A Travel

Avsar looked completely drained. He had just completed one half of the train journey to his hometown for the long weekend. He had to wait for another 3 hrs for the connecting train . He had all the time in the world . But, surprisingly he looked in a hurry. The few passengers in the platform saw this guy in his twenties almost running after being seen restless in the platform for sometime. It was still dark . The dude at the east was yet to illuminate the area. Avsar was running towards the upper class waiting room . "All Indians same problem! ", commented one Dhukanwala with a grin. "Yes! It was becoming too much of a problem for Avsar. He was sensing that his legs were losing their might; his eyes were becoming blurry; His bag was becoming too much of a weight to carry. He had to get rid of the 'weight'. In the midst of all this, there were umpteen questions going through his mind. One of them being, "Will he be lucky enough to find any vacancy in the waiting room to relieve himself from the stressful and delicate situation?" He was cursing the Lassi vendor in the train for putting him in that situation. Phew ! He was never ever tensed like that. He was like running for his life.

"Why don't they build these basic facilities all along the platform ?", he thought. He rushed inside the waiting hall. The attendant, in half sleep asked Avsar to show his ticket and write down his details in the register. But he was not in a mood to listen. He quickly scanned the walls of the room." There it is!", he exclaimed. He identified the board and rushed towards it. There was none. He thanked the Almighty, threw his bag and plugged in the adapter to his mobile phone and then to the vacant plug point in the only switch board in the waiting room. The attendant was puzzled watching the actions of this guy, who shouted "Eureka!" just for getting his mobile charged . "Paagal!", he thought. Avsar was not paying attention to any of his surroundings. After all, he had to reply "I Miss you, Love!" to his sweetheart who had messaged before his mobile battery died, telling how she couldn't sleep even in an A/C sleeper bus on her way home just because she couldn't meet him for four days. After turning on his phone, he replied " Sorry dear! One Paagal attendant here irritated me. Just taught him a lesson. Miss you, Love. Will message you after reaching home. Muaaah". By the time, Avsar came back to his senses, there were some 4-5 people standing around him. He was puzzled as to why they were around him, until one of them asked "Boss! If charged, pls move"

Gone are the days when people went to a waiting room in a railway station to take some rest and freshen up. All we look for is a working switch board with an empty plug point. Same is the case in buses and trains. Some 3-4 years back, people used to fight for the window seats and lower berths. Now, the first thing being checked, especially when traveling alone,(even before the reservation chart. :P) after boarding a train is where the charging point is.

Why exactly are we concerned about the battery charge in the mobile phones? The most common argument would be to have some life in the mobile, so that it can be used in case of any emergency. True, it is. But one another reason could be, we don't know how to pass the time without the nonsenses in the phone, when traveling alone.

It is becoming pretty rare to find people standing near the door of train compartments or look outside from the windows and enjoy the setting sun in the West with a cool breeze hitting them. We find people near the doors/windows mostly when there is a charging point. We are forgetting the beauty of the green paddy fields and hillocks racing past us in the opposite direction as mostly we would be busy fighting a war with our clan, crushing the candies or checking the WhatsApp pics of your friend's ex, when we have a phone with charge in our hand. I felt very sad to see people checking their mobile app to find in which station their train was, rather than taking a peek outside and get it from the numerous illuminated boards.

Good that we have embraced technology but sad that we are missing the little joys in our travel.

The Festivities

Festivals are celebrated in almost all parts of our country in one way or the other. What real purpose is served by this? Can we invoke Gods by conducting festivals in a grand manner? Will the Gods shower extra blessings on us by celebrating temple festivals? None can give a concrete answer to these queries. But one thing is sure that by participating in these celebrations we enjoy some pleasure.In this world, now turned to be a mechanical one, we get some space to breath fresh air, an opportunity to hide our tears and get some solace from the troubles and tribulations for a while. Hence a relief from all our worries for a short period. One of my friends use to say that by attending the village festival a year makes him mentally happy to face any worries he may have to encounter for the rest of the year, ie he will be ready to encounter any difficulty in the next phase of that year.

True! Our forefathers have planned such festivals in such a manner that they cleanse us of all inhibitions in life even if for a short period. I use to participate in almost all festivals in our village. Sometimes I was dumbfounded by the gaiety with which they are celebrated. All my friends, with exceptions, used to be part of the celebrations since we treat this as an occasion to meet together. It is a blessing for me that I can meet some of my old friends after a lapse of  some thirty to forty years. The joy and happiness we enjoy on these occasions cannot be put in words, but something to be felt.

So also is the case with our relatives. In the modern age, members of the same family are scattered with each one getting settled at their own place of work or business and hardly gets time to see or contact the other ones. Each one wishes to be by the side of  his/her dear ones atleast  once or twice a year and hence they prefer the festival times to plan their journey so that he/she will be able to meet all his/her relations at a time and spend a few days with them duly enjoying the thrill and happiness of the childhood.  Of course childhood is the sweetest days in everybody's life.

In olden days, marriages were conducted in the family house itself. The family members as well as their relatives used to gather for the marriage well in advance. The get-together starts almost a week in advance and lasts for about a week past the celebrations. It was like a festival althrough these days in the family. More over, the villagers used to assemble the previous day of marriage to assist the family in decorating the Pandal and in the preparations of feast. The villagers deemed the same as their privilege to do all these.

 The charm of such marriages have gone now-a-days. Almost all families prefer to celebrate marriages in their families in Marriage Halls and most of the marriages are conducted by Event Managers. There will not be any part for any family member, relative or villagers to play. Only thing they have to do is to reach the marriage hall well in time for the muhurtham, witness the function, have food and return.

Thus has gone the charm and pleasure of assembling together, have fun and be happy for a couple of days on this account. Likewise many festivals have lost the charm and merely became a formality, not to say about the pleasure and satisfaction we derived from them.