A miracle needed for my train ticket to Coimbatore, it was Monday and I had to travel that evening. I got my ticket through My company's travel desk which read WL/14 and by 6:00 PM I got a call from one of the agents
“Sir, A1 cabin 1”. Well...miracles do happen!!!
Not only a train ticket to Coimbatore but with an upgrade to 1st class AC....Looks like there is something with me and travel…
Couple of weeks back, I traveled to Pune for an official trip….if flyin in KF was good it was made awesome by the VW Jetta that was waiting for me at the airport to chauffeur me. Well in utter disbelief, I confirmed it more than 5 times and I always got a polite answer with a “Sab” or “Sir”…which definitely meant respect and the chauffeur was more than willing to carry my bag and also held an umbrella to protect me from the heavy shower that greeted me in the Pune airport.
Well back to the Coimbatore trip…cabin for 4 but only 3 turned up. One on the berth already… the other fiddling with the Sony vaio, as usual I chose to check my ticket twice and made myself comfortable. The man with the Sony looked like he was in his late 40s and as expected… started a conversation with the place I work in. I don’t know what made him connect My company with laptops…
“This laptop is more than 3 years old…and I got it for 1L”, he said and tried to name a few parts in the configuration, but the combination did not sound anywhere close to even 30K. Being a distributor in the manufacturing sector he spoke of his expertise in… sales and consulting skills to mechanical engineering…from latest gadgets (3 year old laptop) to data storage and naming conventions that can be retrieved after even 10 years.
My daily routine of late night sleep wasn’t good enough to keep me awake…I tried to stop the conversation by applauding his consulting abilities which back fired and I had to stay another half an hour before nature came to my rescue. A bio-break from the man made me leap into my berth and acted as if I was asleep when he turned up back in the cabin.
The train was 15 min late to its destination which allowed the extra few min for me to stay in bed. A rick to the guest house, a shower in cold water brought back memories of childhood in my cousin’s place in Coimbatore. I quickly figured my way to My Company's location where we had to conduct a one day training program and as usual the training program ended with a great feedback.
The secrete ingredient in the sauce…is there is no secrete… :)
I had decided to work out of Coimbatore for the next 3 days and make a trip to my house in the Niligri hills. Thanks to Job Mathew one of our managers who made my stay memorable with the hospitality that was provided to me in Coimbatore. Adding to the hospitality, the weather took my experience couple of notches higher than I expected
One of those days, I returned to the guest house after a wonderful day’s work…pulled out my contact lenses and wanted to take a quick shower before dinner. I realized that there was something wriggling in the bathroom floor…a closer look…it was a caterpillar.
For some reason, I was admiring the caterpillar which otherwise would have attracted my “chappals”. Retracing my memories approx. 20 years back…there were at least 10 trees around the one house from guavas to custard apples. I chose a few trees that had few strong and broad branches which allowed me to lie down. Now, I being the dominant animal in the food chain (at least in and around my house)…I had my own territory and did not even allow a bird to sit down in the 2 or 3 trees I occupied.
A caterpillar sure did not have even an inch of my tree for 2 reasons…
One…he is an intruder and the second…the hairy creature was an irritant to my skin more than a hundred times.
But, after 20 years something seemed to attract me towards these hairy wriggling creatures…well yes it would turn out to be a beautiful butterfly in a couple of months. Unfortunately, I have not seen a butterfly in the recent past nor am I expecting to see one in the near future.
This time around, I placed the caterpillar on the window sill hoping it would turn out to a butterfly for at least one kid to see a live butterfly rather than just reading them in books. The thought disturbed me…somewhere down the line human beings have miss understood the meaning of freedom.
The catch was my freedom ends where someone else’s freedom begins…and not to mention we have intruded way too much into the territory of the other living beings.
Its high time…we all go green and give them their rightful place.
“Sir, A1 cabin 1”. Well...miracles do happen!!!
Not only a train ticket to Coimbatore but with an upgrade to 1st class AC....Looks like there is something with me and travel…
Couple of weeks back, I traveled to Pune for an official trip….if flyin in KF was good it was made awesome by the VW Jetta that was waiting for me at the airport to chauffeur me. Well in utter disbelief, I confirmed it more than 5 times and I always got a polite answer with a “Sab” or “Sir”…which definitely meant respect and the chauffeur was more than willing to carry my bag and also held an umbrella to protect me from the heavy shower that greeted me in the Pune airport.
