Another journey to Cochin

Onam, beginning of festive days in Kerala. Every one loves to be at home, with their parents and siblings and enjoy the flavor of the nostalgic surroundings.This time it was 4 months after my last visit. The nature had changed its coat to lush green and wet. Every where water, and lilies is on the surface. These were invisible on the dry land in the last summer. Lot of migratory birds and Cormorants are busy in fishing.

This time the whole north malabar was hit by the unusual fever called chicken gunia. The after effects are really bad. My parents were suffering from joint pain with swollen ankles. We had taken preventive medicine to escape the mosquitoes.

For some reasons I felt this years Onam was dull and sober, it was raining. Many of the native friends are vanished sow as not in a mood to hunt them and find out where they are. Few phone calls to renew my presence and to prove I am alive. The traditional flowers has vanished now the flower carptes called “pookalam” are made of  imported from the neighboring states.

Pookalam

 Had some good time with my cousin brother and sat on few bottles of good danish beer as I missed my favourite ” Kalyani”. Had a great lunch at home with home made mom made delicacies with a exotic and delicious payasam. It was all in a rush the same day I need to come back to Cochin. I was feeling dull and low and bit nostalgic to leave the native. It is a great feeling to be with parents even if you grown up and grown old. Do you all think so?

Wife  was busy packing, the return trip luggage usually used to be less of goods.  But the baggage was not ready to get reduced. The native bananas and dinner came in as parcel. I was thinking is it going to test my endurance especially being a festive day it will be very hard to find rickshaws on road but tuned my mind to proactive thinking, there will be autos especially for you. Let us see when it reaches Cochin. Coming day the villain was the heavy rain and god knows this time the villain will a auto rickshaw.

 

pookalam

 My brother dropped me and my wife at the station and I gave him few encouragement and motivation, told him to take care of Amma as she has joint pain. Hope he remembers all these. It was sunny bright afternoon, the rain clouds are scattered and not so heavy. The announcement was going on, mind started reloading the work mode and the life different from here.

Tasks, projects, reports,creativity, client, chats, blogs and tweets came in…then thought why to think too much in advance, then came the thoughts about the train. The onward journey was like a prehistoric or a vintage. The air conditioned chair car was a mess. Apart from seats rest of the things were all worn out. No trays  to keep your food no cup holders, some seats the tray frame was there and tied with ropes some seats the push back was in meditation mode rather call it static mode. As i always think, thought about a compartment worst than this.

The  final bell…seems train is reaching the station. It was boggy number 4, C1 seat number 57,58w… rush was not much as every one was celebrating onam. To my surprise the ambiance looked new and bit face lifted. It was like a middle aged lady with a coat of bright lipstick trying to say I am still young. But comparing the regular compartments  she was stunningly beautiful. In my last journey back home, one of the A/c mechanic shared me his pathetic story about compartments..some of them has more age than his total experience, too old… he even told me how to identify the age of a compartment…

I was just searching for that number in my onward A/c coach..it was more than 25 years old..seems some second class compartment might have got renovated to an A/c. As i got in to the train it was refreshing feeling for the first time. The fan was blowing on to my head, made me feel it was going to freeze my brain. I took a chance to look back to find out which polar bear has landed here. To my surprise it was boy sleeping like a sloth, hard for me to reach the switch to off it… I was feeling bit uncomfortable and in my second try this boy was awake and told him to switch off the fan. Seems to be a well groomed obedient boy. Next came the issue of tea, hardly these days you can find tea vendors, instead its all coffee vendors. Don’t know the reason for this. Is coffee making more profitable than tea? need to do a survey.

This train is always punctual and fast, still so many seats vacant and to my surprise the next seat was occupied by  a famous writer of Kerala. the train journey always brings some celebrity faces in front of you. You get a chance to interact and observe them. I dont want to write more about him because it might become a long blog.

Filed under: Nature, travel

Weekend Glimpses

It was a short lived holidays at native from the tedious city life. The enchanting monsoon is not so far enchanting as predicted by the scientists. My mind was loaded with my weekend plans with my tiny camera, train was running perfectly matching its schedule time and as usual I praised Laluji and his bureaucrats for face lifting the work culture of Indian Railways, and I got a warning from my better half” Stop praising the timings, it is going to have a delay soon” It was the practice, believe it or not. When ever I praised the railways the train stops like a lazy snail on tracks. It was reaching Shornur Junction. The Bratha Puzha ( biggest River in Kerala)seems to be becoming as if she has joined VLCC. I have read few lines in some hardcore literature magazines of Kerala by M.T..that Bharathpuzha when it reaches towards those places which are at the entry points of sea…the river becomes lazy and slow in flowing as if it doesn’t want to get lost in the sea.

Photography was always and is always my favorite hobby. As I always mentioned it is not the extreme instruments that gives me satisfaction but it is always limitations to be crossed over with the small cameras. The lighting, colors and vibrancy drive me through the passion of composing.

Train stopped at the Shornur Junction for almost 35 minutes instead of 15 minutes, train was loaded with vendors who always exhibited their selling skills. I wanted to buy some thing, couldn’t see a good one to choose. Lays and fruit juices were all over along with Chicken Biriyani and porratta. Seems the calorie and fat are too high and it became the reason to avoid them.

The came the chutta Andi Parippu (Roasted Cashew nuts), I decided to go for it. Even my wife said yes to the deal. I t was a good time pass to chew the crisp Cashews. It seems to be 100% locally grown it was not huge and very medium looking but very tasty.

Train started running, the temperature seems to be too low. I was also feeling freeze but luckily some one raised the issue to increase the thermostat. Calicut was reaching and it was 30 minutes late. Still the station seemed to be very dry not wetness of monsoon days.

