Loving Palakkad

So these days I have been in a total nostalgic mood. It kicked off with DD celebrating its 50 years and since I have been always excited with TV and related things all my life, it turned out to be a bigger occasion to remember things in the past. And even the TRIO is back. Me, TS and AKC grew up together and have played all the games that existed at that time for small girls. Inky Pinky Ponky.., Icecream soda ... to playing Amma Achan Kutty.... we've been there, we've done that, we see right through your funky hat. Oooopps.. that just came in a flow. Anyways, AKC is now married and earlier during my college days, her family had shifted to their hometown. Actually I had never seen her after they shifted and wasn't even able to attend her marriage. But now she's back. She has now joined TS's office which is quite near to my CAT coaching classes. Now you won't blame me for being so nostalgic.

Palakkad is famous for its halwa, banana chips, typical Palakkadan wind, the beauty of the places like Neliyampathy, Silent Valley, Malampuzha and Attapaadi, its Railways and finally for its origin, rather its entry to Kerala. Palakkad, it is said that, was originally a part of TamilNadu and it was exchanged to Kerala for Kanyakumari. Apparently, there are people who mourn over the exchange treaty which happened some 50 years back and even after Palakkad became the rice bowl of Kerala. I am sure there are many from other parts of Kerala who believe that Palakkad is full of Tamilians. Sometimes, I too wish if Palakkad were a part of TN atleast we wouldn't have lost the Salem Division from Palakkad Railway Division. I am not a person who admire politicians because they never have been worth it. And to find one uncorrupt politician would be MI. But one thing I admire about the politicians of TN is their "State"smanship. No matter which party rules in the centre or the state, when it comes to a budget (be it the annual union budget or the railway budget) TN always have the biggest share. The MPs see to it that more trains and funds are allocated to the state. Kerala MPs, on the other hand, do an annual ritual going-to-the-centre-with-10-requests. I can assure you that you could find the paper in the dustbin in the next moment itself.

Even in the case of Salem Division, even a layman of Railway Colony had known that the Division is going to divided all the while. But the politicians pretended to have never known it. And when the time of division came, all the parties conducted dharnas and public speeches and demanded for a discussion. The office of the new Division was being built even when the talks were going on. As if they had always known what was going to happen.

And after having lived in Railway Colony for almost 2 decades, even the thought of having to leave this place to move to my hometown is haunting me. I was 3 when I came here. It was after coming here that I got into the Kindergarten. Railway Colony has basically 3 "Big" schools. While I went to KV, TS went to St. Thomas and AKS went to Railway school. The advantage of being in different schools was that we could attend the major events of all the three schools with each others' "pass". And the disadvantage was that I being in KV had odd vacation timings. In April when all others were playing, I had classes and in June when it rained and all others used to go to school, I had my vacation. Even for Onam, we had just 2 days leave and the others never had Pooja holidays when 10 days were rewarded to us. :(

Railway Colony is actually synonymous with Vignesh buses. This Vignesh travels owns as much as 5 to 6 buses and is pretty much the uncrowned prince of the Railway Colony transport. Achan still tease me over "Vignesh" because I used to pronounce it as "Vijnesh". That was long back when I had just started learning English. Anyways, I admire Vignesh bus because 1. it has great looks 2. its fashion sense. Believe me, there are buses in Palakkad which look as if they have landed from one of those fantasy cartoon worlds. Flourescent yellow, flourescent green...wtf ! As for Vignesh, they have very royal look with colors ranging in between green and blue. And another reason I like it is that their conductors give the 50ps back and which makes my day. (The fare to Palakkad town is 4.50 but most of the time, we don't get the 50 ps back from the conductors if we give them Rs 5). But there is one conductor whom I hate from head to toe not just because he doesnt return the 50ps, but also because he is a mouthlooker. Sometimes you feel like he hasn't seen girls for ages and sometimes you can see the extra effort he's putting in to "shine". Leaving that. I think Railway Colony buses can still claim to be humane buses. Almost all the other buses' conductors won't even allow students to sit even if there are no full-charge-adults at all. Just because they pay Conession ticket? Its cruel.

Anyways, I think its been a long post. Time to wind up. But there are more memories to share. Will do that in later posts.