Continuing school memories - after a long time(Entry dated 04/24/2009)

Friends, this has been another of those long breaks that this blog is used to by now . But the good part is that I did not actually take a sabbatical from blogging altogether. All this time, I was trying to be as regular and disciplined as possible with my other blog, which is more current and I am free to write whatever I feel like. Not that someone has prohibited me from writing whatever I want to write in this blog as well, but since I decided to keep in a little autobiographical and in chronological order, I cannot jump guns and fast forward and rewind at will....So dear friends I am still stuck up in school and you have to bear with me for many more days and months before I can reminisce the more colourful college days and beyond....

We stayed in Khardah for around a year before we moved to Barrackpore, primarily to ensure that I can avoid the daily strenuous travel by train and concentrate more on studies :-) But before I start with my Barrackpore days, one small incident without which my memories of those days would be incomplete. I have already mentioned that Ma used to drop me to school everyday. I used to travel to Palta from Khardah with Ma, and baba used to travel from Khardah to Sealdah, and we actually used to travel in opposite directions, in trains that started around the same time. Everyday before I alighted the train, I used to get a hug and a kiss from baba. One day, due to some mismatch in train timings, me and ma had to board our train in a hurry before I could go through my aforementioned daily ritual. I was so upset by this that tears started flowing automatically and I kept crying till the entire journey was over. And to ma's embarrassment, she had to answer lot of curious co-passengers, that it was not because she has hit me that I was crying, but because i did not get my daily dose of love from my father

Interestingly, I remembered this episode while I was trying to compare me at 7 years to my 7-8 year old nieces. I was actually trying to brag aloud that I was much more braver than the kids these days who keep crying at the drop of a hat, and then I remembered this and all my pride vanished into thin air

Moving to Baarrackpore brought an end to my "daily passenger" status in local trains. I never again needed to become a daily passenger in any local train in Kolkata, though I occasionally travelled as required. I had many long memorable train journeys mostly to and from college later. I also had the privilege(?) to be a daily passenger on the most dreaded mumbai local trains. Though it was not a very pleasing experience, but it did me a lot of good. I did overcome the "fear" of travelling in Mumbai local trains for ever!!!