I was waiting for fast forward the journey towards my destination..Tellicherry. Time to be with my dad and mom and to see my good friends and hang out with them. Lot of things to be done.

Filed under: travel , Journey

Back to Cochin

The last day of my 3day holiday break to my native happened to be a Sunday, I was in a hurry to get back to Cochin. On the way to the railway station,my mind was loaded with visuals, The Monsoon still shy to appear, A/c in the car seems to be so ineffective to the outside temperature.

As always my favorite topic used to be nature. The railway platform looks so dirty as few renovations was going on. Looks like since the Britishers left, this is the first time such things happening to this side of the platform. I am much familiar about this station. So many memories passes through my mind. From my childhood to the present day i have lot of them.

There were days my grandfather used to be there at the station to receive us for the summer vacation, which was grand beginning of the fun and enjoyment. It was an awesome moment to see the smile and happiness in those face when they see their grand children. The return journey after the holidays almost ended up in tears. This time the train carries a rude face… taking back to those schooling days to come.. the days of home work and studies going to take the front seat.

Still I remember the star faced trained called ” Jayanthi Janatha Express” which used to be the fastest on the route going all the way to Delhi. It was my favorite comparing all other steam engine trains in those days. It has a silver star fixed on it’s face comparing a blue big dot of all other steams and it looked more aero dynamic than the other flat faced blue dotted train engines. The whole body was painted in the terra cotta mud color.The massive pushing of their arms and the decompressing of steam, all made me so curious to observe to the core. I feel that is why I still remember their details. It was hot and humid with dust and black flying all over. If you are in the first few compartments make sure you wipe your eyes often.

The economic success of Indian Railways is exploring more and more opportunities to tap. According to the recent survey IRCTC became the leading e commerce site. The innovation with sensible approach has made the railways to become a great success. Wish this same politician had such vision for his great state. It is a debatable topic. From the common man’s perspective is this just a magic vision of railway minister or is it the skill sets of those bureaucrats.

All of a sudden the recorded voice started telling the train is nearing the station. My eyes were looking for those outdated less aerodynamically shaped boxed engine. Usually the dust and oil use to have an outer coat. Is it the Indian way? We never like to maintain.. we never like to keep it clean. The heavy diesel engine started appearing on the extreme north end of the station. As usual, nothing against my surprise the faded orange colored engine started to slow down. Next suspense tome was about the compartment the C1 or C2.

To my nightmare the C2 is a good old compartment with broken tables and broken seat levers. No one including me has raised any questions to the authorities why this train is like that? I have seen many well known politicians and personalities commute the same train. Still the train looks like a junk which still carries the Tamilnadu tourism posters. The roof near the A/c duct is full of greasy hand marks and fungus, it has been painted many years ago. I wont be able to finish this if I continue describing more and more about the train. Some times I feel the most educated and intellectual people in India don’t know how to react to such common issues, which includes me as well!!

Lucky this time I was in C1 and it is a better compartment but to my shock the table in front of me can”t be unfolded, it is tied up with a plastic rope. It seems this boggy also started to worn out. Once I got settled down the next step was to look out for some familiar faces. My better half was scanning as usual through some magazines. I guess this is the only place where people are compelled to read. But the latest experiments for DTH transmission on rail in association with DISH TV might reduce the reading habits. We might again get hooked to TV on trains.

The train was more spacious and looking much fresh. Every one looks hurrying up for getting back to work. There were few familiar friends on the train which often used to meet while traveling. Seems these days they are all vanished or I doubt they might have migrated to some other city. . Once the train reached Calicut there was a heavy flow of passengers. There were different faces and different types of people, few were panically searching for seats and some arguments about their seats and seat snumbers. The person sitting on the seat try to convince him about the seat that it belonged to him. Later the fact came in the he was suppose to be in C2 instead of C1. After few minutes everyone started to settle down.But this time there was familiar face a lawyer based in Kochi. As usual had some formal interactions and introductions about my life partner as well.

To my surprise there were some famous personalities were there as well. The famous Bengali writer Mahasweta Devi, she was on crusade against the oppression surrounded by few well known malayali intellectuals. I could see the excitement of the subordinates, the inspiration they are getting from her was amazing. They were all in great mood, they all were non stop. There were hardcore discussions about globalisation to the price of petroleum products to chevron…. it goes on and on!! for the common man with less digestive mind set could have made him feel like killing to listen to such conversations.

There were some open hearted talks and casual tit for tats… some times I thought they are thorough with their master plans for promoting their creative freedom for the right cause. There were some who talked from the bottom of his heart. He sounded like a rebel who spoke with out any cover. He cirticized what ever he felt wrong. He suggested how to beat the globalisation. The simple formula from him was not to participate in the market which reminded me of the old methods of freedom struggle. He says just to boycott the products. Sounded little funny but the it was the fact.

It was some thing interesting to see things in a different perspective than a normal middle class consumer mindset. The driving force of business which caters to their requirments as well as make them consume the unwanted above their purchasing power. The smart man won’t spent unwantedly and wise man carried less credit cards!!!

Seems the train was passing through the Cochin Airport and could see the tower lights glowing in golden colored sodium vapors. Time to put things back to your bags and the intellectuals seems to be planning about their next day of action. Mahasweta Devi was curious about Cochin. she was asking is it a sea side city? As Bengali’s favorite dish being fish the fellow creative thinkers telling her about the variety of fishes available in Cochin.

They are all heading for an agitation, where the people are affected by the development programs of the state. Some times it is confusing to see the difference between the socialists and capitalists of the present world!!

It was a good experience in the list of my train journey.!

Filed under: travel