Though our holidays and schooldays were always full of wonder
and filled with novelty of precious hours spent with Thatha and Paati,
the summer holidays of April and May had a way of filling us with excitement.
We will start planning way ahead in December.of taking care of our new clothes,books to read,places to visit and people to meet.
and ofcourse the train or Express we used to call,the mode which transported us from the routine to the dreamland of Madras.
our leisure hours will be filled with the talk of which train to take ,who is to sit near the window seat and who is to use the Holdall (the ultimate carpetbag) as the bed to sleep on during the night(train) time.
Paatti will assist us in planning about each step and ofcourse we shd promise her with good behaviour
.she will make us happy during the little bit tough times during examination times, reminding us that we are nearing the finish of school days and start of vacation.
the magic always used to inspire us and the final day will arrive as if ordered..the 31st of March.
Those were the times of APPLYING FOR the" leave concession form
', from the school, IN which we were studying at that time authorising Thatha to get the fare reduced to one third.
we will be thrilled beyond words when Thatha fills that form and get the tickets from the Railway station. the tickets will be kept very safely by Paatti in a small box.
We did not have a steel cupboard till the beginning of 1960s.The day of departure will be filled with activities filling up the one and only Trunk box,a steel one with our clothes, assisting and troubling Paatti with millions of questions, running ahead of time to the gate to see whether the Kudhirai vandi has come to fetch us to the station.
Paatti will prepare pooris and curd rice to be taken as night meals. a bronze water jug(kooja) will be filled with fresh water and there will be a little tumbler made for that kooja inside. the train which starts from Thirunelveli will arrive at our Thirumangalam railway station on time, by 6.10pm. we would have arrived at the station an hour before and would be waiting impatiently. ,,all the while asking Thatha innumerable questions which he will reply patiently, holding our hands.
The train used to stop only for 5 minutes in that station: during those hurried seconds thatha will find a place for us seat us in the crowded compartment safely,give instructions to Paatti and get down just on time to see us leave him for a month or two alone in the house. I still remember thatha's smiling face as he waved us off to all those trips. For our Happy times.
5 கருத்துகள்:
yes u r correct the train journey to relatives place is a memorable event for us in those days. presentday children are denied that fecility of spending time with elders.i am afraid after 30 years our children will not be knowing the relations like periappa.chithappa.mama,athai akka,anna,thambi,thangai etc becuse of one family one child TRC
yes u r correct the train journey to relatives place is a memorable event for us in those days. presentday children are denied that fecility of spending time with elders.i am afraid after 30 years our children will not be knowing the relations like periappa.chithappa.mama,athai akka,anna,thambi,thangai etc becuse of one family one child TRC
yes .
our father and mother(mentioned here as thatha and paatti)
cared very much for their brothers and sisters.
That was one of the reason we enjoyed the relationships very much.
in this ageof one baby for a whole family is a really sad sight.
perhaps times will change.Thank you very much for this visit.
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Valli. An amazing piece of writing.
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