Wednesday 11 July 2012

7.42 Nerul Local and other musings


7.42 Nerul Local and other musings

Wednesday, September 08, 2004

7.42 Nerul Local and other musings

Sleep was eluding her and the alarm on the alarm clock had’nt yet gone off …It was probably 4.30 in the morning. She realised it was a bank holiday . It was a pleasant revelation . That meant her alarm would ring as usual at 5.30 … but she did not have to get up . On other days it was not so … The maximum was a ten minute snooze .. that she could allow herself… anything more and she would miss the 7.42 local.

She would make the b’fast , cook the lunch and the dinner, pack up the lunch boxes, wake up Rahul , bathe him, (he now says he has grown up and insists on taking his bath himself.) , get him ready and leave him at Rajni ben’s crèche that she runs from her flat in the next building. She should not forget to leave the packed lunch box in the husband’s office bag and wake him up before rushing off to catch the 7.42 Local. He is so forgetful you see.


The ladies compartment (the middle one ) on the 7.42 local transports her to a different world. It is here that she would catch up with her train friends.
They have been friends for about seven years now .
Seven years since she has been boarding this train.
Seven years since she and her husband brought this flat in the suburb with loans with just 4% interest from their respective offices. All her friends live in the same suburb and board the same ladies compartment (middle one) on the 7.42 local.

She has never visited them at their homes and neither have they visited hers.
Their families have’nt met either.
For Sundays are the days to spend at home.
The one's who come visiting are unwanted relatives or husband's friends.
Considerate friends , especially train friends , know better than to come visiting on Sundays or bank holidays.
And then a one hour fifteen minute journey to work, every working day was enough time to catch up on the daily happenings in each others lives. Coming to think of it , they all spent more quality time with each other , than they did with their families.

Daisy’s son is getting his SSC results today. She has been so tensed since yesterday .

Lakshmi is on leave . Her mom-in-law has gone to kerala to attend a wedding and her 11 month old daughter would’nt remain in a day –care.

Today is Sheela’s birthday. She would board at the next station - Sanpada. The train stops at Sanpada and Sheela gets in .
Sheela is wearing a blue saree with matching earrings.
A chorus bursts out singing loudly , ‘Happy birthday to you ‘… Sheela covers her mouth and pretends to be a little embarrassed but you could not miss the happiness replacing the melancholy on her face. You could notice there are some ‘nearly dried’ tears drops beneath Sheela’s eyes .

No…don’t confuse them with the tears that come , when you are overwhelmed or are taken in by a pleasant surprise. Something like when an athlete realises she has won a gold medal.

For one... Sheela is not surprised . 

Sheela has been wished like this on her birthday for the last 4-5 years . Her eyes are red and are swollen. Looks like she has been crying all night. A fresh scar has made its appearance near the cheek bone. Knowing Sheela , it would not be long , not even until the Vashi bridge and we would hear her narrate the history of the origins of that latest scar on her face . Once she has offloaded , she would be back with her wisecracks and thunderous laughter.
Right now she pulls out the choclate cake that she has baked and has got for all of us.
Sheela baked a choclate cake last year too . It is Sheela’s core competence and it tastes yummy .

Sadhana was pregnant last year and was battling out with her morning sickness and sweet cravings. Sadhana had loved the choclate cake that Sheela had got last year and they all donated a little extra for her from their share for the mother-to-be . Sadhana's absence was felt.
Sheela got enquiring about Sadhana.

Sadhana has just got back to work after her maternity leave. She has had a baby boy . Sadhana gets very late these days so they do not get to see Sadhana on the 7.42.

Sadhana works in the same office as her. She met her yesterday.

In the afternoon She had gone to the toilet. The toilet doors were locked, apparently being used by someone for a long time. The wait was getting unbearable and she could not hold herself . It has been like that since she was pregnant with Rahul. She expected it to be OK after the delivery , but the c-sec made it worse instead .

She knocked again. After a while , Sadhana came out with a pouch in her hand. Lifted up the pouch and said ‘Such are the joys of motherhood ’ and sighed … could see the wet patches on her kurta which Sadhana was covering with her Dupatta.

