Kanyakumari calling....

shrenik

After travelling for nearly 32 hours on the Sabari Express, we finally reached Trivandrum. It was around 7:30 pm and the platform at the Trivandrum railway station was bustling with people. Railway porters (called 'coolies' in colloquial language) wearing shirts, with numbered badges tied around their vied with each other to pick up the luggage. They didn’t seem to care about my protests - "150 rupees only. 150 rupees," a man said and I gave in.

I said goodbye to Anand Babu and Siva Babu, the attendants who man the AC three tier coach. Prabhakaran who sells coffee in Trivandrum Express smiled and said - "wokkay wokkay Tata". I got hold of my bike, and walked up the stairs to the main gate of the railway station where we were greeted by people saying - "Saar Taxi, Saar Taxi - Super Taxi - Where are you going?"

I parked my bags on the floor and started talking to them. "Kanyakumari," I said with a firm tone. "Just 2250 ruppes only" came a reply from a guy with long hair and a French beard.

"Nice car, big car, safe driving. We pack your cycle here, we can; we can go,” he said. I tried negotiating for a better price. But we gave in and packed the cycles on top of his car and set out on our journey to Kanyakumari - the southern most tip of India.

Along the way, the driver introduced himself and told us stories about his life - about his previous jobs, about politics, actors, economic development in Kerala, about his son and his contentment with life. His name was Vinod and he liked to talk. He kept me awake with his chat and told us about the Western Ghats, farms, sightseeing in Kanyakumari and so on.

We finally reached Hotel Tamilnadu in Kanyakumari where we were about to stay for the night. He unloaded our bikes, took 2100 rupees, shook my hand and said goodbye - Tata.

We booked ourselves into Hotel Tamilnadu, drank water, ordered some food. The manager of Hotel Tamilnadu, Mr Kannan, came in, smiled sweetly and said: "The sun rises tomorrow at 6:05 am, you should see that".

It was an offer I could not have afforded to miss. I agreed to see the Sunrise and looked forward to it. I had dinner and called it a night - looking forward to a new day and a new sun rise - just a few hours before I begin my cycle ride along the length of India. I can not forget this day.

Shrenik Rao - Kanyakumari, June 4, 2008

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