Seasonz Chapter 2 – The Yesteryear (Part 2)

 

The link to the previous part is as follows:

Seasonz Chapter 2 – The Yesteryear (Part 1)

 

Returning to our journey on Jalandhar, the big day was arriving, and I was eagerly counting it since that would mark my first flight journey. It will be a memorable event in the book of Raghav’s history.

Hmmm…sounds little funny though when reading right! But not for him.

Fine, so our goods were packed and shipped a week early through a logistic company since it would take a week or more to deliver it, as the road trip from south to north was quite far and the road infrastructure was challenging in those days.

The flight to New Delhi from Chennai was due in 2 days’ time. We had planned to leave for Chennai the following night and stay there at my cousin’s place from where we shall proceed further with our journey. The only sad thing that I had when departing out of Coimbatore was not able to play with my pet dog, Jacky, anymore.

The next morning, we had reached Chennai and it was a pleasant sunny morning. Way in the 90’s, the city witnessed low population density comparing to this day and it was much more fun then. Reaching my cousin’s home, I had a nice time enjoying with them while the elders were into some serious discussion, which hardly bothered us kids.  

Finally, the great day had arrived.

My uncle had booked a cab to take us all to the airport. I had never been to the airport before and was totally clueless about how it looked like. The drive was a short one from their home and as we entered the Kamaraj Domestic Terminal of the Chennai Airport, I was awestruck. I never imagined that I would be so captivated about it and my excitement knew no bounds.

De-boarding from the vehicle and getting hold of our luggage, my parents bid farewell to all those who came to see-off us while I was much focused on the activities taking place around me. Not just once or twice but many a time I would have made a complete 360-degree rotation to capture every single frame of the place.

The scene was totally lively and engaging with people rushing in all directions madly, trolley’s extra loaded with luggage, flight status being announced on a continuous roll, gorgeous ladies of hour-glass structure draped in sleek uniformed attire and with the apt complexion to suit their profession, commanders and first officers in black and white attire walking majestically making onlookers turn towards them and finally the cops, looking out suspiciously at everyone.

My relatives bid adieu to us and we headed towards the check-in counters. With every step taken, my excitement curve just went upward. Once done with all the procedures, we were waiting at the departure lounge for our aircraft to arrive. Back in the 90’s the Indian aviation was not well developed as of now, and it was the era of private carriers just stepping into the market. Two private airlines, Jet Airways and Air Sahara, had started operation along with the existing center owned Indian Airlines. As we were officially moving to a different state, the travel desk had made our reservation through Indian Airlines.

I still remember the heavy ticket booklet that used to be issued back in the olden days, unlike now wherein everything is encompassed within the 5” display of your mobile phones. With the advancement of technology, things seem to be simpler these days.

The giant Boeing 737 was parked at one of the remote stands and the aircraft was shining from the first rays of the day, and I could clearly see it from the gates, as back then the air connectivity was not so improved and very few flights used to visit the airport. We were finally shuttled to the aircraft and I was about to board the first flight of my life.

 

To be continued…

Seasonz Chapter 2 – The Yesteryear (Part 1)

 

The link to the previous part is as follows:

Seasonz Chapter 1 - Happiness and Beyond It…(Part 4) 

 

The human brain that weighs close to 1.3 kilograms has never failed to fascinate me. Being so tiny and just a handful in size, I have always wondered how it stores innumerable bytes of data and that too without even giving the slightest warning of low storage space 😊. Adding to the amazing role it plays, there are few icing on the cake facts like, how it brings out all the wonderful and exiting memories of our past in just a fraction of second and how it takes us on a jolly ride into wonderland, not just once or twice, but every single day, in the state of dream.

Even manual records that are stored or preserved, after couple of decades get stonewashed or destroyed, but those that are registered in our mind remains fresh till the last breath of ours, unless until you are suffering with Alzheimer disease.

And though the plausibility of dream’s coming true has been on a lower scale for almost everyone, it is often good to dream as it helps one to achieve great heights and improve your thinking. Dreams can sometime turn out to be true only if appropriate action items are taken to make it so.

Hence Dream big to achieve big is something that I had followed ever and I had been trying to work towards it to achieve it one such day, though not aware of the fact that how many roadblocks I am going to face in the due course. As mentioned in the former pages, I was fascinated towards Aircraft and it was not some kind of puppy dream which comes and flows out of you after a period. I was rather determined to somehow achieve it and thus my ambition right from kid was to become a Pilot.

Well, this might sound funny to a lot, as there are many out there who do fancy airplanes and do wish to become a Pilot. But that was not my case. I was focused all my life towards it though not knowing when, where & how to start but was confident enough that that one special day may come soon to accomplish it.

So, you might be wondering how come such fascination got its root within me. It was way back in the 90’s, when I was a 6-year-old naughty kid, who had just passed out of the kindergarten. I was a happy little chap enjoying the privilege of being at my native with all goodies around me.

Right from getting up in the morning with my mother feeding me food and father dressing me up for the school, to my paternal grandfather taking me to the school which was just two houses away from mine, to the wonderful class teacher Ms. Geetha, to enjoy with my then friend Sanjay, to get back home in the evening and go on for a walk to the nearby Murugan Temple with my paternal grandfather and my pet dog, Jacky, my life was filled with happiness and no regrets.

There was nothing much to bother about as love and affection was overflowing in the air around me. But a day arrived when all my happiness came under a big full stop. As my father was a bank employee, he was promoted as Manager and was transferred to the land of warriors, Punjab. 

