Subramanya is an ancient holy place of Hindus in the banks of river Kumaradhara near the hill Kumara parvatha. Six days from new Moon in the month of November annual religious festival takes place in this holy town.
People from all over India come to attend the festival. This festival is called Sasti
I reside in a place called Puttur, which is a taluk headquarters, some 36 miles away from this temple town.
This year on 25th the Sasti festival took place in Subramanya temple. Although I couldn’t participate in the festival, the next day from Puttur, I boarded the train, paying Rs10 as ticket fee.
My train started at 11.55 AM and my journey began.
We live in Deccan plateau. Here broad gauge tracks are laid between small hills and rivers.
The Diesel engine train had around six coaches. My coach was almost empty.
So I took my bridged book, “Ways To Improve Your Communication Skills Instantly”, by Jo Condrill & Bennie Bough and started reading it.
After finishing almost half of the book, I went to the open door, to savour the beauty of the landslide.
There were arecanut farms on one side, and acacia trees on the other side of the track.
Banana plants were in between the arecanut trees in the farm, with array of coconut trees forming the boundary.
When I gazed further at a distant, beneath the azure sky there were verdant hills with mobile towers, in few of them.
Parallel to rail tracks in roads vehicles were moving; and at others, vehicle were waiting patiently near the gate, for our train to pass by.
Our train moved over bridges across small rivers, where half naked children playing in water, waved at us happily.
We also passed tiled houses with rubber sheets hanging in the porch of the houses to dry, from the milk tapped from the trees; the previous morning.
Then I thought of returning back to my seat, and while I passed by the toilet, I saw my own image in the mirror, and remembered reading in the book to practice smiling in front of the mirror. So I grinned at my own reflection.
After having stops at small intervals, in a handful of stations my train reached Nattana, the last stop at 1 PM.
I got down from the train, and learned from stationmaster with in an hour the same train would return back to Puttur.
Nettana is a small station. Outside the station I saw a lone auto rickshaw.
To save money, I set on foot and walked a couple of furlong .I found two hotels by the side of the road.
I felt hungry and entered one of the hotels. I had a plate of rice, with fish curry. I had my lunch with couple of local diners. I learnt from them, I have to hire an auto or catch a bus; passing with a frequency of half an hour to reach the temple, which was 12KM away.
I saw my watch. It was 1.35 PM. I decided to return back on the same train.
As I was nearing the station, I heard the whistle and with long strides at last reached the station, hurriedly bought the ticket, and sat in the compartment.
This time there were few more people than before.
The seats consist of wooden planks with one sidelonger; for four people on either side to be seated in each plank facing each other and on the other, single seats opposite
to each other with a passage in between.
I sat near the passage on the larger side. In the single seat near the widow, a man of around 30 having a mobile with earphones was listening to some down loaded music.
To my left, a young family with two children, were sitting by the window, husband and wife facing each other. They had a girl of around 3years old and a six months old baby.
The train was now moving and I felt like to have a puff of cigarette. I sat on step of door in my compartment and smoked.
Suddenly from nowhere I heard a tap on the wall behind me. When I turned to my surprise, I found the railway inspector demanding the ticket.
This was rare. In our district usually they don’t check. While hurriedly returning to the train, once I thought of getting into the train without the ticket, as I had little time to buy the ticket. Now while producing the ticket to the inspector; I reflected how lucky I was!.
I returned to my seat and noticed the young man with his shoes off, in socks, had placed his legs on opposite empty seat. He was having a drink from Bisleri bottle.
On the other side the mother had placed the baby, in the wooden plank under a towel, which was sleeping peacefully.
The girl accidentally, had one of her finger stuck in the gap between the wooden plank and it cried. The father at once came to her rescue, and to pacify her asked, whether she wanted biscuits.
At the same time, a vendor with biscuits and chocolates happened to pass inside our compartment. The husband brought a pack of biscuits and gave it, to his wife. The girl stopped crying and stared, while her mother opened the pack.
While the girl started eating happily, her mother shook her legs playfully, and I could hear the jingling sound of the silver chain in her legs.
I was touched and looked at the other child. The baby was sleeping peacefully with its chest rising and falling rhythmically.
Thus in presence of happy family, I passed the rest of my journey, and got down in my home station.
END
