The caterpillar ride

The misty window view of the green blunt watercolour splashes. I held window bars for a clearer view. Aah aah.. No Clue. An year and half old, in a little white frock with red lace on it, I was still trying to figure out what the huge dark grey rubbles [those were elephants :P] were doing. That’s all what I remember about my first train journey, to Periyar wildlife sanctuary.

 As a wiggly teen, I always had a love to travel to places, far far away just for the sake of getting out of the repetitive family routine, school chores and same scent of mangoes in our backyard. Being deprived of voyage ventures, my eye balls sprung out for every shortest travelogue I got to hear from my “then” companions - Sunny, Ellen and Parul.

Long travels and seeing different faces was the desire that lured me to get me a college  admission in a bit far away place. Waow!! People, new faces, new life styles all bewitched me for a pretty good portion of my spinster era.

One of India’s future movie talents’ had to once face Uncle Vivan’s straight drive when filming his best performance with my looks in an episode of a rail cruise.

The jhuk- jhuk tour has always been a “Rocking” encounter. When you are mentally prepared for a “take a trip”, pack your backpack with:

A small folding table knife [I will explain why]
Loud music so that you don’t sleep
A travel blanket
Water – 1 bottle [just incase you feel dizzy]

Add ons : Toilet essentials – sanitizer, tissues and toilet seat covers

Being a bride’s maid at Patty’s wedding was a big deal in our dormitory. The most excited lot gradually lessened down to a number 3 to plan and cherish the celebration. The only good catch was the hot ticket examiner and dinner in the middle of the night [in the dark]. A real nightmare was to see a vagabond standing at the foot of my sleeper couch and scribbling on it. I had no hope that I would get my screechy shrill voice back to its vibrations. The cabin seemed to be a “House of Wax” and expecting the psycho to pour on me anytime, I had caught hold of the knife and made up my mind to tear him apart if he proceeded any further. The other two Best bride’s maids [Angie and Aisha] who were giving me company, were facedown dreaming with satisfied smiles. You get those air guns online at a very reasonable price. I literally decided to keep one handy, just incase.

On a different note, I have had sessions of Antakshari [A ending letter movie songs game] competition at the “ladies only” slot in the InterCity travel. That’s the time when I realized that the femininity was so responsible at home that they used to mince vegetables for dinner in the train on their way back home. Hail Womanhood!!! :P

Another happy piece was, romancing in the bracing wind at the door step. It actually pulled in a few green eyed macho attraction :P. (Coz I looked real hot that day :P). We stood against each other and wanted to adventurously do a kiss in public, which we succeeded to secretly achieve.

Phew!! On the brighter side of my “Now” life, I have eradicated those 12-14 hour monthly bi-monthly inescapable journeys on buses and trains subject to ticket availability.

[Periyar Wildlife Santuary: An Awesome Elephant and tiger reserve in Iddukki district, Kerala].