Recently I had the opportunity to attend the engagement ceremony of a friend. We started to the native place of my friend by train, a place named "Viruthachalam", in the state of Tamilnadu. On the scheduled day of departure, we (me, my friend, Anwesha, her husband, and couple of cousins of my friend) were supposed to start from Yeshvanthpur railway station.
We reached the railway station almost 30 mins before the scheduled departure of the train, and were waiting for the train to arrive.
"What is the train no?" I asked politely.
"The train no is 2255, and it is the Pondicherry Express", told Anwesha.
After some time, the flash screen of the platform started showing the train no "2255".
"Oh, finally the train is going to come", I exclaimed.
"But the train is not Pondicherry Express, its something else, its "Garib Rath" (The chariot of poor people)", exclaimed another friend.
"So this guy is taking us in a poor guy's train, very bad, insulting", couple of friend's started teasing the guy whose engagement is going to happen.
"Actually Garib Rath is a series of train started by our former railway minister Mr. Lalu Prasad Yadav, it does not necessarily mean that its a bad train or a train for poor people, its actually quite good" .. I was trying to explain in my as usual serious tone.
I was trying to read the complete text. "It is actually Puducherry Garib Rath Express, so its is not Pondicherry Express, its Puducherry Express".
"You stupid, Puducherry is same as Pondicherry", Anwesha told, exposing my lack of knowledge regarding the southern part of India. (I was thinking, I should be knowing this much at least, at least for the sake of knowledge)
Finally the train arrived and we all boarded the train. To our amazement the train was very clean and was in very good condition. Also since not many people were traveling, we were kind of at our own choice which seat to occupy.
After some chatting amongst each other and teasing my friend, we decided it is high time we should sleep. I preferred upper berth in which I always find some comfort.
... ... ... zz zz zz ... ... ...
"Hey guys, get up, we will be reaching in 15 mins or so", my friend was trying to wake us up.
We reluctantly woke up and to our amazement found that the always grayish cloudy sky of Bangalore is vanished and we are into the clear sky of country side of Tamilnadu, full of lush green and bright and sunny. I sat near the window for some time looking at the horizon admiring the beauty of the nature.
Finally we reached at our destination. "Viruthachalam", I was told by Anwesha that Poondicherry (famous for the Aashram of Shree ma and Shree Aurobinda) is only 2 hours traveling distance from there by train.
"Viruthachalam", was full of greenery and beautiful. It was surprising to see hardly any traffic after seeing a busy Bangalore everyday. The place was a bit warmer compared to Bangalore's cool cool weather, but still pretty pleasant.
My friend's father and his uncle weer waiting for us at the railway station to pickup. My friend's father welcomed me with warmth by telling the Tamil word "Vanakkam".
Me, being an utterly ignorant in Tamil, simply thought either as a word for someone else or is just something else, I ignored and started walking. Anwesha's husband was telling, "You did not react to the welcoming". I was ashamed to find out the details. Decided that it is high time I learn few basic Tamil words at least.
We had a pleasant journey from the railway station till the home of my friend. At his home, we found warm welcome from my friend's mom, aunt, sister and other relatives. I thought, "This is the beauty of Indian culture, where people show so much affection."
After we made ourselves comfortable, we had breakfast and tea. Breakfast was made up of 3-4 types of authentic Tamil breakfast cuisine and we all enjoyed it a lot (I am not describing more about breakfast owing to my lack of knowledge regarding the names and ingredients, nevertheless I enjoyed it immensely).
During conversation, my friend's father was explaining us the meaning of the name "Viruthachalam" and its origin etc. We started asking the same as question to my friend who arrived late for the conversation. And to our satisfaction, he was not able to explain the meaning or the origin properly, giving us an opportunity to tease him :)
After some leg pulling, we started watching movies in television ..
There are lot more interesting events occurred in the next 2 days, I am going to bring you in parts. I have to rush now for the preparation of a meeting.
Will keep all of you posted.
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