Dave Meurer, "Daze of Our Wives"
Appa and amma celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on May 1st.
The previous night, we sat talking about old times.
Amma was just 19 when she got married.
Appa was working in the Indian Railways.
Amma had just seen a train, but never sat in one. Ajja had taken the family to Mangalore to see a circus ,Kamala Three Ring circus. Then he had taken them to the Railway Station to see the train!!
Appa and amma got married on May 1st'1959, and amma who h
ad till then only seen a train, had to travel all the way to Kharagpur!!Ajja sent Gopalamava and Ranichikkamma along as company. While in Kharagpur appa made them eat egg omelette, telling them it was dosa!! They ate it with great relish and came to know what it really was only after they finished eating.
On May 11th, they left for Madras from Kasaragod by Madras Mail. It seems in those days, when the pantry car had not yet come into existence, the train stopped at Kannur for ½ an hour. People went to the platform to eat or food was brought into the train in tiffin carriers and banana leaves.
The next day they reached Madras then they had to take the Madras Howrah Mail to Kharagpur and reached there on the 14th.
Indeed a very long journey for a person who had never been on a train before!!
Some time in 1965, appa and amma with anna and I decided to go to Darjeeling for a holiday.
They had to go in the train and then at one place they had to cross the river by steamer and then take the meter gauge train.
When the Ganga enters Bengal, it splits into two, the Hugli and the Padma.
Just before the breakup, a barrage was constructed- Farakka barrage. The train stopped to the south of the barrage and they had to cross the river by steamer.
They reached that place quite late in the evening.
In those days there were trunks and holdalls, no suitcases.
Appa went ahead with the coolie who was rushing. Amma followed with two of us. At one place, some people went to one side and others to another. Appa was nowhere to be seen so she followed with some ladies and climbed up the waiting steamer. To her dismay she saw appa nowhere. She immediately climbed down and saw appa coming towards them anxiously. He had gone to the correct steamer and after paying the coolie saw that his wife and children were nowhere to be seen.
That was a happy reunion.
The steamer on which amma had gone left soon , God knows where it was going.
Many,many incidents have happened along the way ,these fifty years, some sad some happy.
I read somewhere,
“ We see in life what we want to see.
If you look for the extraordinary in the ordinary,
You can see it.
Life is precious and extraordinary.
Put your attention on this fact and
little ordinary things will take on a
whole new meaning.”
