Kochappan and Mullaperiyar

The auto which was taking me to kochappan's house was taking a long time to reach there. I was impatient , as impatient as Shaun Pollock wanting to get his 400thwicket ; now if you don't like the cricket context, then I can site another example of Clinton wanting to meet Monica Lewnski.

After meeting him and finishing the How are yous, and the Iam fines etc we settled down to discuss happenings in the state and the country; in that order.

'' Lot of water has gone under the bridge since I left'' he said.

Let me be frank; I grappled with that statement for a while ;I did'nt get it. Then it struck me that he was alluding to the issue of release of water from the Mullaperiyar Dam to Tamilnadu.

'' Yes, but when released from the dam, the water flow was not under the bridge but over it . The roads got washed off.''

He explained to me with patience that the expression 'Water flow under the bridge' in that context meant the passage of time and the happenings in his absence and not water from the Mullaperiyar dam.

I listened with reverence.

I informed him about the incident of the pilot vehicle of the President's convoy taking an

unprecedented wrong turn at a junction causing anxiety to the security staff.

'' Its an unprecedented incident of the pilot car taking a wrong turn and not unprecedented

wrong turn'' . He corrected me.

I was beginning to bend in reverence to his knowledge. For fear of such an act breaking the flow of conversation, I postponed that act ; like the universities in Kerala postpone exams for fear of breaking the chain of strikes by college unions. A noble thought and and considerate action.

" Who was held responsible for this security lapse ? was he penalised?'' Kochapps was curious.

'' Yes. The concerned officer was suspended.''

'' It should be the ' officer concerned ' . and if he was 'concerned officer' this mistake would not have happened.'' He corrected me again.

I could'nt bear the weight of knowledge and reverence to him any longer. I bent.

The last time I bent like that was when I used to do exercise of bending and touching my feet. That may have been some Thirty years ago.

Lot of water has gone under the bridge since then !!!

menon ( aniyan )