today was my sojourn back home. after a tasty breakfast of puttu and kadala , that very best of malayali cuisine i was on my way home. the bus journey to the railway station at angadipuram was not as gruesome as the earlier day, perhaps it was because i was all the more fresher and energetic now. but mr. lalu's enterprise was to play havoc with my dream of getting home soon. there was some indefinite delay of trains due to some track work.
then something interesting happened!!! a railway track repair vehicle was in the process of being shunted to a side track. this was one of those non- automated machines which was primarily dependant on human muscles and sinew to get the work done. it was pulled by a true antique of an engine. as it was being shunted there were some weird noises and then suddenly a huge iron rail leaped off the train onto the track. a railway man was at that precise stop just seconds earlier and if he hadn't moved from that spot some 1o seconds earlier my day would have started on a gruesome note- of having to see a man cut into two!!!!. but all was well. but not so for a concrete slab that was in the path of the thundering rail. it split into two and a portion fell about 3 ft away. now i watched the enterprising muscle men of railway gang , gang up and lever the rail using crow bars and excellent synchronism.
as a person with absolutely nothing to do except stand under a relentless sun it was a worthwhile sight. finally the train came up and i left for the main junction. on return leg to ernakulam i had to board a reservation compartment and the tc was cordial enough to upgrade my ticket for only rs. 50 extra. i was basking in that gratitude when a call came up. it was a quirky friend of mine who is also the self proclaimed ambassador of mars in india. usually we say men are from mars and women from venus but in the case of this enterprising amazon an exception can be made.
she was on her usual exuberance and was gushing out some words that sounded like "class.....bomb.... home.... train.... police" i had no idea what to make out, as is usually the case with her. finally she calmed down and told that there was a bomb alert in her college and all students were evacuated and she was on her way home. i was concerned. she is also one of my greatest friends and a little sister, but any harm to a martian will lead to drastic after effects for us hapless earthlings.
anyway she reached home safe and the scare turned out to be a hoax. after all which stupid terrorist would ever bomb an institution such as hers that turn out so many crazy students!!! if one can judge an institution by the sanity of one of its wards i get scared when i think abt some hundred of such students let out into indian streets when they are so excited!!! it would have been just like planting a bomb at NIMHANS.
as i was nearing my destination the genial TC came up and dropped his bombshell!!! i will have to disembark at a station before my city as otherwise i will have to pay an extra rs.130. having my resources dwindles already to rs.180 i had no choice. and hence my last bus trip of the day started from aluva to tripunithura.
an afternoon bus ride from aluva to tripunithura through ernakulam city (menaka route) especially when the weather is hot and humid and one is dying of thirst, a journey of 2 hours and th worst pollution in kerala, is indeed a breath taking experience!!!!!!!!
somehow i reached my home and lay down.
mostly i am a person who loves travelling and this trip came to a hair breadth of me losing that charm. but as i see it, the more hardships in the journey , the more exciting it is!!!! after all any experience can be seen as good or bad depending on the attitude with which we face it!!
anyway now it is time for me to edit my scanned designs of the tower i wrote abt earlier.
let me prepare ground for the next post which will be even more unreadable as any of these posts.
c ya!!
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