THE PRICE I PAID FOR THE SAURASHTRA BHAVAN PURI

The mention of Saurashtra Bhavan brings to my mind memories of an incident that happened during my IIT days. I had come home in connection with the demise of my father in 1972. After all the ceremonies were over I was to go back to Madras (for me it is still Madras and not Chennai) by the evening express train, which used to take 24 hrs. to Madras and reach the next day evening. I had got the booking for the train with great difficulty. The train was at 5.30 p.m. As it was quite normal in those days, to walk the distance of just 2 kms from my house in Palkulangara to the Central station, Thampanoor, I started from home by about 4.15 p.m with my younger brother and a cousin. I had only an airbag to carry. When we reached overbridge, it was only 4.30 p.m and there was still one hour left for the train to start. Just when we were wondering how to kill one hour I got this sudden urge to go to Saurashtra Bhavan and have puri. The other two agreed that nothing could be better to spend the time at hand. So we walked down to Saurashtra Bhavan and had few rounds of puri. One round consists of 4 puris and the accompaniments. Though Bala mentioned Rs.5 as the cost of one round I remember the time when it was less than a rupee per round.

It was 5.00 p.m when we got out of Saurashtra bhavan. We leisurely walked towards the station, crossing the foot overbridge in front of Sakthi theatre (now Kripa). When we were on the bridge we could see that a train was already on the main platform. Some green flags were being waved indicating that the train is about to start.

“Now this train has to move out and only then your train will come into the platform”, my brother observed.

(In those days there were only two platforms at Tvm central station and invariably all trains leaving Tvm started from platform No.1.)

So we continued to saunter towards the station chatting about this and that. We entered the station at about 5.15 p.m and could see that the train we had earlier seen lying on the first platform, was just chugging out. Almost concluding that the Madras express is going to be delayed, we enquired with a TTR at the entrance as to when the train is likely to start.

“ You mean the Tvm-Madras express?” Asked the TTR with a bewildered look on his face.

“Yes”, I said and added, “I am booked by that train”
“You see that train going?” Asked the TTR pointing at the train, which just left the platform.

All of us turned and could see the last vehicle of the leaving train, with the big letters LV and the red crossed lines in the distance slowly disappearing from our view as the train gained speed.

When we turned back to face the TTR, he said with a mocking smile on his face, “ That is the Madras express”

“But it was supposed to start only at 5.30 p.m”, I protested.

“No, from last Monday the timing has been changed to 5.00 p.m, didn’t you know?

“No.” I said in a choked voice.

Missing a train in those days was something quite serious and I knew I just couldn’t go back home and the thought of facing my elder brother who was in charge after my father’s demise made me shudder. No, there has to be some other way, I thought. My brother and cousin who knew the implications of my predicament were speechless. I went to the same TTR and sought his advice for a way out. He suggested that I cancel my ticket immediately in which case I would lose only 40% and book a ticket by the night passenger train to Madras which starts at 8.40 p.m and takes 36 hours to reach. I jumped at the solution and immediately went to the counter to cancel my ticket.

I could reach Madras only the third day morning. But the fact that I didn’t have to go back home and face my brother made me happy.

And that is how I had to pay a heavy price for my love for the Saurashtra Bhavan Puri.