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Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Wafers and My Journey!

Dad was going to do the final move to Chennai. Mom and I had already moved three months ago and Balaji (my second brother) quit hostel and moved in with us...One week before my quarterly vacations began mom had left for Trichy and I was going to join her with Balaji on the afternoon of my last exam! Yay! I was going to miss Trichy for the rest of my life and I was eager to visit BHEL township one last time before I bid adieu...

Till two days before my trip everything was going smooth when something came up for Balaji and he could not go to Trichy...Which meant I could not...Disaster!!! I was in 7th standard for the love of God and my parents are not used to sending little kids alone on train...But me the Great was adamant that I could travel alone. I beg, cried, hunger strike, everything until it was agreed that I would take Vaigai Express from Chennai to Trichy alone. Balaji was paranoid and very scared and so were my parents...I was just 12 then and you know how safe India is for little kids but I knew nothing about any of that and I wondered why my parents were so scared!!!...Looking back I wonder how stupid I was and I can understand why I had to follow a set of rules laid down by Bal!

So I was made to sit in the train at a window seat. I promised Bal that I will never leave the seat till I see dad in Trichy. Also I could not pee, buy anything from the vendors, or eat anything from others. I could not talk to anyone and could not sleep either. After hearing all the orders for the hundredth time, I told my brother that I might get hungry and what should I do then...Bal told me to wait and after five minutes came back with a jumbo packet of wafers and a small bottle of water. He told me to eat it. I asked him why wafers and he replied because they were his favorite snack...I was mad because I was think more on the lines of Idli, Bonda, Bajji, even Bourbon Biscut but not Wafers...that too strawberry flavor! But the train started to leave and it was too late to get anything else for me...So I put up a silent protest and left for Trichy...

Those days it took about 7-8 hours to get to Trichy. It was the fastest train in South but still it took its time...It was close to eight in the night when I was nearing Trichy Junction and I was hungry, tired, sleepy, and to top it all off I had a fully loaded bladder. I was sick and tired of eating wafers as I had finished almost 75% of it and by this time I had also sworn never to eat them again in my life...When I saw my dad in the platform I got so excited that I might actually get to pee...

But the hygiene freak that my dad is he told me no peeing till we got home...Home was 13 miles away from the nearest bus stop which was about a 10 minute walk!!! Which simply meant that no peeing or food for another hour or more before we reached home...God only knows how I survived the nine plus hours of no peeing with little food (I do not put wafers under the food category!) and no sleep...I was just a little adamant girl of 12...

So I did make it all the way to Trichy from Chennai safe and sound, in one piece, with a busted bladder...And more importantly I was not kidnapped! So Good! But I remembered this incident when my friend picked up a packet of wafers at Taj Imports last week...I realized that I have come in contact with it very rarely till date after the train episode. Even if people offered it to me I would take one and nibble on it before I could politely dispose it off...

But I was eating one last week and it was not so bad afterall...But impressions formed about certain things during our childhood are so strong that we tend not to notice them until we look back and reflect on our past!

14 comments:

Trevor Penn said...

hehehehe... you can be funny you know... :P

Megha Bansal said...

one of the funniest stories abt "waffers" i hv heard!

next time u come home, i know what i'll serve! (evil...very evil)

Mukund said...

this was really funny :) i know it must have been really tough for u at that time....btw, i have a whole list of things which i have refused to eat for some obscure reason or other!

Mukund

Anonymous said...

ur writing skills never cease to impress me. nice tale! :)

Anu Russell said...

@Megha! Hehe...Smart Ass!!!

@Mukund! Me too...I don't eat a lot of things and I really do not remember most of the reasons!!!! I am sure there is some psyche behind all this!

@Anjaan! Thank you soooooo much!

Anonymous said...

Aint BHEL townships awesome?. I'm from BHEL Hyd, I have so many fond memories...it is just a diff world.

Intersting enough..I ate walnut wafers over the weekend..I never saw them in the US before.

I often visit your blog..keep posting.

Anu Russell said...

@Anon
Me loves BHEL Township...I lived in one for 11 years and my parents lived there for over 30 years and we all remember it with fond memories! They are the best in the Country...

I wish you could tell me who ANON is...it is funny when you are writing to someone who you don't know :(

Anonymous said...

hey..somethings got to be a mystery in life nah..thatz why i choose to remain anonymous

Trevor Penn said...

hehehehehehe... i can break this mystery for you... it'll cost you though... 'coz Anon will beat me up with a baseball club n i'll need protective gear...

Anu Russell said...

Anon! No probs! As long as your comments are here it is okay!

Seashells! lol! You are such a funny guy!!! I will wait for Anon to reveal her/himself!!! Np :) But you might need the protective gear anyway...because you might just get yourself into trouble!!!

Bishwanath Ghosh said...

Perhaps the best I've read of yours! I could visualise the travel travails of a 12 year old...

phantom363 said...

there were a lot of company towns in north america too, once upon a time. though the company did not own the housing, it heavily subsidized the townships with taxes, and public services (community centre, sports arena etc.)

upstate new york, along the hudson river, catskills mountains etc are full of these towns, which had a single smokestack factory. these factories have long gone, the towns present a eerie feeling with boarded up windows and abandoned households. i have been told that the same is happening to the old factory towns of the former ussr.

it is heartwarming to see the existence of 'live' factory townships still thriving in india. :)

Anu Russell said...

I hope such things never happen to the BHEL townships...

Asmyaham said...

there is an offer going on at Nilgiris for pickwick (that's moi fav brand)..interested? pineapple free with strawberry :))