Well back to the Coimbatore trip…cabin for 4 but only 3 turned up. One on the berth already… the other fiddling with the Sony vaio, as usual I chose to check my ticket twice and made myself comfortable. The man with the Sony looked like he was in his late 40s and as expected… started a conversation with the place I work in. I don’t know what made him connect My company with laptops…
“This laptop is more than 3 years old…and I got it for 1L”, he said and tried to name a few parts in the configuration, but the combination did not sound anywhere close to even 30K. Being a distributor in the manufacturing sector he spoke of his expertise in… sales and consulting skills to mechanical engineering…from latest gadgets (3 year old laptop) to data storage and naming conventions that can be retrieved after even 10 years.
My daily routine of late night sleep wasn’t good enough to keep me awake…I tried to stop the conversation by applauding his consulting abilities which back fired and I had to stay another half an hour before nature came to my rescue. A bio-break from the man made me leap into my berth and acted as if I was asleep when he turned up back in the cabin.
The train was 15 min late to its destination which allowed the extra few min for me to stay in bed. A rick to the guest house, a shower in cold water brought back memories of childhood in my cousin’s place in Coimbatore. I quickly figured my way to My Company's location where we had to conduct a one day training program and as usual the training program ended with a great feedback.
The secrete ingredient in the sauce…is there is no secrete… :)
I had decided to work out of Coimbatore for the next 3 days and make a trip to my house in the Niligri hills. Thanks to Job Mathew one of our managers who made my stay memorable with the hospitality that was provided to me in Coimbatore. Adding to the hospitality, the weather took my experience couple of notches higher than I expected
One of those days, I returned to the guest house after a wonderful day’s work…pulled out my contact lenses and wanted to take a quick shower before dinner. I realized that there was something wriggling in the bathroom floor…a closer look…it was a caterpillar.
For some reason, I was admiring the caterpillar which otherwise would have attracted my “chappals”. Retracing my memories approx. 20 years back…there were at least 10 trees around the one house from guavas to custard apples. I chose a few trees that had few strong and broad branches which allowed me to lie down. Now, I being the dominant animal in the food chain (at least in and around my house)…I had my own territory and did not even allow a bird to sit down in the 2 or 3 trees I occupied.
A caterpillar sure did not have even an inch of my tree for 2 reasons…
One…he is an intruder and the second…the hairy creature was an irritant to my skin more than a hundred times.
But, after 20 years something seemed to attract me towards these hairy wriggling creatures…well yes it would turn out to be a beautiful butterfly in a couple of months. Unfortunately, I have not seen a butterfly in the recent past nor am I expecting to see one in the near future.
This time around, I placed the caterpillar on the window sill hoping it would turn out to a butterfly for at least one kid to see a live butterfly rather than just reading them in books. The thought disturbed me…somewhere down the line human beings have miss understood the meaning of freedom.
The catch was my freedom ends where someone else’s freedom begins…and not to mention we have intruded way too much into the territory of the other living beings.
Its high time…we all go green and give them their rightful place.
Man u have become a great narrator.
ReplyDeleteKishore
Thanks Kishore :)
ReplyDeleteGokul,
ReplyDeleteVery great write up da.... You take us back and forth in time with ease..... Keep going... Write more
Thanks Mate...:)
ReplyDeleteI will make sure you don't miss the ch1blogs...I will keep you updated ;)
Gokul, as usual a great post from you. I completely agree with you about the going green part. nice to hear you had a smooth travel...chennai travel desk guys are awesome.
ReplyDeleteThanks Macha...ya, its high time we GO GREEN
ReplyDeleteSounds like u had horrible exp.with the Brl travel desk ;)
good one...
ReplyDeletethere are plenty of butterflies in Bangalore. I too had caught a caterpillar once and placed it in a glass jar with a tiny hole in its lid. So that I could show my son how the caterpillar transforms into a butterfly. We fed it green leaves and such and waited patiently. Sure enough after a couple of days, the caterpillar went into a coccoon. It looked more like it was decayed. But we didn't throw it out. After another week or so, a moth emerged from the coccoon. And then we set it free. It was an amazing tranformation how a wriggling caterpillar becomes a moth/butterfly.
As the babboon Raffiki in animated movie, "Lion King" says "Every living creature has a place in this Circle of Life."
good one mapla....keep writing...
ReplyDeleteThanks Sarah... :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Jamshy... :)
ReplyDelete