochu Vallam from Kerala !!

View from Kitchen lounge

Easy to scale the bed pretty much on the floor !!

View from the wash basin- atlast the wall highlighter has got a T.V !!

View from the Kitchen

The entry view

Could look quite scary in the middle of the night !!

U guessed it right !! Neatly arranged Tequilla shot glasses

#7 Cartwright Place in Kolhapur- Work In Progress

To all my friends, relatives and well wishers,

Dhanuk and I have recently christened our newly constructed house as "A7, Cartwright Place" and have started living over there. To start with the the house seems to be too big for two people but neverthless it was our choice to have it big -- as it matches to our respective sizes and expectations !! :-)

As you might all have already guessed #7 Cartwright place, Oldbrook, Milton Keynes was the place where Dhanuk and I started our family. The official version of our house christening goes like this. - Cartwirght Place is named after the famous not so legendary medium fast bowler - Tom Cartwright. And since you all know how big a cricket buff I'm, I thought of dedicating the efforts of constructing my house to Mr. Tom cartwright, who unlike me was an excellent medium pace bowler. I just aspired to be one in real but ended up being a wicket- Keeper batsman and only when the captain ( ecspecially Prashant Parab - new city cc Captain) wishes to use my doosras against the clueless English batsmen in and around Milton Keynes, I was able to exhibit my skills.

Probably you might be already aware that the real version has nothing to do with Tom Cartwright ( I sincerley apologise to all disheatened English fans not sure how many of them really know him, atleast not the current gen Eng ppl !!).

By reading the name plate outside the gate for a moment people in Kolhapur would have thought that some foreigners would have invested to buy -an home in the so called  "Amchi Hirva kolhapur". But the moment anybody tries to have a peek inside they would surely come to know that its not any foreigners but two poor "foreign returned" souls that live in this house.

Ok now to the best part- Friends I'm uploading few pics of  "A7 Cartwright Place" . Would surely love to know your feedback on how does it look. More to follow .........

Background highlighter without a TV !!

View from the Living Room !! (Wide open and welcoming)

Contemporary Wash Basin ??

Wife's Childhood painting-  Was a female Picasso in the making !!

A request with a smile - "Please get the Groceries"

Children's bedroom- Large enough to accomodate adults as well !!

Royal Sofa - Large enough for the entire family to sit

Poor man's chandelier !!

Minimal Seating arrangements

Marble balls trapped inside a glass cage !!

Children's bathroom (Will grow up watching the chicks :-) on the wall )!!

Individuality - My Definition

A term normally used as an excuse for anything we do, which may be seen as offending or not likeable by others. Is it really an excuse or more than that? Well my definition may not be seen as an exact interpretation, however it should be seen as a practice adopted by many which includes me and my family.  Individuality is a personal attribute and should not be linked to everything or the rare thing which we do as part of our daily routine in this mad old world. 

I’m trying to sound very simple and whoever feels its a complex subject to venture in or an absolute waste of time to try understand it, may skip this section and move on to the next one. To me Individuality and personality are two completely different terms used to explain the same thing.  One’s persona is defined by his actions and the qualities he/she has in him/her. I personally have been in the quest to search my individuality, right from the day I was exposed to the functioning and purpose of my life in this world. From my first date in the school to this moment, I have been described as a person who looks very much like his Dad and behaves like his mom. This is not something which I wanted to be or accept it to be as my inviduality/personality, but I got it defined by family and relatives - Thanks a ton to them !! Hope none of them reads the following section. 

So Im still trying to ascertain whether I really have my own individuality/personality or not? 

I never needed a character certificate from my relatives or family but these are the things which you get by default if you are born in a well knitted Indian family ( a one which always has a bigger count & circle of relatives). My mom believes all my dad’s relatives are blood suckers - well the description would have been more worse If I had to put it in Bengali or Malayalam. And my dad was more tolerative to all the realtives irrespective of the team they belong to.

Another virtue which I had probably inherited from my dad is being generous. You can be generous only till the extent you can, but my dad's case is an exception.  I feel he would have been an excellent fit during the era of King Harishchandra or Vikramaditya. He believes in selflessness and willingly opts to help almost everyone in his Neelamana family irrespective of the type of help seeked by them ( financial, Job, Personal advice etc: ) and is remembered among his relative circle as a selfless person. Well I personally don't care how someone remembers or thinks about me. I only care about what he/she has done for/to me. Now that's why I term this virtue of mine as partially inherited, I had groomed and tailored it as per my needs. Being generous where I want to be and a miser where I need to be.

