The flickering hope finally died
with the announcement that the flight to Kolkata had been cancelled due to
heavy rain and poor visibility. Further wait at the airport wouldn't have
improved matters. Reaching Delhi next day morning by some other means was no
cakewalk either. By then cellphones had not arrived. I could inform my boss,
Bimal Kishore Mishra, then Additional Development Commissioner, through the
landline phone only after reaching home.
After about fifteen minutes, I saw
Satakadi Hota, then Commissioner, Railway Coodination, wading through ankle
deep water at the portico of my house at Forest Park. He lived a few houses
away, on the same road. He had been asked by Bimal Babu to dump me, by hook or
by crook, on a Kolkakta bound train. Both of us trooped out of my house in the
dark while it was still raining. My wife just got the hint.
I saw many faces on the Railway
Platform I had seen a few hours ago, at the airport. Anyone in Railway uniform
was a beehive and people, like bees, were surrounding him and pleading.
Respected Satakadi Babu had had no difficulty in putting me into a four Berthed
AC 1st Class compartment and he left soon thereafter. He had to report the
development to Bimal Babu as he would be waiting for it. The Train was getting
ready to move when our young orderly peon hurried into the compartment escorted
by the coach attendant. I received a bottle of water and a tiffin carrier from
my wife. The other passengers were then pleading with the coach attendant if
they could get some eatables. After a futile effort, they agreed to a glass of
water-- the best the attendant could offer. I was on a lower berth. Hunger that
had died down defeated some hours ago resurfaced, with vigour. It had smelt
food. I was, however, discreet. I preferred to wait for some time. The train
started moving. It gathered speed and was nearing Mancheswar. By then, the
three co passengers, perhaps along with their hunger, had gone silent.
I couldn't have been more
insensitive. But I was without food for hours. An agonising wait for more than
three hours at the airport in the heavily raining evening only had made the
hunger much worse. I opened the tiffin boxes-- both of them. The cool
compartment was suddenly flooded with the aroma of methi paratha, aloo matar
curry and the tang of the mango & lemon pickles. I was keenly aware that
the tang could drive even a snoring hungry person to delirium. Fortunately, my
co passengers seemed to be of noble lineage and preferred to remain silent and
posed to be asleep though I suspect I saw in the dimmed blue light of the
compartment the lone lady turned her face towards the wall of her berth.The
aroma and the tang could have been quite tormenting for the empty stomach. I
was helpless; perhaps insensitive too.
I moved from Howrah to Dumdum and
waited for a flight. The direct flight to Delhi had left; I had to settle for a
hopping one that would make me fly to ancient places like Patna and Lucknow.
While waiting for the flight, I made good use of the available time by entering
the airport restaurant where the fish cutlets and finger chips had been my
favourites for years. I enjoyed my favourite snacks and leisurely wrote the
tour diary since my boarding the train last night on the paper napkins which I
found was not in short supply on my table. I made use of three of them.
Fortunately I was having a pen. I handed over the diary to a waiting staff of
the Utkal Bhavan who got it sent to Bimal Babu at the earliest opportunity. I
could have had doubts about it having reached him at all But Bimal Babu had
fondly kept it with him and showed it to me when I met him after my memorable
trip to Delhi. He smilingly asked me how I could be indiscreet enough to use
paper napkins to write matters on affairs of state and address it to his
superior. "So long as the writings were legible and courteous", I
said "the medium was not important". He agreed.
UC Agarwal, a senior member of the
IAS and of Odisha cadre was then the Secretary, Coordination in the Cabinet
Secretariat. He was still in Odisha Bhavan, waiting to move into a government
accommodation in Delhi. I met him and delivered the memorandum of the state
government prepared for the visit of the Prime Minister that was to take place
after a couple of days. We discussed on it briefly. My job was done. The trip
back was swift but lacked thrill.
******************
(19th May, 2015)
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