Nurungukal…3…

        Some events in our life emerge most unexpectedly. That too when we are fighting with the time, for eg. to catch a train or attend a meeting. Narration of the details of such incidents are always an interesting part of our conversations. I remember a case heard recently from a senior officer. She was rushing to catch a train. There was not much time left for the departure. After hurriedly getting down from the auto when she wanted to make a call she was taken by surprise that her hand bag was not on her shoulder and lo it was left in the auto. A shiver passed through her and stood in aghast on the foot path at her wits end worrying about her precious belongings viz. ATM cards, mobile phones cash etc. etc. On seeing her predicament a police man came to her rescue. His directions helped her to retrieve the lost property intact  from the nearest Police station. To her surprise the auto driver who had dropped her at the station was standing out side with an expression of satisfaction of upholding the ethics of the auto drivers of Kozhikode city. Probably he was waiting to ensure that the property was returned to the correct owner, again a sign of good sense of duty.

            Another case I heard, was about the dangerous risk a young mother took to jump out of a moving train carrying her two children in one hand and a few luggage in the other. She was forced to be adventurous on this mission when she knew that she had boarded a wrong train and interestingly in the company of her father who was a retired railway staff. Her father with an exclamation was gasping to tell me how he managed to board the running train once again and jump out safely after retrieving a bag which he had left over in the first attempt. While her father was proudly highlighting his agility and technique in the act to me I was spell bound with a mixed feeling.

         On hearing these two episodes I am recollecting about one such situation in which I became a victim. It was in1958 when me and my younger brother accompanying our eldest brother were returning to college after vacation from our native place. As the steam engine  with a long whistle and puffing of smoke and steam made a thudding halt a few feet away from us, we had only one thing in mind that to squeeze into the compartment though the crowded door and never thought about the two bags in which we had stuffed our clothes and books. The thrill of that journey vanished at the moment we realised that we had forgotten to take the bags from the platform and became a target of reprimand from our brother and a laughing stock to others…..dum…dum…dum…pee…pee…pi….