THE SILVER LINING
and
the dark cloud
during the last couple of months or so I was making frequent trips to trivandrum on the lookout for a plot of land to build a house. I used to catch a morning train that leaves ernakulam junction at 0550 hrs that reaches tvm by 1030 -1100 spend the day and then come back by an evening or even night train mostly and reach back some time in the morning hours of the next day.
If I start from where I am staying now at 0500 hrs I will be there just in time to hop into the train. One of those days there was a drizzle in the morning exactly in time for my trip to the station. I still chose to make the trip to the station on my bike rather than use the car for that way I could save some money , almost Rs.100/- or so and it is not a small sum for me. I was soaked by the time I reached the railway station and there were just less than five minutes for me to put the bike in the parking lot, pay for the charges and get into the train which was already standing ( dont you think it will be a better term to say the train is lying) on the platform.
I just made it into the train before it left and it was then that I realised I have forgotten to pick up my rain coat. As I was putting the vehicle in the parking lot I was told to move it a bit. And in the bargain the rain coat that I had on the seat had fallen off and in the hurry to get into the train I had forgotten to pick it up; the key was also on the bike.
I was regretting my decision to use the bike and not the car for the thing has become counter productive. The rain coat which I thought was gone costs far more than the paltry sum I would have saved by using the bike! All through that day in trivandrum I was on tender hooks and was wondering what to do in case the key was also found missing and decided to to call it a day and come back early just in case I could recover the rain coat and the bike key. And to my huge relief when I reached back the things were there.
The fact of the matter is that the average human being over here is not exactly a crook – and that is the silver lining. The black cloud in another happening will put the silver lining in real sharp contrast
the dark cloud
In the very same ernakulam junction railway station in the year 2004 my brief case disappeared in just a wink while I was trying to get into an auto to reach the kerala high court where I was to present a writ petition. Please refer para 15. d. i) of WP (c ) No.35016 of 2009 of the kerala high court for a detailed account.
Later I had collected it back from the office of the so called “special” branch of the police after the hearing – the aim has been achieved, the damage has already been done; the judge in deed had asked me during the hearing if I had my case files with me.
If at all my brief case was “lost and found”, how come it reached the “pakkichi” police when ( in those days) the traffic police had an out post at the very spot in side the station compound where the brief case went missing ?
It was a willful act of thieving as part of the “duty” of a member of the spy networks of the government. Such duties cannot be carried out by some one in uniform, for obvious reasons, and that is where the Indian “Pakkichi” Service comes in handy.
So it is not the common man who is the thief; it is some one else. And now you know who exactly is that “great” man!
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