After a quite night in the guest house, we set off for a house warming in a quarters alloted to my father. When he told us we would be walking to that place little did I knew on how far it would be...He showed us the school where he had joined and that school wasnt big either like the SCSM polytechnic where he was a lecturer..There was this huge factory and one could see the big stuff inside.. We walked along the factory wall and soon we were at the aruvankadu railway station... It was a small station with a canteen (that canteen is my favourite even now..) but the excitement didnt last long - first there was no "tooth" like 3rd rail and second no train was to be seen!!!!!...
There was a big mountain and large number of small houses on it.... We were happy on hearing that we wont be climbing that mountain..(I was already tired then and was asking if there was cycle rickshaw or bus..). The huge factory was still there, a road ran along the factory wall but instead of houses on the other side it was a small mountain on which railway track ran with those tall trees, shrubs and bushes.... There were no cycles/TVS 50 on the road and not even human beings were seen... By then I had asked dad how far that house was atleast 20 times... Dad patiently kept telling me it was just after a turn as many times......
The only human I remember seeing was the temple priest at the "Paarai Muneeswarar" temple.. The statue in the temple was very scary - with long beard, ferocious eyes , the tongue out and some violent weapons in the hand... Adding to this cast was the temple priest who had "squint" and one eye blind!!!... (In the later years I found him a very nice man)... Contrary to the Gurukals (priests) I had seen in Mohanoor who wore dhoti and poonal, this man wore nice shirt/sweater and never had "Kudumi" - Kind of tail in the head.
We continued walking for another 10 min and reached this place " M Type quarters" where dad was allotted a quarter. All the houses looked alike... there was a big lawn in front, a lot of trees and a hill behind the quarter (the railway track on the hill)... Our house number was 424/2, the one that was straight from the entry point....
http://wikimapia.org/#lat=11.3635086&lon=76.7578322&z=18&l=0&m=
Our neighbour was Mr Ramalingam, dad s collegue who helped us with intial start up... Many of dad s collegues lived in the same area but I was too busy to be bothered about all that... Once the house warming was over it was play time for me and I kept running all over until I entered a house similar to mine (I thought it was my house). In a split of a minute i knew i had lost the right place - this house had sofa, furniture.. There was an fair aunty who spoke in a language i never understood (hindi!!). I was in tears having lost the way and she took me to my home.My dad had known her already, she lived in 425/1 and everyone called her "Jabalpur aunty". She was a very kind person and all children liked her.
After this I stayed indoors for a while till I heard the steam engine s whistle.... At last nearly after 16 hours of reaching this place I saw a moving train....Toy train is what one ll feel on seeing the way it chugs up and down... this one was coming from ooty, down the hill so a little faster....The sight of this Nilgiri Mountain railway train always makes me feel happy and energetic and there is no science behind it... "Moondram Pirai / Sadma" had utilised this train much better than any other movie..
Soon on the road in front of the quarters a bus crossed.. We were told one COONOOR - OLD ARUVANKADU bus and two OOTY - COONOOR buses plied in that road... Just three buses to see... and no colourful private buses... less human beings.... trees and bushes everywhere, people had scared me about snakes (Aruvankadu means forest of snakes)...Moreover I started missing my tricycle, our "LUNA" and my play toys... The icing to all these was the fact that I/We had to walk to school far off.... and no school bus!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What appeared like an great place a day earlier had already bored me and brought tears.... but then one seldom becomes unhappy while in heaven....
No comments:
Post a Comment