Well, this time it is a different journey. Completely the opposite season. Altogether a unique vacation.
The train trip is something forgettable. 14 May 2005. 12pm. HYD Deccan.
1. Close to the restrooms - #65 - the last coupe. I hate those two terminal coupes.
2. There was a tour party of 100 ppl and they were carrying all the cooking-needs with them, which got dumped in my coupe and my fellow coupemates are the cook and his children. No place for my luggage.
3. The most non-palatable thing: half the journey is in the opposite direction. From HYD, to reach Coimbatore near the west coast, why should the train touch Ongole on the east coast? Remember my shortest path selection last time? HYD-BLR-MYSORE-HOME.
4. Last but not the least - HEAT - unbearable and never-experienced. 12pm - 7pm. 43+C. Bottles and bottles of cold water, maaza, ... none could help. I maintained minimum contact with any object on the train. Please dont try to picturize.
Reached home by 12pm next day. End to end it took 25 hours - longest travel time in my life between two termini.
The return journey was not that bad. But I simply wonder how it used to be in my innumerous train trips between Chennai and Coimbatore. The greatest disappointment would be the lack of some good colors - that too not oft. Otherwise I have felt at home in the Cheran and Blue Mountain and Kovai and Inter-City. Here in these journeys, the basic survival itself became a question mark - let aside luxuries. Next time I should be prepared - either get an AC coach or dont think abt train. Garuda is the best.
What at home?
The main purpose of my vacation is the Maha Kumbabishekam of the Ganesh temple at my native village - where my paternal ancestors were born and lived(ruled?) . It was my Dad's long cherished dream to rebuild the temple and it has become a reality now, under his own supervision assisted by my uncles and cousins. I was fortunate enough to join them days before the function and contribute to my fullest. It was a mix of both manual labour and mental labour. The physical work saw me having a hunger after a long time - Of late, I have never been hungry for food - I just ate because it was time for a meal.
It is a social/community project and I can draw a lot of analogy with my software projects. It involves a lot of planning, design, resource allocation, men management, finance management, and the like. What may be there additionally are the egotistic clashes and sentiments and indifference. And women talking unnecessary things and having narrow minds. Not understanding the importance of the project and trying to refrain from contributing. Contributions here does NOT mean money. Any kind of failure of the project will leave an indelible black mark on not only the assumed management but the entire population and all their relatives and offsprings, and it will be remembered for a long long time and reiterated at every possible occasion. Hence concentration should be total and execution perfect.
Alls well that ends well.
Against all odds, a village of about 10 families residing onsite and about twice the number residing off shore, was able to successfully re-construct its century old asset temple and invite all of its relatives and hold a grand pooja to let the folks get the "Punniya Theertham" - the holy water - sprinkled over them. There was also a "Annadhaanam" - a grand meal for all - and we served about 5000 people aross 3 meals.
A collective effort. Mass goodwill. Success and peace in the end.
As all my relatives were invited, the effort to visit each one of them got saved. Met all of them at one place and it was a pride feeling showing them that we have done something. I dont know if I will have the same feeling in my own house-warming ceremony.
Of the 7 days in Coimbatore, I was home only for 2 days and the rest I was in the temple premises, in the other village. Change of work is rest and that is the kind of rest that I enjoyed in this vacation. Lot of experience regarding dealing with people and their sentis. Some divine blessings. Meeting some old friends and relatives. Meeting some of my teachers. Nice times.
Would have been even better if I had a little more time with my family.
8 comments:
Wish I were there at your place!! It has been quite a while since I had that satisfied feeling of having done something with a community. Wonderful that you were able to do it. Really want to visit your place sometime...lets see.
One more thing-better take a third-class A/c when travelling in summer, (atleast in my case) it costs the same as a Volvo.
Sure Sharma, we shall go sometime. It is only upto you to decide the dates.
An A/C 3 tier cant be a Volvo - closed windows will only add more to my woes. The thrill of the speed and the shrill of the volvo engine - I really miss them ;-(
1. Y dint u mention the name of u'r native village?
2. Y do u want the shortest path? As u like travelling, u shud have liked it. May b bcoz u missed the colors:-).
3. "And women talking unnecessary things and having narrow minds" - Don't blame women alone.
4. Nice to hear that u got into some community work.
5. I think u forgot to mention what actually made ur return journey more enjoyable! Think! No clues........
Somehow I dint think abt using my village name. But it is not any secret. My village is Pattakaranur. After reading Ponniyin Selvan I am thinking about calling myself Pattakaran Parthiba Gowdan. (Vallavarayan Vandhiya Thevan). And Fathi, for ur kind info, men are binary - participate and contribute or stay away and keep quiet. Most women there, do neither contribute nor cooperate nor keep their mouths shut. I was able to see that most men(uncles) are terribly hard workers(farmers) but they dont have much say in the family and community affairs - not that they henpecked - but simply they leave it to their ladies to take care of all the decisions. And the rising/falling of a family and its children depends totally on the lady of the house. It may be the case throughout the world - but it is more pronunced in this part of the country.
Ur observation abt colors is right. Hope u know Einstein's explanation of the relativity. Otherwise, during the return journey I had P'in Selvan - which took me to a different world. The two colors over there were with me thro'out the journey and hence no fatigue.
Pattakara Parthiba Gowdan,
Who were the two colors?
P.S: Try to remove that "This post has been removed by author" notes.
And the rising/falling of a family and its children depends totally on the lady of the house. It may be the case throughout the world - but it is more pronunced in this part of the country.
So I now get a clear picture of u'r future family.
Kundhavai and Nandhini.
A bus may be nice da... but one bus+600kms+midnight+a 2-yr-old-kid-who hasn't-fixed-up-its-mind-on-why-its-crying can drive a bleary eyed traveller crazy. And you cant do anything you know, its a KID. I took ironically a sleeper bus to Mangalore and dint sleep a wink that night.
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