A visit to Sriperumbudur

I think it was one of my first work related travels after I took over my current profile as Head- Brand, Idea Cellular, Tamil Nadu. I was travelling to Vellore by road with a colleague of mine. We had just launched and I was going there to assess the market, initial reactions etc. I was sitting on the left had side and the car was zipping and suddenly I notice a rather tall and mighty Indian tricolour flutter away! Surprised...I turned back to wonder what the place was all about. Then I noticed a board Sriperumbudur...and all those memories...memories of 1991 flashed by in no time...

It was in the second week of May 1991, we appa, amma, my brother and myself were travelling from Kalaikunda (Kharagpur, West Bengal, India) to Chennai and down south on our annual summer vacations. I had just finished my 9th std and life was getting serious with the board exams in the coming year. I clearly and vividly remember a school teacher was travelling to Trichy (Tamil Nadu) to oversee the General Elections slated for later that month. As was customary we reached our Granny's (amma's mother), stayed for a few days and proceeded to one of amma's cousin's place on the 20th evening - a typical farmer's house overlooking the crops and in front was the dam and the mountains...quite scenic. And a good break from the urban life that we would lead through the year! 21th May was another day spent in roaming around, swimming in the well and having delicious home cooked food. A few minutes of chat and we went to sleep.

22nd May We were woken up by an eerie silence typical of farmlands, birds chirping, cattle grazing, water being sprayed in the courtyard. But what was different was the booming voice of the lady reading the news in Tamil on the All India Radio...breaking the news of Rajiv Gandhi's assasination in Sriperumbudur near Chennai!!! I couldn't believe it...so did the rest around. There was no TV so we were glued to the radio and were waiting for details. And there it was...a suicide bomber who blew herself and along with her what I and almost all of India thought was the only CEO of India we had! That was one of the saddest days of my life, was for appa too. I remember he didn't speak for hours. Soon the news spread and there was violence all around. Congress supporters and allies went on a rampage. It was 3 days before we stepped out..the whole civic system was still out of gear with no transport system etc. We walked for almost 12-15 kms to reach our granny's house and safety. Days that followed brought more news and clarity as to who were involved in the assassination.

Rajiv Gandhi a pilot who became the PM of India after Indira Gandhi's assasination brought in a breath of fresh air, a breath of hope and success in the 90s and the new millennium. With him was ushered in technology, seeds of growth and development were sown. For my generation he was the first PM we would associate with, he would stand for modern India! While he and Congress was through out of power in 1989, we were all hopeful that he would be back! But alas...not to be...

I went to Vellore and was back the same night. And almost forgot about Sriperumbudur until I travelled to Vellore again. And this time I was not to miss the landmark. I was armed with my camera too to capture some memorable pictures of the memorial. The security guard out there, working since the memorial brought me up to speed about the events of the horrific night to this day. Told me about the memorial and the significance of the nine towers around..each signifying a characteristic of the great leader and each interestingly had apparently a kalash with water from the nine great rivers! I spent some time capturing each of this pillar from various angles. I was a bit upset as the Indian tricolour was sober as I stepped in. It was over 30 mins and I wondered if it would flutter for me to capture it with the memorial in front...I waited anxiously and finally the magic did happen...slowly but surely the giant flag did flutter. happy after capturing the site I moved on to see a wall carved to depict the India dreamt of by Rajiv! A free, powerful and modern India! Few minutes later I left... with mixed emotions...Happy...sad...angry...irritated...sober...upset...

The India Map

While chatting with one of my friends I was suddenly reminded of this India map which was in our house during my childhood days.

I think I was probably in the the 2nd or 3rd grade. We were in Nagpur then. Appa had just become a sports coach- specialising in Handball. Appa bought a huge India map and we neatly pasted it on the back of the bedroom door. It had everything we would require for our studies - states, capitals, union territories, cities, regions, roads, rail routes, rivers & oceans, distances etc etc. Helped us in history, geography, civics and current affairs. Like its Google now, almost every query on India would lead me to the map. Especially on Sundays would spends hours trying to study it. At different times of the year the reason of interest would be different. During tests & exams it would be study related, sometime in March it would be the route our train will take to reach Chennai, Coimbatore and ultimately Udumalpet (a small town in Coimbatore district in Tamilnadu) etc etc. From the day I could remember appa would travel to places near and far...defence bases...army, navy and of course air force. Once the map was up, one day appa started marking all the routes he had taken till date as a part of his official and personal travel, using a red sketch pen. Over the next week or so, about 40-50% of the map had red lines going in various directions. Then on any new route he took was updated on the map with a lot of enthusiasm & urgency. Most of them would be an extension of the already travelled routes but some were also new ones.

One day I realised this huge map of India had red lines criss-crossing in all directions covering all cities where you had rail routes or roads to...big and small. That day I was happy and surprised. Happy as if a major task was achieved and surprised at the amount of travel appa had done within say a decade. Envious too...as I still have memories connected to some trips of his...sunrise at Darjeeling, an explosion at Vizag, sand dunes of Jaisalmer and the rock gardens of Chandigarh.

Within about 4 years of buying the map, all of a sudden it seemed useless. In 1988, appa was transferred to Kharagpur, in West Bengal. We packed our bags and moved leaving the map behind....