Kochappan's silence

The train reached Bangalore Central 7.30.AM ; late by half an hour.
Kochappan may be have been waiting for my arrival at the main entrance for more than an hour. I hurried towards him.

when we were moving towards the exit we could see a huge gathering trying to force their way into the platform. On quieries we were told that they were protestors of the 'Cauvery water disputes tribunal's decision to allot more water to T nadu. The sleeping journalist in me woke up.I drew out my video camera and moved towards the protestors to get responses from them on the issue.

I asked my first question to a malayalee looking boy. He had come to B'lore to appear for a written test and an interview for admission to some management institute.

'' What are you doing here among them?'' I asked him.

''Protesting against the Cauvery issue''

'' How is Kerala connected and why are you doing it here in B'lore'' I was surprised !

'' You people don't read newspapers and are not bothered. Look at the people here. Even Kannadigas are concerened about Cauvery issue''

'' What are you talking ? my surprise grew in geometric proportion.

'' Saar, Cauvery the famous film and TV artist was blackmailed by another TV actress and it has put Cauvery in lot of mental agony. This had come in all Malayalam newspapers. These people are expressing their solidarity with her and as a Malayalee Iam joining them in the protest''.

I explained to him that these two Cauveries are different ;one is 'Kaveri' and the other one is 'Cauvery'. and also told him that the Kerala one is filmy. and the T' nadu one is river.

Having understood the difference between the two issues he repented losing an oppurtunity to go into 'strike' ; and went to the cafeteria.

'' Why are you not stopping the buses,autos ,etc from plying? that would have given you more publicity'' I asked the leader of 'Kannada Cheluvali ( vattal faction) who directed the episode.

'' Stopping the city buses, autos etc would have affected lot of old people , women and children ; by stopping trains only those who are leaving Bangalore will be affected'' He said.

I bent my head in reverence, for his love for the common man of Bangalore ; probably for the first time to somebody other than Kochappan and the Guru at Bangalore.

We went into the cafeteria to avoid the rush. There we met the Kaveri fan. He was bit let down; of losing an oppurtunity to join a protest.

I walked up to him and told him "If you can catch a train to kerala today I can suggest two hartals in which you can participate and make up the loss.''

''Please tell me sir'' He requested, pleaded,begged, etc, etc

'' At Changanassery a hartal has been declared by the trustees of The Siva Temple,in protest, against the temple elephant, running amock (because it got scared by noise of the crackers) during the festival procession yesterday.Timing is from 6.AM to 6.PM''

I stole a glance at Kochappan and continued. '' At Varkala near Trivandrum two youth died when their bike dashed against a tanker lorry. Earlier these boys did not stop the bike when they were waved to stop by the police for routine check.People blame the police and there is hartal for that from 6.AM for six hours.''

'' How was your test for admission'' Kochappan asked waiting for the crowd outside to disperse.

'' I lost number of days of preparation for the test because commitments to attend different hartals and bandh. But It was multiple choice answers and I did well.''

He wanted to know about some of the answers he wrote.One question he felt confused and answered wrong; the one on'Ten Commandments'-

Kochappan told him that Ten Commandments are not mutiple choices but an answer to one question.

He was very confident about the others. One example he gave to kochappan about his creativity in answering was on the expansion of the letters IBM. The ones he chose from the given options were the first and the last one.

Install Big Memories,

It's Better Manually.

International Business Machines.

Institute of Broken Marriages.

Inferior but marketable

''Those instances for hartal ; Are they true ?'' Kochappan asked me with concern.

''Yes. refer the Manorama news paper '' I affirmed .

A look of concern came to his face ; probably about 96% literacy level ; about God's own country.

The rest of our journey to our Guru's home at Jakkur was in silence.

menon ( aniyan )