This was an unexpected move to the entire family and so slowly we started preparing ourselves for roller coaster ride ahead. Although it was just my mother who knew Hindi among the three of us, my father rather than backing out stood ahead and took the decision to move on and face the situation believing in my mother, in spite of constant pressure from the relatives.

And this is one such quality of his which I had always envied and try to follow it up in my years to come. It is then that I understood the formula to survive and the importance of having a supportive partner.

“Whatever be the situation and how hard it may turn out to be, stand up right to its face and challenge it. Once or twice it might push you down. Get up, dust yourself and once again stand before it, as for sure you will succeed in your next try, despite any number of times you get sledged.”

This might sound as if thinking way beyond my age, but this helped me cross most of the hurdles all through the 22 years of my life. If I had restricted myself to a place and had got too comfortable over there, switching to a new surrounding itself would have been a greater challenge itself.  

So next to my father, the other person who stood by our side and gave morale support to head up to Punjab was my Maternal Grandfather and there are not enough words in any language to describe his kind and open hardheartedness. Such a gem of a person he is.

A very strong man of the yesteryear who had faced all sort of odds right from his childhood and through his teenage days, to marriage & post marriage, parenthood and continuing. Born and brought up in the God’s own country, Kerala, he was an excellent football player of his time. Even at his 60s he is hyperactive and there is never a time when he has said “no” to any of his grandchildren.

By education he was a civil engineer and by profession he was a cinematographer working with leading stars of the 70’s and 80’s. I had always envied his passion towards photography and to call him a photographer rather an engineer would be the right term to honor him. His dedication and hard work are innumerable.

 

To be continued...

Seasonz Chapter 1 - Happiness and Beyond It… (Part 2)

The link to the previous part is available on the below link:

https://krish-thefriendly.blogspot.com/2020/09/chapter-1-happiness-and-beyond-it-part-1.html

Feeling pity about the folks around me, I had to crane my neck to the maximum to see by any chance if the traffic will clear anytime soon. With no luck in my favor, I sat down patiently on my bike again and took out my mobile. To my shock I could find 20 missed calls from Ankitha, which were already blinking on my mobile. Naturally the blood started pumping heavily, I started sweating and I was in a dilemma whether to give her a call back or not. I could easily visualize the scene on what happens the moment she picks up my call and that gave me cold shiver all through my spine. However, before I could receive the next call from her, to my relief the vehicles have started moving and the traffic was easing out slowly.

I hit the throttle to the maximum and the speedometer would have already crossed the safe threshold of riding, but I was not bothered about anything around me. Violating couple of signals, giving close cut to few city buses, there would be many who would have abused me of my driving. Despite multiple violations my only target on mind was to reach the destination on time. As I was nearing the target, a shining band new Audi A4 gave an unexpected entry from the wrong side of the road making me to hit the brakes at the instant.

The Apache responded timely to my sudden command and thereby came to a halt with a cool skid ensuring that I did not budge off.  A quick decision thus saved me and my baby (my bike) from grave disaster. Coming to a standstill very close to the Audi, I hardly gave a rough stare and went on abusing who on earth gave him a license to drive, even though in the past few minutes I myself had broken 100s of traffic rules.

It was exactly 7.55pm and I was in front of the designer’s store, which was my destination. Rushing into the store, I handed over the slip to the lead designer who rather receiving me with his pleasant smile gave a very dirty look. I could easily read his mind from the reaction that he gave. It was the closing time and I had come in exactly then. Giving a heavy sigh of frustration, he went in and came back with a neatly folded dress robe.  I collected the package, placed it with utmost care into my backpack and hit the bike’s engine back to life, getting ready to face the ultimate challenge.

Though with a small sense of accomplishment and joy I was heading back to my home. It was a short drive along the main road, but just to enjoy the cool evening weather, I took the streets and rode gently enjoying the breeze hitting my face. At a distance I could sense some people movement, as normally the street wore a deserted look. I wondered if I had taken the wrong turn and entered the street, but anyways continued riding through it, as any street within the area ended up near my home.

As I was approaching a residential zone, an unusual sight welcomed me there. Of course, being a teenager who had just passed out of college, all my focus was always directed on to those good-looking hot girls, who flaunt the city 24/7. But what caught me here was a completely different picture. I could see many tiny faces brightly lit up running, jumping, rolling, shouting and doing all sort of mischief that they can possibly do. Having a closer look at the area, it was the corporation park where people usually come out on their evening walk. Since it was Friday, children had come out to have their gala time and dominate the whole place, as they had full 2 days to be away from school.

I was smiling looking at those happy faces when my eyes suddenly fell upon a pair of kids. In the far corner of the park there was a small girl in her cute baby pink dress, hair neatly combed and with an innocent look held her brother’s hand, who was just a year or two older to her, trying to make his sister climb the slide. It was so cute that I instantly stopped my bike and looked at the innocence in them. The determination to make her climb the slide was seen in the brother’s face and the confidence that the brother will not let her down was seen in the tiny girl’s face. It was more of a bonding than just a relationship, which was felt there and that even the grown up’s hardly show these days. The little boy took her sister around the park, also help her climb the swing and rocks it off for her, sit on the other side of see-saw and enjoyed looking how merrily she loved it. There was not a single moment when the girl refused to take a ride and that was the amount of faith & confidence that she had on her brother. And that sight of them, took me down the lane, to a time, that was 18 years back.

(To be continued…)