Now let me try changing the definition of individuality in 21^st century- “The aggregate of qualities and characteristics that distinguish one person or thing from others wherein the qualities, virtues and characteristics possessed by the individual could have been inherited from his/her parents/or groomed by the individual possibly through an option of choosing the bad, good and practical virtue/Qualities that he could have.”

It sounds as an excellent and practical definition of individuality/personality- Hope all my readers would share the same thought.

My first Train Journey

“A journey - it was never meant to happen again

Filled with surprises and events that made our eyes dampen

With Joy “

(Sabareesan Sankaran)

Part of this incident is factual and rest sheer imagination. Tell me frankly which stupid story teller doesnt add spice to his own experience, except the one's whose job is to sell stories of all great characters that this world has seen. With this narration I'm trying to step into the domain of story writing - who says a software engineer cannot write stories, probably they are the best in describing their woes. Though this has nothing to do with me as a software engineer, but talks about my childhood to teenhood transition days( again a software lingo - it has got into my blood. !!).

This happened to me a few years ago, when I had been to my dad’s hometown for the first time, without any clue about how the new place would be or to be more precise question marks around the type of people I’m going to meet. I was born to a family which has traits of cultural mix written all over it. I’m a hybrid between a staunch Brahmin and Kshatriya and that too from two different regions of this great land. Probably no one else better than me understands the need for greater integration in this country, Sandwiched between two languages Bengali and Malayalam, and the strong urge felt by my family members from both the sides to learn their corresponding languages made me go mad at times- I preferred to stick with English & Hindi.

Nevertheless my first trip to my dad’s hometown based in down south was probably the first shocker of my childhood days considering that I rarely knew what is it to have roots from Kerala. I always used to think aloud on the reason behind my father's dad and mom being stationed far off from my mother's, probably my parents were shy enough to admit about their marriage which wasn't arranged. To be frank gone are the days when people used to be a bit conservative while explaining how they got married, it is more of a pride now to say "Our's was a love marriage what about you both ?". For readers who are not from India there are basically four categories or types of marriages in India unless somebody contradicts with a new one- Arranged, Love, Arranged then Love marriage, Love then Arranged Marriage. They would sound like some weird mathematical relationships but its quite easy to make out which type you belong to. As each of the name says its in the order precedence for eg: In Arranged then love marriage, parents decide the girl or vice-versa and then you start calling each other/get to know each other(not sure to what extent, depends though :-) ) And eventually fall in love knowing that either ways you have to jump in the fire. Well to me this type is nothing but plain old arranged marriage but to spicen up their marriage definition, couples prefer calling it as arranged then love marriage. Live- in relationship is only possible in metros, if tried in villages you may never live to talk about it. Most of the state based cultures in India are quite hostile about Live-in relatioship, may it be extreme right Hindu or Muslim. I think I got carried away a bit with this and by the way mine was the second type - love.

This happened during the summer holidays of 1992 and based on my dad’s request my family decided to venture into a trip to Kerala(God's own country). It was a journey which marked my dad’s return from exile, he was probably the most happiest person in our flock to visit the place where he belonged to and as usual my mom’s Bengali troop came up with its depiction of how people from south India were with so much conviction, and I doubted if anyone among them ever had crossed the boundaries of Midnapur district. I still remember the day 15^th April, 1992 when we started our long journey towards Kannur from Calcutta. Summer was at its peak and I missed my cricket matches which were scheduled by my friends against the JaiMa Kaali team (the next street rival team). Every year I used to be a key member of the playing eleven for saints XI, but this year I was more concerned about losing my prominence in my team and rise of a new star in my absence rather than our team winning the matches, and was totally helpless about it. We boarded our train- Coromandel express from Howrah Junction expecting a pleasant voyage though I was a bit disappointed to miss my matches and was desperately planning to be back as soon as possible to at least be part of the last few matches before the school resumes.

At the start it seemed to be a journey without any interesting events however it’s when we reached kharaghpur that I realized it’s not just four of us( including my small brother- though he had a very short role to play in this apart from waning and crying throughout the journey) whereas my entire mom’s family was going to join us as well. Everyone was interested to know Jamaai babu’s Baadi (son-in law’s home), well for me it was my “Baper Baadi” (Dad’s home). I was very happy to see my grandparents and I loved them especially my grandfather who was an ex-military service man and was part of Indo-Pak 65 and 71 wars. His stories of bravery made my skin filled with goose-bumps and a strong drive to become an army man- (though some of the incidents seemed to be hyped up as we normal Indians do - never realised that when I was a kid at that age). We had entire two row of seats filled with our family members and my uncle being an inspector in RPF(Railway Protection Force) it wasn’t a big deal for all of us to have seats in the same coach ( influence works till date). Now that’s what I call as “law bending citizen” and it perfectly applies to him. For a moment I thought the surprises were to end, but soon went on to realize that it was cast as a spell upon us throughout the journey.

