This Blog is
dedicated to the memories of my Guide, Mentor and Class Teacher in 10th Standard, Sir Sanjay Choudhary who left
for the Heavenly Abode in April 2021 due to Covid-19. I owe a lot to him for
whatever command I have over English language.
Those who have not read the Part 1 of this Blog, please find the same here :-https://asgthedong.blogspot.com/2021/04/independence-day-1999-south-india-part.html
India was witnessing a strange political circus as it was preparing for Lok Sabha (Parliament) Elections for the third time within 2 and half years. Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee had just lost a "Trust Vote" by 1 vote in Lok Sabha in April 1999 and there was no alternative to a fresh election as no other party or coalition was able to stitch a majority. The person responsible for the defeat of Vajpayee Government was none other than a lady from Chennai, Ms. J. Jayalalithaa. Prasad had no good words for Ms. Jayalalithaa or those people of Tamil Nadu who were considered as her supporters.
The more the train kept going away from Chennai, the louder got Prasad's voice against the political understanding of the people of Tamil Nadu. Soon we two became a center of attraction in the small General Compartment of 'Vrindavan Express'. After venting all his frustration for about 2 hours, Prasad started talking about great 'political maturity' of the people of his own state Karnataka. He declared that all 28 seats of Karnataka were going to Mr Vajpayee in the elections next month and he was very proud of his state joining the national mainstream politics leaving behind regional parties.
After Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, Prasad soon shifted his focus to Andhra Pradesh. According to him, the Chief Minister Mr Chandrababu Naidu deserved nothing less than a 'Bharat Ratna' for supporting Mr Vajpayee. After getting enlightened by him for over 3 hours, I asked him about his views on the politics of Kerala. All his enthusiasm suddenly got vanished and he just made one statement - 'People of Kerala and West Bengal are from different planet'.
Thankfully, my
question made him change the topics and for next 1 hours I got to know about
the difference of food, spices, sarees, and dances etc. among the 4 states on
South India. As we de-boarded at ‘Bangalore City' Railway Station, we made a
final 'good bye’ to each other. Since there were no email IDs, Mobile or WhatsApp Numbers, we knew that we had a very rare possibility of meeting each
other again. As Prasad went to another platform to catch his next train, I came
out of 'Bangalore City' Railway Station to get awestruck by the sheer
brilliance in the design of the 'Majestic Bus Stop’. With my previous
experiences with buses at Howrah Station (Kolkata), I had never imagined that a
'Bus Stop' could designed so meticulously with a series of Flyover Bridges for
pedestrians with each bus allotted a specific bay.
I checked into a nearby hotel called 'Hotel Anmol' with a tariff of Rs 300 for 24 hours stay. One of the teachers from my School, Ms Usha Rao had given me the phone number of her father and brother who stayed in Bangalore that time. Obviously, they were the only people whom I could reach out in the city in any emergency.
They invited me
to their house at NR Colony as soon as I called them. After spending comfortable
2 hours at their place and learning more about the city and the venue of the
interview, I took a leave and went to MG Road/Brigade Road for some window
shopping. The glitter in that area made me realize immediately that India is
getting ready for a 5th 'Metro City' with the sunrise of a new India which was
undergoing a transformation to become a hub of Information Technology with
Bangalore at its epicenter.
The venue for the interview was a small English Medium School named 'MES Convent' in the outskirts of the city at a place called 'Canara Bank Colony' on Nagarbhavi Road. I reached there about 30 minutes before the scheduled time of 9:00 am and found that there were about 30 boys from across the country waiting for the interviews to start.
I realized that
every candidate there was accompanied by either of their parents or uncle or
elder brother. I was the only daredevil to reach there alone travelling for more
than 1200 km. Another thing I realized was that absolutely no one there was aware
of my city Raipur . Every time I introduced myself to anyone, I had to explain
that Raipur was in Madhya Pradesh about 24 km away from the gigantic 'Bhilai Steel
Plant', I saw a bit of confusion on those faces. Some of those candidates and
their parents finally settled with an imagination of Raipur being a suburb of
Indore/Bhopal/Gwalior/Jabalpur as they had heard only these 4 names from Madhya
Pradesh. The third observation that I made was that there were no girls
selected for the interview. Before I could draw any conclusion about girls
being unable to clear the written test, I saw 4 girls dressed in same school
uniform enring the arena. All those girls were from one school in Bhopal and
were accompanied by one female teacher who was wearing very big spectacles.