Unlike Sadhana , She was glad she got a 6 month LWP after her ML . By the time she rejoined office , Rahul was weaned and she had her mom-in-law at home to look after Rahul. All that she missed out was her promotion. And that’s the least a working woman can sacrifice for her child, she consoled herself. She had her job atleast . 
Seema resigned her job after the delivery. Seema's mom-in-law conveyed in no uncertain terms that every mother ought to look after her own children. It would have been awkward to put the baby in the creche when your Mom-in-law was living with you. So she resigned her job and is now a full time mom. They gave her a farewell party on the 7.42 local. They got puran poli and maharashtrian style bhindi ki bhaji to party on the train because that was her favorite.
The other day she boarded the 7.42 with her little daughter to tell them all something. She was expecting the second one. Her face was glowing and she had put on a little weight. But the relief and happiness on her face was not be missed. 'Good decision - you took -right in the beginning ' said Daisy, who was battling with the teenage tantrums of her thirteen year old.
These days it is different. Lot of competition from these foreign companies. Low margins, high costs, cost cutting and all sort of things… They are asking women on LWP to resign.

So Sadhana had to join back after 2.5 months of delivery .
The Boss says , ‘when these girls start out they are so efficient, then comes marriage leave, maternity leave , LWP , sick mom-in law , sick children and then they begin to leave office at 5.45 p.m . Too many of these f****ing NPAs… ‘

In the reception sofa , some young pretty girls are waiting for interviews . Lot of recruitment these days sigh’s boss’s secretary . 

******************

She did not get her promotion the year after Rahul’s delivery …and then the following year. Despite the fact that she worked a lot of overtime that year.
That was when her mom-in-law went back and Amma came down to take care of Rahul . She could now afford to stay late in office and was determined to catch up that year.

Everything looked OK and then came Rahul’s malaria. His RBC count dropped to dangerous levels and he had to be hospitalized . It broke her heart to leave him alone. Moreover Amma was suffering from arthritis, there was only so much she could do.
The Husband had his clients coming down from the US. 
*************
She is glad today is a bank holiday. The fridge needs to be cleaned, the showcase needs to be dusted, Rahul’s tricycle which he no longer uses needs to be dumped in the attic and the lime needs to be pickled . She bought 25 for Rs. 5 yesterday from the girl who sells them in the train. They were juicy big ones. Good bargain she had thought to herself .

So much for a bank holiday . What is the use lying on the bed .. when sleep would elude you … there is so much work to catch up … mmm … she was tired but could not sleep …She felt she was getting older…

When she was young … and that was not very long ago … she would catch up on her Sunday afternoon naps … what bliss they were … even Karen Lurel’s Liril bath in a waterfall cannot match up the freshness that comes after a Sunday afternoon nap.

Sunday afternoon naps were her favourite. When a company that came interviewing on campus asked her what her hobbies were… she really did not have one that she could tell them … she said she had none …They pressed on , rephrased the question and asked her what she was passionate about … and she said it was the Sunday afternoon naps … God knows what they saw in her but she got the job.

Sundays were special . She would sleep soon after a sumptuous lunch, and get up by around 4.00 in the afternoon. Switch on the radio where Latha Mangeshkar would be crooning away melodies at the request of the famous couple from Jhumritalaiya . She would lazily get up to make herself a cup of tea with an extra dash of crushed ginger in it . ‘Fauji Bhaiyon ke liye’ … a dusky voice on All India radio would announce…
*************
Sleep still eluded her… it was 7.30 a.m… what is the use of day dreaming when there is so much ‘productive’ work to be done … she thought and finally got up.

She walked up to the hall… the show case was cluttered… too many things .

Atleast a dozen versions of lord Krishna and ganapathy idols which were received as wedding gifts from nameless friends, relatives and acquaintances fought for space with three sets of dinner sets . People need to get creative when giving wedding gifts she thought to herself.

The music system that her brother had gifted for the wedding had an inch of dust over it.
No one had the time for music now. Rahul was busy with the cartoon network and all their waking time was taken up by the noise from the Television.

The cassette stand was no different. The Hariprasad chaurasia, the M S Subbalakshmi and the Jagjit singh ‘s that she had so passionately collected were now gathering dust.

Just seven years and so much of clutter …they weren’t meant to be that way .
They were all well meaning investments , purchases and gifts.

Somewhere the pace of life caught up with her and she could never enjoy the purpose for which they were acquired.

Take the ‘la-opala’ tea set… it must have cost Amma a fortune to buy that seven years back for the wedding. But then it looked an ‘expensive and elegant’ piece to keep for ‘seer varisai’ … ( loosely translated for non –tamil speaking readers … Seer –Varisai ‘a display of house hold items that are given in dowry by parents to their daughter during marriage… )

The only time they used it was when her sis –in –law came down from the US on a trip to India. That was when her husband accidentally broke one of the cups. That was six years back. Sometime after the first wedding anniversary.

