jayantiblogshere

No landscape of small town India is complete without a local tea shop where one can taste and smell the pulse of the local town and its happenings as well as feel the ripples of national events throbbing through its veins. It has been more than an hour since Shaji’s tea boiler has been at work at his road side tea shop. A dimly lit tube light is at work since bright sunlight is still an hour away.    Freshly rinsed glass tumblers have been laid out on the counter.   In some time, slowly but steadily a stream of local customers would arrive at his tea shop for their morning cuppa. Copies of the local newspaper, fresh with yesterday’s regional news have just been delivered by the newspaper boy.   The boiler is steaming with water and the smell of boiled tea leaves is wafting across the road.   On the transparent glass jar, Shaji fills out freshly baked banana cake that look hard from the outside but are soft and fresh when you bite into th...

In the good old days when travelling by train was the norm and air travel was the privilege of the super rich, train travel was a thrilling adventure in itself.   Before you boarded a train, clutching your reserved ticket it was only natural to check on who your co- passengers would be, in the railway chart put up at the entrance to the coach.   Their name, surname, age and gender that would be printed on the chart, in English on one end of the coach and Hindi on the other, gave out pretty much a rough outline of your co-passenger’s lineage and other vital credentials. If there was any cause to worry, the Travel ticket examiner ,(TTE) always dressed in white shirt, black trousers and a jet black blazer unmindful of the weather conditions could always help you out. Sometimes for a little extra money.       Travel ticket Examiner (TTE) always came across as a stern looking man who could make or break your train journey. ...

A resplendent morning with a slightly overcast sky is pregnant with numerous possibilities.   It could be a bright sunny day, but it could possibly be a rainy day too.                           It was the year when the memories were still fresh of the fury and torment of the south west monsoons that had wreaked havoc along the Malabar coast. Life was slowly limping back to normalcy.  Aid agencies pumped up with donations from generous donors from the world over, volunteers wishing to serve on the ground and most importantly the proud people of Kerala, humbled by nature’s fury were putting their best efforts to return to near normalcy.   It was that time when the surviving victims were putting the memories behind and picking up the threads to move on with their lives.    The weathermen have now begun to be extra ca...