PLAB- IV

"Maha Nadhi” a Kamal starrer was released for 1994 Pongal and that was the last movie, I had watched with all my family members, in Feb 1994, before my departure to London.

Ilayaraja was scintillating as ever and the movie I would opine is one of the bests Kamal’s starrer.  However, it was a tear breaker and watching it was an emotional roller coaster ride, expecting the unexpected.  What I still vividly recollect is that after watching the movie at Abirami in Purasaiwalkam, and after coming out and even whilst dining out in the nearby Saravana Bhavan, most of my family were silent and evidently gobsmacked.

Watching “Maha Nadhi,” possibly was not a good selection for my farewell stuff, however that’s how life plan and span out most our moments.

By this time, I had begun and finished most of my official trips to my relatives with Amma, collecting best wishes (!) from in and around Chennai and the abutting districts.  It took me almost a week before I could finish off a whirlwind tour visiting our relatives, who were mostly very welcoming and considerate.  I was mindful of the fact that I was the first in our family circle to visit abroad for higher studies for many generations or possibly the first one ever attempted to do the same until then.

Whilst blogging about these sojourns, I certainly would have to write about an interesting visit I had made with Hari to visit my Appa, at his working site.  The name of the company is “Eason & Hack Bridge” and these chaps were famous for making Electric Transformers on a higher note for many previous years and were famous since the time of British.

Appa was a manual labourer there possibly involved in the coiling work, when it came to the production of transformers and I still fondly recall his firm and steely hand grip, when we were young playing with him.  He slowly drifted off doing heavy work during his later years in the company, when he became a supervisor too; however was very hand on, literally.

He was also leading the labours Union during his later years and was wielding considerable clout in Tiruvotriyoor during this time.  He in fact was admired by the workers and also by the management!!

His profile was naturally very high but not to the scale we seen, which we never dreamt off, before visiting him at his work place in Feb 1994.  Well, on arrival we were taken to the Managing director, who after spending some time with us, and good wishes to spare, sent us around the factory with few escorts, to show us around!

The subsequent tour around the factory was so overwhelming and needless to say that, there were Hundreds of them, who individually took their time to shake our hands( Myself and Hari) and wished us both good bye and good luck and in the process eulogising Appa and his achievements in that factory and his years of hard work for them.  I was moved to tears and even now, whilst typing this paragraph, the emotional roller coaster, and ride we were involved, on that morning in Tiruvotriyoor.  I am sure Hari was gobsmacked too.  Such was the affection with which Appa was held by his workmates!!!

Needless to mention that I was the first child amongst his workmates to visit abroad to pursue higher studies during that time and in fact I was the only Medic amongst the lot in 1980’s.The manometer was rising and the panic button was for ever closer to me than before, as we began the final preparations for our journey westwards.

Suits, shirts, ties, briefs and other utilities started arriving and few food items too.  Tickets arrived too and I was literally ironing the flight tickets in my disbelief with my own hand, quite a few times, before I could get my sense back.  Few of my shopping were taken care of financially, aptly by my sister and brother, who were all getting nervous too along with their young children, Sibi three years and Imai four years old.

“D day” was selected to be 14^th of March; to leave by train to Delhi on Tamil Nadu Express and to take flight from Delhi on the 17^th early morning and to reach London by the afternoon.

Friends and families started arriving in Chennai to see us off and my relatives were arriving fast and thick at our home too to see me off.  I was curling next to Amma, every night during the previous few weeks, talking about life and the difficulties, and in the process, trying to derive some sort of mental strength from her.  I even mentioned about cancelling my plans, during one of those nights, with fear and anxiety, when she coolly brushed me off and said that I would be fine.

Life is never easy with a humble and a moderate back ground.  The emotional scars left in childhood are so deep that they tend to visit us, during our later years, very often and as often as they like.  I think the only exit here is to realise and achieve the mental strength from the journey and in the process achieve our full potential.

Excitement grew amongst my well wishers and me and the eventual day arrived, when we had to leave India and my beloved Chennai; which I presumed would be for a long spell,  however  I was not prepared to the slightest to what dawned on me over the following  Spring in London!