She noticed that the blue and white crockery started looking a little pale in colour… do crockery sets age with time… like relationships… she was’nt sure.

She took up the three legged stool and looked up the attic. The attic was full. She needed to make space for the tricycle.

When they had just moved in to the house ( thanks to the house loan, she had to continue to keep her job to meet up the EMI payments) the attic was almost empty. In the initial days they stocked up the card board boxes and thermocol remains of the Samsung television, kenstar microwave, LG Refrigerator and numerous other appliances that they purchased with their home appliances loan that the office rolled out generously to both of them. Year after year , the appliances increased.
The card board boxes increased and took up attic space. Then there were the toys, the baby gifts , the cradle, and now the tricycle … god knows what more …

Rahul’s baby socks fell out of a box of old clothes from the attic… no she could’nt throw them away…the memories were precious.

When she was expecting, Daisy taught her knitting and all she managed was a pair of pink socks ( pink was meant for the baby girl that she was hoping for) and a sweater during her daily commute on the 7.42.

Can’t throw them away… sentimental values…would keep it for Rahul’s daughter she thought … and tucked them in.

They had decided not to have another child.
Rahul was taking up enough of her energy.
And then the promotion thing kept coming back … she thought she had reconciled long back . It did not hurt her as much until recently ..

She heard that Sujoy, her batch mate in campus who joined with her as her colleague was now two designations above her and posted at the Hong-kong office. Office grapevine had it that he was being transferred to Mumbai . She dreaded the day if ever when he would be her boss. Eight years ago, she was the college topper and he was such a loafer , that it was a miracle when he managed to graduate in the end .

She would resign her job if ever it came to that … she told herself. But then she knew she could not. The EMIs had to be payed and Rahul’s schooling was getting so expensive .

She could not think of applying elsewhere either. She would have to put in long working hours atleast initially and with Rajni ben’s day care closing by 7.30 p.m she would not be able to get back home so early from a new job. In all these years an unfathomable Inertia had engulfed her.

Moreover her CV had not been updated in all these years.

There was not much to update anyway except for the column on marital status and No. of children . And the change of maiden name of course .

She had retained her maiden name for a long time after marraige.

Did not feel like changing it . After all that was the identity that she grew up with. And it felt strange to call yourself Mrs . So and So when for a good part of your life you were Miss. So & so…

It was not until she decided to apply for her passport that it dawned on her that Marital status was an important piece of information for the President of India who had authorised the local issuing authority to issue her passport .

The form asked for Father’s name and Husband ‘s name ( strange they do not ask a man his wife’s name). She stuck to her Father’s name so that she would not have to go through the name change in every other place . the bank accounts, the e-mail ids, the office records, the Income tax returns , the driving licence, PAN card and what have you … But the passport issuing officer would not have anything of it and issued the passport on the hubby’s name . Thus she was now Mrs. So and So . 
****************

The dust made her sneeze. She got down from the three legged stool and came to the Hall sneezing . The husband had woken up . Apparently there was a cricket match today. The TV was blasting away the commercials before the match began.

She looked up the showcase to clear the clutter… it would be a good idea to start with the drawer by the time the sneezing subsides, she thought and sat down … the drawer was overflowing… the guarantee cards, the entry passes , the shopping receipts , the pink stubs of the tickets of the first movie that they saw together , the birthday cards, the ‘I am sorry’ cards that they had given each other ( Archies must have made a fortune in the days when they were courting ) … all came flooding down …

Pchh… said the irritated husband yawning on the sofa . You are blocking the TV view’ he shouted . He had missed to see who won the Toss. She moved away.,. sat down on the chair and took a long expressionless look at him and sighed …

****************
In every home, that has been set up for some years , there are always things in the attic, in the showcases and the drawers which have been of no use for years gone by and will be of no use for years to come. And yet they cannot be thrown away or put to use. They cause a lot of clutter, gather dust, could cause dust allergy and other ailments and over a period of time and can make you feel utterly claustrophobic…

By the way not all of them are necessarily stacked in the Attic, showcases , drawers or in the garage.

One such thing was lying here of front of her on the sofa fiddling around with the ...mmm…the unmentionable …

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P.S : Just to clarify … the unmentionable that she was mentioning was the remote control on the right hand …just in case you thought it was something else…




















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