Long delayed sentimental trip to Mahe materialized last week-II

The flight was delayed at Chennai airport by more than half an hour. I was worried about catching the connecting flight from Bangalore to Calicut by the same Kingfisher Group Airlines. Fortunately, the same flight by which I travelled and which was scheduled to go to Mangalore from Bangalore was redirected towards Calicut fortunately, because of the delay at Chennai airport. Passengers moving towards Calicut were asked to stay back and in less than forty minutes, it took off towards Calicut.

At the airport, People were there to receive and the car travel was pleasant. I engaged myself in a conversation with those two guys by reliving in the past and narrating so many incidents , telling them that the present Home minister of Kerala was my first batch Third Group student, an obedient and polite student really but firmly rooted in Marxist background. On the way we stopped for a while , and tasted the black lemon tea: I enjoyed myself the cool air of the soil; In a matter of two hours , dream was going to come true after a very very long interval- 38 long years. Around 8 Pm in the night, when the vehicle was crossing the road, towards Mahe I could not believe myself, how a sleepy village had drastically changed in such a dramatic fashion .Until we came near the church and some empty ground opposite to it where some meeting was going on, I was not very clear about the topography of the region I travelled thus far . From there it was just a question of nearly 100 meters and a turn to the right, my old Pre- Degree college was standing majestically in the same old state, now really old but converted into some other office purpose.

I asked them to stop the vehicle and got down.I can’t find words to express my emotive feelings stamping in my heart at that precious moment.It was more like falling on the lap of a girl whom you loved once, but the girl now had become an aged lady, but displaying the eternal beauty . I desired to enter the building but unfortunately the gates were locked. I went near the compound wall,touched the name board and folded my hands towards the Lord, sleeping deeply in heavens, amidst the host of galaxies. At long last, the ardent desire to touch the soil and thank the region -my first place of work was fulfilled. But this thrill, fun and academic adventure lasted until I narrated all those glorious past to my board members the very next day, while going round the Dental college, located in a pleasant environment, surrounded by forest like atmosphere.

Stay in the Star Hotel at Telicherry and its rich food were no substitutes for boys and girls whom I taught forty years ago and whose faces, I could not fully recognize now with the passage of time. If only I had come across some erstwhile Mahe students there by happy accident, I could have been more happy. But a week after I met one of my old Mahe students on Pondicherry beach, who is currently working as commissioner of taxes in Mahe. Unfortunately, even one of my Pondicherry students, who is currently working as principal in one of the higher secondary schools there was not there at that time as he had come back to Pondicherry on an official trip But, I had a good sleep after a warm bath and good food , had a morning walk next day , a very fruitful governing body, followed by simple lunch in the canteen - ordinary fish curry cooked with coconut- the one I had tasted forty years ago.

The only consolation during my stay was that one gentleman who joined along with me as Assistant Professor during in the first week of August 1970 and became the principal of the college later in his pre-retirement days , also happened to be a member of the Board. Together we recollected the past and gathered those moments of joy and happiness. The hosts were kind enough to arrange a trip to nearby Cannur and I tasted the pleasant air of the winter there.We didn’t have time to walk over the beautiful long stretch of beach. A young boy, who was brought up in Pondicherry and whose father I happened to know in Tagore Arts College was instrumental in making our trip possible ,as he drove the vehicle. While returning back in the evening near a road side tent like tea shop I tasted a special kind of rice dish, cooked in a sea shell and fried on the stove , called Kallumakkaya. Then it started raining heavily.We reached Telicherry Gokulam hotel before it became night.

While I give an account of my long dreamt Mahe trip I should specifically mention a small encounter with a Dog, while going for a morning walk and also the pleaseant feeling of mingling with some sixty children and school faculty , who were on a one day picnic to Cochin, flying for the first time in the same flight I was travelling, the next day. That will wait for an day for narration. Will that day come?