Finally, I got to meet 5 souls who knew where Raipur was :-)
The interview format was like a Viva Voce in Science Practical’s. They were randomly picking 5 candidates and evaluation them together for 30-35 minutes in the interview room while the others kept waiting outside. It was the 3rd batch around 11:15 am when I was called with other 4 candidates. The other 4 boys were from Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, and Sholapur (Maharashtra)
As we 5 stood in "Attention Position" in front of 5 panelists, we realized that one of those was the Principal of the same school who was probably sitting there just to enjoy the show. As they started with their first question on 'The relevance of current Indian Education System', the guy from Mumbai started hitting like Sachin Tendulkar. He was awesome fluent in English and was able to speak out his views clearly. The Kolkata guy soon realized that he had to perform like Sourav Ganguly if he intended to challenge any Tendulkar there. His views were strikingly different from the Mumbai guy, but he was able to make an equally remarkable impact. The guy from Hyderabad spoke equally good with his ideas with his English having a typical 'South Indian Accent' before the faces of the panelists turned towards me. That moment was a horrible moment for me as I realized that I didn’t have any idea nor views and absolutely no interest in the topic of 'The relevance of current Indian Education System'. Secondly, I realized that I was the worse among the batch when it came to express something in English.
I had won multiple 'Speech Competitions' since Primary-School days, but all those laurels seemed useless there as those competitions always gave some time to prepare on a specific topic while the topics were put instantaneously by the panel in the interview. I was struggling, and I realized that the guy from Sholapur was struggling a bit more than me. The next few questions were on topics like 'Child Labor', ‘Importance of Sports in School', 'Effect of Satellite Television' etc. I still remember the irony I was going through with those question one after other. The 3 'Big Guns' were miles ahead of me in terms of answering those questions in fluent English. I didn’t have any content on those topics which could make me unique and neutralize the advantage of better English that my competitors had. Although I could read the writing on the wall, I somehow kept saving my wicket and kept trying to delay the moment of a 'Brutal Defeat'. Halfway into the interview, when the 3 guys were still fighting for the top spot and the guy from Sholapur had already given up, I saw ray of hope with the next question which was on the 'Kargil War' which had taken place just few months back. After listening to the stereotyped answers from the 3 'Big Guns' the panelists gave a reluctant look towards me to know if I had to say something. They faced a surprise when I first started to speak on 'Kargil War' with the viewpoint of Pakistan. I took them into the nitty-gritties of internal establishment of Pakistan, both political and military and explained them the reason for the unwanted adventure from Pakistan. Later I spoke about how the Indian Army used unconventional techniques to win back the Peaks. I realized that for the first time I was being taken seriously as the panelists allowed me to speak for 5 minutes without interrupting. Also, for the first time I saw the 3 guys getting nervous.
The next
question again proved to be a 'Goldmine' for me when they asked about - 'The
importance of Transport Infrastructure in India'. Once the 3 guys took turns to
speak on entities like Local Trains, Metro Trains and Bus Stops etc, I smelled
a possible victory for first time.I just had to remind the panellist that we
need to start thinking like a 'Central Government' and not like a 'Municipal Corporation'
I spoke on need
of upgrading National Highways, River Interlinking with Water Transport, Uni-Gauge
Rail System. Slowly I drifted the topic to be more specific on Indian Railway
Network. As the panelists loved my views and again allowed me to speak for
more than 7-8 minutes, I saw the discomfort growing on the other 3 faces.
We realized that
we had been there for 45 minutes as the panelist wished us luck and asked us
to leave. All the spirit of completions was gone once the interview was over. All
5 of us spent about 15 minutes together and visited a small Ganesh Temple just
besides the school. We felt very nice to know more about each other and I got
some opportunity to explain them the exact location of Raipur in the map of
India.
My train 'Chennai Mail' was to depart at 00:10 am (technically next day - 17th August 1999) and make me reach 'Chennai Central' at 7:00 am. I was lucky to get the last available AC-2 berth using my father's Green Pass. Since there were no trains to Raipur from Chennai on that day, I got an AC-2 ticket to Nagpur in 'Grant Trunk Express' scheduled to leave around 5:00 pm from Chennai on the same day.
It was 3:00 pm and I was sipping a cup of tea while sitting on a bench at Platform No 4 at 'Bangalore City‘ Railway Station, I saw a 12-13 year old boy sitting with a disappointed face on a bench in front of me. His clothes suggested that he was not a beggar and his face suggested that he was in trouble. Maybe, he had got separated from his parents and didn’t know where to go. When I went near to him to enquire, the first thing he asked me in imperfect Hindi was to give him some food to eat.
