Father of the faculty

Son (my grandson) was telling his mother, “I was dreaming that Neeru ( his friend ) was playing the flute and I was telling him to stop, then when I opened my eyes, I saw muthachan ( me the grandfather) was playing “.
Well, it was the first practice session of my new interest, the flute. A few years ago, I was trying my hand on violin, when the little grand nephew was asking his mother ” why is he scratching that”. I suspended operation violin and decided to wait for him to grow up.
Now here is this brat commenting on my music venture. This time I am not stopping or suspending my plans. Just you wait, kiddo.

We are at Mandi in HP, thought to time the trip with the school vacation. All these years we used to fly to Chandigarh and from there by road to Mandi, well…a little further, a place called Kammand 15 KM (about 45 minutes due to the terrain) where IIT college campus is located. The road trip from Chandigarh has reduced to 4 hours from six and half hours, thanks to 5 tunnels that has facilitated the smooth travel,earlier we would go up, down and around the hills with travel sickness.

This time we decided to travel by train from Bangalore to Chandigarh, 48 hours journey. Last time we travelled long distance was 30 or 40 years ago. When we mentioned we are traveling by train,, our well wishers screamed at us, “Why” they asked, “why not” I said, we have a luxury which many do not have and that’s time.

We boarded the train at around 3 o’clock after noon. The route was fascinating, it would cover 6 states. In the train, there was a lady with 2 small kids and she had her reservation on side upper berth. We were 2 senior citizens with lower berths. A worried husband who had come to see them off, looked at us and I asked him what’s the worry. He told his wife’s hopeless situation and I offered to exchange my seat with her, he can be befikar, I told the Sardar ji. The relief and joy on their face made my journey, a successful one before it began.

We were the only ones in our coupe travelling till the last station. There were people getting down at Pune and a new set of people would get in and travel to MP, another gets in and travel to Punjab, Haryana. South to west to central to north India is some variety to be engaged with, experienced the unity in diversity of different states languages, behaviour, food. Finally when we deboarded the train, it was like life journey, people coming and going in and out of each other’s lives.

A train journey, especially a 48 hours ( 2 days and 2 nights), is not recommended for people who has money and no time. One resistance I hear is about the toilets. Agreed . I would put the blame on the travelling public. Things are improving, there is regular maintenance happening, help is a call away, access to fairly good quality food.

For me, it was like my house on wheels. You can sleep, sit,eat, walk, pray, meditate, stand near the door ( take care not to stand on the edge) and take the cool blast of air on to your face and above all , your digital connection with the world intact. What else do you do at home, may be visit the mall

You reach the station to board the train 5 minutes before departure, you can travel, no security checks, no seat belts, at the end of the journey the only discomfort I felt was nothing to crib about. For the first time my spouse also did not have anything to, rather happy to be able to carry the favourites of my daughter and family with no weight watch required.

One more point, I can make another 4 trips ɓy train at the cost of one flight cost. However let me confess my inconsistency, we are returning by flight, next week. we should not make this long distance travel by train a habit. ,

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Spent two days in Chandigarh. flower garden, yes, rock garden ? Curious. We visited a sculpture garden which is called rock garden, spread over 40 acres. just walk around, up the steps, through  caves, wow it rocks.

This little girl, Anvita tells her father, that he is her stepfather. Why ? Because he makes her do lot of things. And Ammoomma ( granny) is the steppest.

Today, I attended a function at IIT Mandi, a welcome for the joiners. When I entered the hall and took a seat in the back row, one organiser came and told me, Sir the seat for the faculty  is in the front and I whispered in his ears, I am the father of  faculty. He turned and told the girl next to him in Hindi, Yeh faculty ka baap (father) hai and they ushered me to a seat in the front row.