A tryst with Destiny with Unni

Something’s in life are worth sharing and if that happens to bring a smile on your face then its worth telling a million times so that others too can cherish it.

“Eda eee Shornur Station undalloo oru triangle poleya..... “Well these words create those eight muscles on my cheek to work and brighten my face with a smile that brings back those wonderful days back at NSS College wherein we had a wonderful time which will always linger in and around me for an eternity.

These words were uttered by the infamous Rakesh Unnikrishnan a.k.a our Unnikuttan. This incident which occurred way back during our fourth semester term is worth mentioning. To cut short a long story I will start form the originator of this incident who happens to be Mr.Suhas my friend from pre-degree who was studying at Kuttipuram MES which is almost 100 KM away from our college. Suhas had come over to palakkad to purchase a second hand bike for him. It was said that the quality of second hand bikes from Palakkad is excellent (which was proved wrong in due course). So we both went ahead and scouted the entire area near the Priyadarshini theatre and also some other areas and finally zeroed in on a Suzuki Shaolin a 5 speed silver coloured bike.
He doled out nearly 12K for that piece of junk and finally bought it. He also asked for my opinion and I also supported him which I consider one of the biggest blunders among the many that I had done during those days. Now starts the interesting part, since the prospectus of having a shining new bike (only the body was shining the machine was infact a devious piece of junk that ought to have been scrapped) was very inviting I requested him to lend me the bike for a week so that I could zip in and out of college with that junk and la voila!! He agreed to it, now I was very ecstatic and gladly took the junk and rode of in style to college to show off on this contraption. All was well for two days. I was very happy as this thing went fast and also made a lot of noise in campus which made heads turn, now one fine day it started showing symptoms such as the gear wont fall into place, the engine would stall, etc etc. after consulting with the mechanic he showed me the dismantled engine, and my gosh it was a real sight, the piston was full of scratches as if it were tampered with and the gear teeth’s were either missing or broken also some of the screws were missing and the list went on and on. He said an overhauling procedure would make it recover from the present condition and that would cost at least 5K.

Those words felt like thunder bolts from clear sky, it was like “veeliyil kadukunnu paambine kazhuthil itta poole oru feeling”. I was wondering how I will return the junk to suhas without repairing and from where I will manage so much money I was in a dilemma. During those days to smoke a filter itself was sometimes an ordeal as we had to go from room to room in hostel “thendi thendi nadanaaal 3 rs oppichu paathu peeru koodi randu filter share cheeyum” and the expert at this was Vivek

The very sight of him would make all hide coz he was an expert in picha thendal…. Well I cant resist a smile when I visualize those days when he would roam around, his head would first pop into a room and then a smile then, “dai oru 50 paise undo please” well that was what would happen in each room and finally we all wuld run to Manjula to have that filter……. Hmmmm cool.
Now coming back to our story as mentioned I had to get rid of this junk also I wanted it to be in a better condition when I returned it, so I told the mechanic “onnu ooopichu vechal maathi athikam nanakenda” and he did exactly that for almost 2K. I had to utilize my mess bill for this. Never did I have an inkling of an idea that this was again going to create a big gaping hole in my pocket. This money was supposed to pay of my debts at Canteen, Xanadu, Milli, Canal Kaada….. Hmm paatu undayirunnu ivide okke. How I managed to repay this is another story which will come later.
Again nammude kaatheyilekku thirichu vaaram, I called up Suhas and told him I am coming to his college to return his bike also I told him about the condition of his bike, as I expected he took it lightly, the usual Suhas.
It was in April 2002 I presume on a fine sunny day I prepared myself to go to kuttipuram on that junk, now when I ponder over it there is no doubt in my mind that it was actually a big risk riding on that machine for 100 KM. The next obvious question was who will be my pillion rider and where will I get money to reach there. The money part was solved quickly I went to meet Litty at Ladies hostel and borrowed 500 rs from her (which I still owe). Now the other issue was of my pillion rider, hmm no one was ready to come with me coz of the condition of the bike and also bcoz of the reason that classes were going on. I went to Xanadu in the morning to stock myself with cigarettes for my trip I decided that “ottekyu anegilum njam poovum”. When I reached there I saw Unnikuttan smoking his filter and doings his usual pushing’s. Well he was just out of bed and in shorts (I think he had not even brushed!!!!). I requested him to accompany me to kuttipuram, “da nammuke poovam kuttipuram vaare, oru beer vaangi tharam pinne MES cherrakukale kanam” that’s all I said! Till today I argue with myself what made him come beer or MES cherrakukal, well maybe friendship. So now all was settled we filled up our tanks and set out to our destinations. “ponna vazhi ellam unnikuutante pushings kaathakalum okke kettu njanum avan adichu minnichu vittu.”

