By PragyanSharma Polavarapu
OUR RETURN JOURNEY TO WARANGAL
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.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.
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.
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.
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.
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