Travel Extraordinaire

When we decided to celebrate our dad’s 100th birth anniversary in the year 2011 we his 10 children along with the grand children decided to bring out a book about dad and mum and their exemplary life. Along with this book we also decided to present a gift bag where each one of us contributed an item. There was surprise gift of a world map from my younger brother.

“Isn’t it the most fitting gift for dad?”

 Overwhelmed by the emotions I hugged him instantaneously and from there emanated this beautiful story!

“Nana (father) will you take us out for a holiday?”

Dad was busy applying the solution to his punctured bicycle tube

“ Yes dear definitely……. We will go to Edanganni.” He said matter of factly

I was cursing myself . This Edanganni our native village is the be all and end all of our holidays! The travel by the bullock cart embellished with hay covered within age old dirty carpet and the protruding support sticks will make the travel a painful one in the muddy road and smell of hay would generate the nastiest of the nauseating sensation within you.

My uncle’s family makes it a point to spend a week in Velanganni every year and they go by train………. From Trichy To Nagapattinam!!! Lucky people!

As there was no comment on his statement regarding Edanganni holidays dad turns around and sees the sad  trio (self and two younger brothers) cuddled together in anticipation of something better than that of the native village.

“ Take us at least to Thanjavur. The temple there is so hugh it seems that it’s shadow never falls on the ground!” I try to impress with my bookish knowledge

“Why Thanjavur, we will go somewhere else.”

“ Is he going to take us to Trichy?

 The Rock fort there is a huge one and climbing up is a strenuous process and once you go up you can see both the Kaveri and Kollidam rivers and all the villages from Thanjavur  on the north and Madurai to the south. The Gopurams of Srirangam temple would seem so close as if it could be touched by hands.” My cousin from Trichy would enlighten our dumbfounded lot!

“How many  stations are there from Kumbakonam to Trichy?”I pondered

Daraswaram, Swamimalai, Sundaraparemal Koil, Papanasam…. And then… and then  ……. O yes Pandaaravadai,Pasupathikoil……….

My thought process was interrupted when my brother asked me “akka

When are we going to Papanasam for St. Sebastian’s festival” I was indeed irritated  with him.

When my planning was something big like travelling to Trichy from Kumbakonam he reminds dad of the nearby Papanasam! Now along with Edanganni dad would definitely include Papanasam into his holiday account!

And when he called out my elder brother “ can you bring the big atlas please?”

 we knew what dad is up to.  “No nana” we echoed in chorus.

So  it is neither Thanjavur nor Trichy……… it is going to be an ATLAS TRAVEL”

“Thanjavur is just three hours from here  and Trichy  two more hours but today we are going to travel in the longest ……. Remember the longest railway in the world! “Ohoooo” it was an ironic chorus from us.

“ How many days travel? Can any one of you guess

Two days?!!

No

Three days?!!

It takes seven days ….remember seven full days to travel in this longest train and it is called “The Trans-Siberian Railway”

“Russia is a big country”

We go into the atlas

We hold his hands and  with his fingers he traces India first and then Russia and without big effort we make a comparative study.

“ It is really huge” my brother exclaims

“Yes a big country deserves a big railway, The Trans-Siberian Railway……. 6152 miles long! It starts on the western side and ends at the eastern most point.”

This is repeated till it goes by heart in varied ways!

“ Now we are getting inside the Trans-Siberian Railway at the Moscow city and can you look at the church steeple? They are like big onions!!

“Is  that onion  big as our house?”

“These  onion domes are even bigger”

My imagination runs riot but still could not fathom an onion bigger than my house!

“Russia is very very cold… Are you feeling the cold?”

“ Yes it is very cold “ the youngest one says, thoroughly immersed into the show.

A big bed sheet is brought out and we all tent in and the mood is set!!

“Here comes our food tray” dad declares“ But it’s only bread, there is no rice.”

“Only sick people eat bread”

“But we have to manage with this for 7 days!

I remembered my Amma’s (mother's) delivery time when my grandmother fed her ring shaped bread and milk. We used to pity her. At this juncture I also remembered amma’s kesari and vadai.

Dad says “There is plenty of butter and jam. We can spread these and make a very good meal”

“What is jam?” we were so innocent in those days!

Dad thinks for an equivalent of jam  and says” It will be like the sweet chutney amma makes with mango and jaggery.”

“There is some soup too. Do you like it”

Amma’s thin mutton soup with pepper and fennel makes my mouth water.

Dad’s runnimg commentary continues.

“We wre entering a desert now. Have you heard of a desert?”

“Yes it will be full of sand and no plants except the date tree grows over there.”

“And it will be very hot” continued my brother.

“ But this desert is a very different one; it is cold a desert full of snow; look at the trees, they are covered with snow. By the way have any of you seen a white bear?

We look deeply into the atlas.

“ May be it has gone to sleep” says my youngest brother.

“ You are right. This bear is like Kumbakarnan, it eats 40 to 50 salmon fish daily for 6 months and then it goes to sleep for another 6 months!”

“ How much I would love to do it. For 6 months no one would wake me up for the 5.30. mass in the morning and hurrah…….. no school for 6 months! But I don’t want the slumber regime during Christmas or annual holidays!

“ Vladivastak has come, get down all of you” So saying he pulls away the bed sheet.

“Now Magie can you tell me the important stations in between?

“Can’t remember nana”

“ That’s ok. Now can you repeat after me I will tell you easy ones. Moscow Omsk, Tomsk, Irkutsk and Vladivostok. Like a magic the magnifying glass over the atlas zooms to make letters big.

We repeat the Moscow Omsk, Tomsk, Irkutsk and Vladivostok’ like the “mea culpa mea culpa mea maxima culpa” prayer in latin and run out to play.

Whenever we ache for a travel we have gone in ships the Bay of Bengal and Indian ocean and over the Atlantic too!!

Most of us children have indeed now circumnavigated parts of the world for real but still the mantra of Moscow Omsk, Tomsk, Irkutsk and Vladivostok has an inherent place in our hearts!