It was nine in the morning, the second day of our journey and our train was moving across the big plains of Andhra land. It was pouring heavily outside and I remember dad saying that it's quite strange to see raining at that time of the season. A family which boarded the train from Srikakulam enlightened us with the current meteorological news about the flash floods in Godavari and the heavy rains around coastal Andhra (those days India was not into the habit of naming cyclones, forget that Indian Govt rarely predicted cyclones). When the train arrived at Rajahmundry station the railway authorities realized that the Godavari Bridge was not safe for train passage and the trains travelling in that route will have to go through a different route. Well I’m lucky to recall this in my blog just because they didn’t delay their findings.

My dad felt it’s just going to be the same old delay story being played by Indian railways. As usual my grandfather went on to flaunt his ex-army identity before the TTE only to find that we had to cope up with a 48 hr delay and the train will take a different route towards north and back southwards from Nagpur. And since those were the days where middle class travelling in a Second class reservation was equivalent to the current gen travelling in 1^st or 2^nd AC. And as usual cleanliness in trains was never to be expected which has hardly changed till date.

My aunt Chandrika (uncle's wife) was totally uncomfortable with continuing the journey and even suggested that we all get down at Berhampur when the train headed back northwards, whereas my Dad thought that this was a chance for the family to understand each other closer and strengthen our realationship by going through this ordeal together. For me these things never made sense at that time as I was constantly lost on the thoughts of losing my stardom in saints XI. Well the importance of that journey made sense to me only after 8 yrs and how it paved a path for a distributed but integrated and peaceful family.

My father hailed from a rich and well to do family and most of all his parents were probably the pseudo rulers of the village even in a post raj era of this great land. In his case I accepted the fact that Love travels apart from whatever else it does. Later my uncle (my dad’s younger brother) disclosed to me that “He was the most sought after bachelor, but luck never favored the local ladies of Peruvamba" and he was destined to get married to a girl hailing from Bengal. It was day two of our journey and it seemed to be an endless voyage, and as far as I'm concerned I was still thinking of clearing Tinku's(most feared bowler of JaiMa Kaali team) ball over the rope(a sixer) !!.

Later that night a family boarded from Srikakulam who got settled in the first row of seats in the coach which was right next to the exit door. After some point when everyone of us including the other family were in deep slumber, we woke up after hearing the female crying loud only to realize that the Srikakulam family lost their jewels to a thief whom none of us were able to detect- he turned out to be a stealthy one. None of us could do anything about it rather than feel sorry for them. A RPF cop, ex-military man and my dad none of them got a chance to display their bravery but seemed to be actively engaged in arguing with the TTE for an unplanned stoppage at isolated area. Well till date I feel like TTE is not just a “Train Ticket Examiner” but has to wear the cap of “Train Theft Eliminator” at times, what else that poor soul is expected to do apart from his job of checking the tickets, at least he is ensuring that one of the world’s largest employer is not robbed by petty criminals who travel ticketless. My uncle was the most vocal amongst the arguing lot and after a lot of arguments & counter arguments which was fairly limited only till verbal duels, they probably got tired and let the poor TTE go, but the situation hardly changed. It was like an india-pakistan show-off which makes you feel scary but never ever turns out to be one.

After an hour post the theft incident my uncle and grandfather felt the need to search our family belongings just to ensure that we were also not victims. There was no end to the trail of cruel surprises we had on that day, and this last one was probably the worst. My aunt lost her bag which was filled with cosmetics, jewels and what not, instead of everyone feeling sad for her materialistic loss some seemed to be quite happy( a true hallmark of any joint family) atleast some memebers of the family especially my mausis were the happiest lot, I was able to see a sign of happy smile from both my mausis (mom’s sisters). Jealousy within family members especially within the ladies is something in their genes; it’s as if GOD has decided this to be a mandatory emotional parameter while creating a women. Probably since its expected to be an emotional parameter it may not be considered as a sin( you really need a lawyer out there in heaven to fight for your right to get into heaven- men hardly stand a chance).

