by PRAGYANSHARMA POLAVARAPU
OUR RETURN JOURNEY
TO WARANGAL
(1)
The train was speedily filling up. It was 5 pm. I came out of my pensive
mood .It was time to enter into endless conversation with my second daughter about all things in the world and laugh and
joke.My wife was silent and serious and absorbed in her thoughts but I asked her
too join in our conversation. I started an endless and rather intellectual and technical conversation with my daughter about her science subjects, computer
classes ,projects etc. I am myself a physics
graduate and writing small articles on internet on science topics and while at
home often questioned her on science topics and world politics and world
history. So always liked my conversations on such subjects. Her bright and happy face drove away all specks of dejection
and brooding from my mind.
(2)
Into
our compartment a couple entered ,sat near an old gentlemen who was
already sitting in a seat near us. They sat for a few minutes,talked in English and Hindi and then went away with
smiles and respectfully saying good bye. Perhaps neighbors .Opposite us settled
a group of three fashionable women( all or some perhaps employed). There was a
very talkative little boy of 6 or 7 years with them. A few minutes later the
boy’s father also came. The three women were laughing and talking with the boy answering all his
silly questions.The train started. It was still only 5pm and it was bright
evening time with long shadows and bright sunshine. A person with a small coffee drum arrived and most people enjoyed hot coffee. We too had coffee. It was a pleasant
atmosphere . Two of the women looked very traditional and reserved though
modernistic. The third was a sophisticated fashionable Christian friend as seen
from a small holy cross in golden chain
in her neck. The three were continuously taking among themselves in low voices,
arguing and smiling. The little boy was
child of one of the traditional looking women and was pestering her with questions
non-stop. The boy was impatient with
knit eye brows saying that the train was
not moving with great speed! The mother
had to answer all his silly questions patiently while the other two women laughed. The boy’s father was helpless against the aggression and
impatience of his little son . He too laughed along with others. When his mother gave him sweet the boy at last relaxed
a little. Now he had to devote
more attention to the sweet than to find
ways to make the train driver to accelerate
the train.
It was
evening soon and light was fading. The big red disk of sun was sinking slowly behind
the endless coconut groves. For more than half an hour the train glided
in the suburbs and outskirts of Bengaluru. The suburbs seemed to have ended but soon another far bigger section of lighted
suburbs some times near and sometimes far fled by. At last we moved out of the great city of Bangalore. We saw open land and fields and thick coconut groves
and an occasional bright electric lamp
from a shed or bright head lights of a speeding car on some nearby parallel road.
Small villages fled by at a little distance with clusters of dull
electric lights. It grew utterly dark outside and nothing was visible outside
except the endless row of bright light
from windows of train compartments . Due to the air-conditioning the outside
sounds were completely sealed and we heard only a muffled sound of clanking of
the wheels . We three took out the mango juice
fruity packets . I, like a few others,
went to the far end portion of the long a/c carriage and out of the a/c section
to be a little alone for a few minutes. There outside the air-conditioning
section it was pleasant to take in the gushing air currents coming from outside
At 8-30 pm our sealed meal packets packed neatly in siver foil were
brought by the train attendant. We were then
at Dharmavaram junction in our Telugu state. The train did not stop but simply
sped on, simply flying. We had our food. It was getting cold in the a/c atmosphere.
We spread our beds and covered ourselves in the woollen blankets and slipped into sound sleep.
(3)
We had a good sleep after a long trip.By the
time we got up it was 5am.We were nearing Hyderabad. All were waking up one by
one and checking their luggage and
packing all their belongings. At 5-50 am 7-3-04 we were at Kachiguda station
Hyderabad . The train reached Kachiguda 50 minutes late. Bengalur,where our daughter
lived , is now 600 kms away. We were
soon in auto to our distant township in Hyderabad outskirts about three kilometres
away. We would not stop at Hyderabad but have proceed to Warangal where we
live. I lived in
Warangal city for 35 years. I purchased a flat years ago at Hyderabad with a plan to shift there after retirement. But since my daughter was in
engineering college in Warangal we still stay there and also have no immediate plan to move to Hyderabad shift and rented the house at Hyderabad to our relations .
Now about our present journey. Pleasant
morning weather. It took about half hour for us to reach our house. We exchanged
greetings with our relations and telling briefly about our trip to Mysuru and Ooty
from Bangalore . We gave them a box of the famous Mysore sweet and a small tin
of Mysore sandal powder. After a little
rest and breakfast I and our relation went out for a walk. In afternoon I went to the terrace and found that many new buildings were being constructed in
the area behind our house where there was a little forest of acacia trees till then ! The area was cleared
using bulldozers. We had again a
pleasant chat in afternoon during meals about our trip.
But I
have to cut my story short. We started our journey to Warangal at 3pm by a high tach bus and were at our house at
about 7-30 pm .Our long Mysore trip was
a jolly trip though a little tiresome
and we will cherish memories of this trip for a long time . We could also take our
elder daughter on the trip. Now to end
the story--back to college for my daughter and back to her computer and
computer books. I go back to my science
books and the MS Word files and folders containing my little writing work! My wife to her endless research
to prepare delicious new
sweets and to the interesting TV serials.
THE END
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