4 KMS OF FUN. Standing at the entrance of the Puja Pandal Gate, at the mouth of the winding road leading up to the Civil Lines Metro Station I see clusters of people walking on the pavement to do their daily chores. About a couple of decades back you and I were too amongst that cluster of people. The difference being, we didn’t have any chores, we were seasonal in nature, we were aplenty, we were a riot of colours amongst ourselves and yes, we were all happy pedestrians walking towards the Puja Pandal Gate. Walking after alighting from a bus, walking after the hand-rickshaw puller’s cycle chain would break for the nth time, walking after a mid-route squabble with an auto rickshaw driver, and sometimes walking all the way from one’s home. No Multi-jet fuel engines to take us to the Pujo Pandal at the speed of light, no automatic transmission that would make the ride one lifeless slog, but a colourful tonga that would sway here, and sway there as we would all sit grabbing each other tight, lest one should fall. No ABS but a skelter-framed bus that would brake so sudden and noisily that your heart would pop out of your mouth, that is if it hasn’t stuck you down already. No underground or overhead metro lines, but a ride in a filled-to-the-brim bus with my elder sisters and 8 kids my age, all hand in hand making a queue as long as the Metro. No going our separate ways but squeezing into a bus at 3 am and calling each other’s name out, so that no one’s left behind. No Key Cards but calling out Dadu’s name at 4 am hoping he’s still awake to open the door. A little while it was not about, ‘Arriving in style’, but alas, ‘travelling with substance. ‘ Here’s wishing you all a Joyous Durga Puja. May your travels be as enchanting as always.
Posted on: Sun, 06 Oct 2013 18:49:57 +0000
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