My remembrance of those innocent days

After Office, as I got off the bus and walked to my room, I happened to overhear a conversation between two vandoos. One of them was saying that his uncle, a policeman, had a lathi the size of an electric pole! Not to be left behind, the other claimed that his uncle(also a policeman) had gun with which he would shoot any wrongdoer! I had passed them by, and couldnt hear the rest of the conversation, but it brought a flood of memories about a similar fight I had with my friend Karthic when I was a vandoo myself. It embarasses me now, but also brings a smile to the lips in remembrance of those innocent days. So here we go...

Karthic : My father is a policeman. His lathi is so long. I'll ask him to beat you with it!
Me : My uncle is a bigger policeman than your dad. He also has a long stick and I will ask him to use it on you!
Karthic(after a while of deep thought) : My father has a Bullet Bike.
Me : My uncle has a gun and another uncle of mine is a military man and he has all the guns in the military with him.
Karthic : I'll ask my father to arrest your uncle!
Me : My uncle is a military man. Your father cant arrest him. I will tell both my uncles to shoot you!

By now Karthic was getting scared and I pressed home my advantage. I called out aloud to my brother to call our uncle. Karthic had had enough and he ran into his house.
Several years had gone by when I came to know that my Policeman Uncle is a Constable who works under Karthic's father - a Sub Inspector! And that my other uncle is an ex-serviceman - he had retired from service even before I was in Kindergarten!!

My first train journey

All of us have surprising and unforgettable events in our lives. I am going to relate one such event which occurred during my college days. 8 of us were very close friends during those days; Tiju, Thameem, Meenachi Nathan, Prem, Mohideen Meeran Sahib, Begin, Chidambaranathan. Each of us hailed from different places and in the final year of the UG course we decided to visit everyone's homes. We started with Tiju's home in Kerala.

We started our journey from Tirunelveli. The journey was by train and it was my first train journey!. We had to wait for nearly an hour at the station for the Passenger train to Kollam. As soon as the train arrived, I rushed in to take seat for me as well as my friends. The train started after another half an hour at the station and was chugging past one small station after another. We settled in our seats and started our chit-chat about everything under the Sun; our classmates, the boring lectures, principal etc, etc..

A small girl, standing in the seat in the seat facing us was keenly observing our every word. Tiju started to talk to her by asking her her name, the class and school which she studied and so on.. After a while, she got sown from her seat and came near us and we asked her the same questions that Tiju had asked.. She answered every question. She was SwathiMathi from Chennai, and after a while we began to play with her. She didn't mind our banter and paid us back in the same coin. She was fluent in both Hindi and English. We struggled to answer her questions in HIndi though eventually Tiju managed it. After about 2 and a half hours, the train stopped at a station near Tenkasi. We were thirsty and one of us got down to get bottled water, water melon and snacks. We shared it among ourselves and gave some snacks to Swathi but her parents did not want her to take that. After an hour, the train was approaching the station where she was to alight, and her parents started packing their belongings. At the station, her father pulled her towards the exit of the compartment but she was unwilling to get down. Her father was holding her hands tightly. She struggled to get out of his clutches. As he released his grip, she came to us. She kissed and shook hands with everyone and said "Good Bye, Happy Journey" to each one of us individually. We watched her wave goodbye to us with both her hands till she disappeared from our vision. As she left, there was shock and sorrow in everyone's face. We were dumbstruck and it took us quite a while to get back to ur chirpy selves.

These memories come flooding to my mind each time I go to the Tirunelveli railway station.