Occasionally we came across potholes on our route and since we were going at almost 70 to 80 km/hr and the brakes were practically non existent we would ride through these pot holes. I would here a cry from behind ayyooooo kuzhi kuzhi , that was unni flying up and then landing back and yelling at me consistently. Finally we reached Kuttipuram and as promised we met Suhas, then followed him in his turf and I and Unni were quite happy to see all the colours of his college. We then went back to his bungalow which was nestled next to the picturesque Bharathapuzha. We had a couple of beers which was very soothing and we ended up a bit tipsy. Finally we said bye to Suhas and asked him the way back to palakad. He said that bus was available in plenty. At that point Unni spoke and said that train is more economical” eda nammuku kala vandi keram” since he was more experienced in train travel I kept quite. He then took over and asked Suhas to drop us at Kuttipuram station which he did.

We were at the station and unni got into action, he disappeared somewhere and came back smiling “ ellam solve aaayi , eee unni vicharichal ellam vallare puutu poole nadakum, nammal ippol oru trainil kaayiri shornuril arangum pinne avidduunu 9.40 innu oru last train undu palakkadilekke athu aaanu jammu tawi express aa train oru 10.30 aavumbelekkum palakkad ethum. Avidunnu pinne oru beerum, thattu dosayum and finally auto and back to college.” I was very impressed with his idea and since it was a ticket less travel we would save a lot of money.

Then as discussed the train arrived at kuttipuram we boarded the general compartment and we said bye to Suhas and started our journey back to Palakkad via shornur. Whilst traveling sitting on the footboard we were zipping past some very impressive landscape with big trees and rivers and also some big bridges parallel to our track. Unni always has many stories under his belt about every thing and I was immersed in his talks. Time flew by and we reached shornur by 9 P.M.

Shornur being a Major junction has many platforms and I was skeptical as to which platform was the correct one to board our train. Here again Unni impressed me with his gyan of the Indian railways. He told the direction of travel of our train and also the bogie which we have to board etc. I was happy that he was there! We killed time till 9.40. Finally the train arrived on time without much hindrance we boarded the general compartment and once again we sat on the footboard. Since it was almost 10 pm and we had a gulped a couple of beers the effect was evident and Unni said he wanted to drowse off and asked me to wake him when the train reached ottapalam. I agreed and he slept on my shoulders. Now starts the interesting part while the train was rolling off I was perplexed to see the same scenery that we had seen while coming from kuttipuram, I got perturbed and woke unni up and told him “ da nammal kuttipurathinu vaarumbol kanda athe kazhichakal njan ippol kaanunu athe paalam, athe paadam nammude train reverse poovanooo!!!! To this he retorted back “ hmmmm mara manda ninakku enthu aaariyam shornur stationine kurichu , EEE SHORNUR STATION ORU TRIANGLE POLLE AANU, TRAININTE ENGINE IVIDUNNU AANU MAATUNATHU ATHU KONDU TRAIN KURACHU REVERSE POOYITTA ANNU ENGINE MAATI PINNE MUNBAKAM POOVA…..appol ellam manasilaayallo inji oru wills kathikyo tension aaayi!!!!” With this we happily smoked our cigarette and we both slept. After a couple of minutes I suddenly woke up to find the train slowing down and approaching a station. In the dim light of the summer night I saw something that made me laugh violently and wake up Unni, he asked groggily “entha da ottapalam ethiyo”. I started laughing hysterically and said that “ illyada kuttiparum ethi”. He got up and angrily and cursed me “entha m***e orrakathinu villichu vadi aakelle maaru njan nokkete”. He poked his head out and was faced with the stark reality that we had reached back to the point where we had started almost four hours ago!!!!!!!!!

I was rolling with uncontrollable laughter and he was cursing all the people and abusing me with all the words in Malayalam and after that in English and sometimes now I wonder that he might have used Arabic also……Suddenly one grand old man from the train said “Makkele irrangiko ithu mangalapuram poona traina”. That was the last straw I broke into tears due to uncontrollable laugh and also on seeing his face all the while the expression that he had used to describe shornur station still echoing in my mind.

Finally when all the confusion died out we both saw face to face and smiled and thought that someone had made us teach a lesson that from now on not to travel without tickets. That was the first and the last time I ever traveled without ticket.
We called up Suhas from a booth ( no movile with us those days only a few elite had them) and asked him to pick us from the station. Now for the final twist of that day, when we requested Suhas to pick us he got irritated and told that don’t make an April fool of him as it was April 1st and he hung up. That was the last straw we called him up again and asked him to come; this time luckily he came and took us back to his bungalow where we spent the night.

Finally the next morning we started off from kuttipuram in a bus to palakkad and reached by 11 am. The moment we reached college Unni ran off to class and stared to push these stories to girls with his usual aristocratic style of him on the desk and the gals surrounding him on all sides…… “Njan avanodu appale paranjatha eee Shornur enna station…….!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.