Of truckload and weighing options by Puneet Rajhans

Of truckload and weighing options

As i proceed towards Alagarkovil, which is 25 kms away from my place of stay, Jos Alukkas hoadings can be spotted at all odd places. There are hoardings of Yodhas and Yogis of political and spiritual spheres looking for a long line of debate with the masses whom they endear and the latter who endure them for a period never spelled out. They have sought their participation in rallies and demonstrations all across the cities and towns with the intent to keep open the line of communication with them lest they could be charged with acts of treason, treachery and travesty of truth.

Not to be missed out in the flood of hoardings are numerous declarations of colleges, hotels and jewellery behemoths warning you of the need to part with your resources now failing which you could well be drained of all the resources in future as the discount tamed anxieties would be hard to trace. While they want to pole vault their imprints on the landscape of the cities they are traced to, their ulterior motive to stay connected is to strip the prowess of the man earning or yet to earn given his habitual nature to turn a saint every 15 forbidden days of a month. That could well be an entire month or years together if demands of the family don't pole vault him to step out for the freedom of faith and expression he seeks.

As these hoardings and histrionics i find hard to resist, i am repeatedly told to share with an audience that has the potential to turn into preferably less than one the trials and tribulations i endured on my way from Kanniyakumari. The man at the wheels who who could dispense with tickets with as much ease as he could take the untold quantum of cell delivered threats/suggestions was weighing his options as far as my chances of embarking and disembarking were concerned. He had the temerity to take the vehicle past the municipality ground of Nagercoil, perhaps to relive the moment when this very vehicle had taken truckload of men, women and babes to the DMK rally when others had refused to do so.

The municipality ground looked to have withstood the fury of the rallyists when the water tank looked as intact as the gates in place five days post mayhem. There was a road that ran next to the ground and i was told that for two days prior to the rally and two days later it was out of bounds for the masses. the Tamil girl i spotted next to a bus stand and the smile on her faced suggested the sigh of relief she was imbued with as men and machine could return to the roads and places nearby. But this peace of mind and normalcy wasn't meant for me as the conductor threw his weight by insisting on getting the weight of my luggage measured. He was yet to ripped apart from the Nagercoil hangover where men, women and babes boarded with no luggage in hand. Precisely for this very reason at bus stands he meant to shut the doors on those who had a luggage to carry on. If you want to carry on with your luggage, his pure insistence on down payment (hafta vasool)was met with stiff resistance and queries on receipt to be handed out. THe receipt which he could barely part with finally led to a retaliation of sorts when he blocked my front view. With nothing more than a side view this was the lowest low i could hit in my life.

At different bus stops, he insisted the halts would be beyond imagination as he would be doing the rounds of places to get the crowd. Not in the frame of imagination to date, he visited the neaby colleges, hospital, nursing homes to enlist the support of those who intended to travel with no luggage. THe 75 per cent discount and free return journey couldn't even bring him close to his truckload desire.

THe long series of cell talks that he engaged in prior to the approaching bus stands where he would plead and prod the authorities in and around the areas to get him the public support on the bus led some to suggest that he should do the rounds of the pay and use toilets at bus terminals as that is the place where the folks untraceable for months could be traced. For the duration he stayed inside and the men he tried to trace led to a series of revolts as he was told to pay for the loos he attended. Finally he settled at the wheels and resigned to the fate of a solitary stray guy straying enough to board the bus at one place only to disembark at the next one to realise his luggage was lying unattended at the point of origination. It was over seven hrs to this longer-than-imagined commute and this time the man was on a long distance call. A truckload of people from Kyrgyzstan would be visiting the seas of Tamil Nadu and Kerala he was told.

THe cell delivered moments and navigation of the bus were the twin objectives he was tasked with followed by jotting down the details. Of the men,women and worn out babes with the foreseeable ailments they could suffer from to the weight of the pieces they would bring along. Details to clinical proportion, he agreed to ferry them from the State of Kerala to the State of Karnataka with a stopover in Tamil Nadu on the condition that the baggage would be boarded in a different vehicle. Sensing he had won a battle bigger than Nagercoil and a hangover that could last beyond this year, he offered to the decreasing by the hour janata on the bus the need to ferry them and their members a free ride to places of their choice in the States Of Kerala and Karnataka. He even propositioned them the free meals provided none carried any luggage.

Well, the likes of me were clearly out of his frame and sight and i was endowed with the task of locating his half brother whom he lost in the celebrations of the Thanjavur Temple 30 years ago. The awesome luggage that the brothers carried to the awesome celebrations made them lose sight of the awesome ladies that were in attendance. A celebrations that saw the two brothers drift apart under the growing weightage of luggage they lumbered with.

As the millennium cebrations are underway this time the chances of the two meeting are less than remote. AS powers-that-be including Karuna have already given the temple celebrations a miss given the luggage they have to strut around from places as distant as Chennai, Trichy, Kanniyakumari and Thiruvanthapuram, the word is out that others may too give the feat a miss as luggage is too hard to bear. But for me the chance to locate the lost brother could well materialse if i pace up and down the States of Kerala and Karnataka with the noble belief that there could be lurking another truckload trendsetter who has a distaste for luggage and a clear fetish for letter K.