Well the limit of damage didn’t seem to end there next in the list of theft sufferers was my grandfather whose entire carton of Bengal homemade cigarettes went missing, well I can only imagine how he would have felt that day (it's as if you have snatched the honey pot from a bear, which makes it all the more violent). He appeared emotionally lost for rest of the travel and had to settle with few beedis that too borrowed from fellow passengers who happened to be smokers as well (those were the days when Govt was still thinking to implement anti smoking laws as the law implementers were themselves smokers or affiliated to Tobacco giants). Poor soul he had to do this till Kerala because of his strong dislike for branded cigarettes. Well my grandma was initially happy to see that the cigarettes are gone only to realize that she had lost her red gutka paste cans too(this is another form of tobacco induced addiction) . Well now everyone including me was a victim of the theft. The thief didn’t spare my cricket bat (the one with Kapil Dev’s photo in it), my dad lost his brand new Bata chappal. To me it felt as if the thief had to cater to a demanding family as ours and the poor soul didn’t find any other options apart from stealing from a similar family( I assume that It was neither a coincidence nor a planned, to be precise he was just too lucky !!).

Next day morning the train reached Nagpur (land of oranges) and I saw peeled orange skins scattered probably everywhere including the bathroom in the train. People in the train probably were spending the time travelling in some of the worst and unhygienic conditions. The entire coach was stinking with shit smell originating from the unclean toilets and I personally didn’t dare to get started with my morning karmas. I started missing my home more than anything else and even started feeling angry about my dad’s decision to get going with the eventful journey. I had to control my body’s excretionary urge till we reached next station, and our beloved TTE had already placed a formal request to the relevant authorities in Nagpur station to get a stopover of extra 20 minutes at the next station and get the train cleaned with the local cleaners from that station. The wait till the next station was probably worth going through as I eventually got the chance to get it done after the cleaning exercise. That’s when I realized- why should the most frequented place called bathroom is also known as a rest room, believe me it was indeed a restful experience.

We had poha as breakfast from the next station and we were told by the TTE that the train will now go through the Sholapur route till Raichur and from there it will merge on to the normal route which is via Vijayawada. The train pantry supply was exhausted and passengers had to predominantly rely on the food sold from the stations. Hawkers and food suppliers from the station, with their knowledge of train timings were able to guess that our train was not supposed to pass through the station, probably the stink and our tiresome posture also added to it. The worst part was that it started reflecting in the price they quoted for the food. We had to settle for the price with no other alternative as none of us had the intention of fasting.

Well the food wasn’t great, but had to get on with it- idlis barely visible like a fast melting iceberg in the ocean. The best part was the torino drink after the food, I used to love torino probably one of the first soft drink in India apart from Goldspot, those were the days when Cola didn’t see daylight in India. We were fast approaching towards the border of Andhra & tamilnadu and everyone in the train felt impatient to reach Madras, after a historical journey. When we neared Guntur the train stopped again in the midst of nowhere, this time there was no rain or clouds visible, but day we certainly felt that GOD was testing our patience, it wasn’t a normal halt and neither a scheduled one (I hate to say this but we were slowly getting accustomed to the widely practiced unscheduled halts by Indian Railways). Somebody was yelling “Koi Kat Gaya” and came running towards us. Those words didn’t make any sense to  me, and that’s when my uncle started to follow the man, only to stop after my aunt shouted “Oyedikke Jabo na”(roughly translated as Don’t go there !!). He seemed to obey my aunt’s command as one of Hitler’s orderlies. Grandpa stepped out of the train to confirm the incident and it was then I got to know from my mausi that somebody got run over by the train. As a 12 year old kid I felt remorse for the dead person, but didn't understand what made a person to take this extreme step. After few minutes grandpa came back laughing, for a moment I started questioning myslef -  is he that cruel ? only to realise that he wasn't. Apparantely a cattle got run over by the train. But the Loco driver stopped the train to check the extent of damage(probably his first day on the job). Never in my life till date would I have witnessed such an example where a Train was stopped for something it has run over, may it be in the leve crossing or anywhere else, its the same. It rules the iron tracks and no other living being or machine has a stake in it !!

The delay was a brief one and did bring some smile to almost everyone in the train, though some(inlcuding me) felt sorry for the cattle. We got settled soon and movement of the train made us feel pleasant. By each passing hour my Dad was feeling happy as we were inching closer towards his home. 

 

To be continued ................