Rs.140 salary
40 rupees to parents who stayed in a small town in southern tamil nadu
28 rupees towards lunch and dinner ( Saturday nights were tiffin item for those who fasted ..( a usual practice with s.indians and sunday lunch was with a sweet) !
15 rupees towards room rent ( shared by 3 people)
7 rupees towards coffee for the whole month ( i can hear many of us saying “that’s tooo much”!)
in the remaining 50 rupees, a hair cut, dhobi, and railway pass had to be taken care of. Till the 10th of the month, life was lavish with a morning coffee, something to eat during office lunch hours, and an evening tea. Post 10th, the coffee, lunch time khana and evening tea were given up. only food in the morning at the hostel and straight night dinner.Girls asked him what he would do if he was very hungry….He just smiled and said ‘Nothing, I will just drink a glass of water and keep quiet”. As a doting grandpa, father in law and dad (please make a note of the order of affection…i am sorry srini …)!!!!he just cant see someone fasting or not having a wholesome meal. And yes we understand u appa !!!
The train ticket to chennai from mumbai was 18 rupees.( Now its 16 rupees for a matunga return says my elder one..) they were awestruck when appa was describing one of his train journeys to native place. There were only two trains from mumbai, one a mail which took 32 hours and another one was an express train.
Once he had taken the mail which ran late and so he subsequently missed the connecting train to his hometown.(No tele-check in available ! ) Since it was late night, the station wore a deserted look and he had to ‘check in‘ in the platform with few more of them who too had missed. How we crib these days when our flight is delayed even by ten minutes..nodding of heads, shoulders shrugging ..a common gesture at the airport..He approached a nearby kiosk for a glass of milk and was fortunate to see the shutters come down in front of him.(No CCD,No Pizza Huts….and no take aways) Tired and hungry, his suitcase becomes his pillow for that night. Anticipating that he can have food in the nearby junction when he catches the train next morning, he finds there was an acute shortage of food as there were many trains which ran late the previous day. Finally he reaches home and the last straw was his mother pouring water over cooked rice after waiting for him for the whole day. He had the water removed and butter milk added to it…
Today, he can get an e-ticket, tele check-in and push his seat back in the aircraft and have a relaxed journey, but health does not co-operate with him to undertake long journeys…..
Thats the irony of life…….
anusrini 
Leave a comment