A
Journal Entry: 1435
hrs 02.03.2013
In the
Gorakhpur - Trivandrum Rapti Sagar Express. The train is yet to
leave Alleppey. Standing at the door of a sleeper compartment, I
watch a bald, old porter in a red shirt and lungi taking my bicycle
along to the Break Van at the rear of the train. I look at my
bicycle, moving along with the man, clattering and shivering, but
tame, tame like a baby elephant walking with its mahoot. I look my
bicycle which has served me so well during the last one and a half
years of stay at Alleppey. This inexplicable sorrow wells up, along
with tender love for the bicycle. How silly I am! Yet how much I owe
to that piece of steel and rubber ! The early morning rides on my
bicycle is what kept me sane and happy in this place. Not a single
tyre puncture all these months. Somebody stole the 6 speed gear unit
one day, yet we managed to ride on.
My
days at Alleppey is coming to an end. I will leave the service of
Punjab National Bank after a stint of 32 years, 4 months and 28
days, on 28.03.2013. I have about 38 days leave left in credit, so I
will absent myself on sick grounds for the next 3 weeks, report back
on 25th March and work till 28th, to an unceremonious retirement. It
is VRS, so there will not be any bank-sponsored tamashas; I have
already warned my colleagues that I won't accept any parting gifts;
maybe we will sit together and they might say how glad they were to
have worked with me and I will make corresponding noises. It remains
a fact though, that I had loved all my colleagues in this branch - we
had the best working atmosphere, compared to all the branches I have
worked in my long career. I will miss them.
The
train leaves the station. The passing scenes are so familiar. Each
is etched on my mind. I move from the known, the familiar to the
unknown and unfamiliar. I do not know what future will hold for
me; not that I knew, but like the train that now change tracks, I too
am changing my worn tracks. I do not fear, I do not dread the new,
but I calmly wait with an open mind to accept whatever life would
bestow on me.
*************
Balachandran
V, in train from Alleppey to Trivandrum, 02.03.2013A