After feeding him with a 'Masala Dosa', I got to know that his name was Prasad and he was from North Karnataka (what a coincidence!!). He had run away from his house about 10 days back as his stepmother didn’t treat him well. He worked for 7 days at a small eatery in Bangalore before being kicked out 2 days back.He wanted to go home but didn’t have money to buy a ticket. Without wasting any time, I took him to the ticket counter and bought him an unreserved ticket for his hometown. Also, I ensured that he got into the passenger train which departed around 4:00 pm. The smile in the face of that boy was absolute precious when I gave him a Rs 50 note along with some 'Gyan' before his train departed.
I decided to
walk inside the AC Waiting Room as I was very tired and also dint want to meet
any more 'Prasad'. The AC Waiting Room at 'Bangalore City' in 1999 was much
better than the waiting lounge of the old HAL Airport Bangalore (which I
visited once in 2006)
There were about
20 people sitting in the Waiting Room with most of them busy reading or
talking. But there was a father-son duo who were very particular that they kept
at least 6 feet distance from any other passenger and that no one could dare to
speak to them. They looked and behaved like real VIPs while everyone in the
room felt awkward due to their rudeness.
As I was feeling
suffocated, I left the waiting room around 8 pm and spent the next 3 hours
roaming all around before reaching Platform No 7 to board the train at around
11:30 pm. I got down to have some coffee after putting my bag on the berth as
we still had 20 minutes for departure. Before I could buy a coffee, I heard
someone shouting on top of his voice near the adjoining AC-First Class coach.
Soon I recognized him as Mr. VIP (Father) who was sitting in the waiting room
earlier. Their names were not on the 'Reservation Chart' and the man was not
willing to listen to anyone. He was threatening the TTEs of dire consequences
if they didn’t arrange berths for him and his son. Soon, some senior railway
officials rushed to the spot to understand the reason for the Pandemonium.
As Mr VIP was
trying to call someone from his Motorola Mobile Phone, the junior most of the
TTEs pointed out that the VIPs had bought a ticket for the train departing on
16th August 1999 and that their train had already left the previous night.
Realizing the blunder, Mr. VIP started requesting for berths instead of
shouting. But then it was the turn of the TTEs to be rude. They gave the father-son
duo just 5 minutes to get out of the Railway Station as they didn’t have any
valid tickets.
Chennai looked much brighter and more attractive on 17th August 1999 as I ventured out walking in the city after taking a bath in the AC Waiting Room and putting my bag in the 'Cloak Room'. I walked till the Marina Beach and was facing the Sea for first time in life. The endless Bay of Bengal made me realize how big the country and the world was. I reached Nagpur at around 11:00 am on 18th August 1999 and immediately got a connecting train 'Mumbai Howrah Mail' for Raipur. The TTE, Mr Majumdar got a berth in AC-2 for me within 5 minutes as he was an old friend of my father.
Reaching home around 6:00 pm, the first thing I did was to call my Captain Ms.Sangeeta Rathi to know about the fate of the Independence Day event in our school which I had missed. I was happy to know that everything went well and was unhappy to know that no one had missed me in that function.
The same sentiments were repeated by my other friends who all declared that all the 'Functions' in Desh Bandhu School were going to be 'Super-Hit' if the so called 'Head Boy' is kept out of the matters every time.
- Mr. Vajpayee did win the elections in 1999 and also got good number of seats in Karnataka while his allies (DMK and Telugu Desam) got great support in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh
- I did get selected for AITSE Scholarship after the interview and so did the 3 'Big Guns' from Mumbai, Kolkata, and Hyderabad.
- With more air travels, I got an opportunity to visit 'Chennai Central' Railway Station only once in 2010 which brought back vivid memories. Though there was no trace of the STD Booth (no other shop too on that spot)
- With more air travels, I never got opportunity to visit 'Bangalore City' Railways Station though I had once visited Majestic Bus Stop in 2014. Hotel Anmol still stands at its location
- During an official trip in 2014, I made a visit to the MES Convent School. Though the school building remained same, the small Ganesh Temple had become a huge one in 2014
- Bangalore-Chennai Mail starts around 10:00 pm now and hopefully there are no more confusing dates on the tickets
- With the creation of
Chhattisgarh in 2000 and subsequent developments in Infrastructure and boom in
Iron/Steel/Power Industry, most of the educated and aware people in India know
where Raipur is. And those who still don’t know, will get to know sooner than
later....