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Best wishes from India,

-Krishna Kumar.S

Farewell to the legendary Poochi Venkat

6th September, 2009.

Legendary photographer "Poochi Venkat" was leaving to Nagpur for two years. I was personally depressed on hearing this news in August. Whenever I am on travel, or reading something or at work I use to update Poochi through SMS just like how I use to update other friends through SMS. Sometimes I really miss friends. 2009 has been a great year. But it has also been a year where all my best friends went far away from me. My college mate Sudhakar went to England, my school mate Praveen went to United States and "thambi" John went to Australia. And now Poochi is going to Nagpur. So whose next? I have heard of Poochi during 2003-2004 but I know Poochi since 2006 when I first met him at Golden Towers. I know him better only since July-2008. Roughly one year! Only one year. I felt as if I had known him for years.

My friend Vimal knew Poochi quite well and so he arranged for a farewell with the help of Gowri Sankar and Sridhar Joshi who were close friends of Poochi. Lunch at Matysa Restaurant near Chennai Egmore. That was the plan.

I boarded 23C and as usual I was sending SMS to all friends mentioning about my whereabouts something which I always do since May-2008. I got down at Egmore. Someone touched my shoulders-I looked back and found it was Nishant! He has travelled in the same bus, but I haven't realized! He was also one of the invitees. We went to Egmore and spent sometime there. We infact went to the Egmore Shed and had a look at the locomotives. Then we proceeded to Matysa Restaurant by walk. We found our ' Senior Associate Thala' Sriram Karthik waiting with Krishna Kumar Kannan(close friend of Poochi). Poochi arrived with Ashwin in a bike. I was wondering what to order. I am a big fan of Chat items. But unfortunately, there were none at that time. Vimal suggested Masala Dosai for me and I was quite content with it.

Poochi then personally requested my friends to take "special care" of me. He felt that I am 23 and I really needed the guidance of elders.

September 7th, 2009. I reached Chennai Central at around 1900hrs, though I started early. I met Vimal at platform 11. Vimal and myself walked upto the locomotive of Grand Trunk which was schedule to depart at 1915hrs from Platform 11. We spent sometime over there till GT Express departed. I wish one day I would visit my National capital!!!

We were soon joined by Suresh Babu-a railway employee who works with EMU's(local trains). I had Rs.300+ in my pocket! That could mean only onething. We are off to Ratna Cafe in Central to have tiffin. My favourite Chilli Parotta was available. But it wasn't that spicy. It had kurma too! Wonder why? Raita is enough, isn't it? Kurma wasn't tasty. No A/C. I was a bit dejected. No forks! Only plastic spoons. But anyway, something is better than nothing. I enjoyed my Chilli Parotta.

We walked down to Platform 1-starter. "Senior Associate Thala" Sriram Karthik was waiting along with "Quizer" MVL Manikantan. We were waiting till 2015hrs till Mangalore Mail departed.Then we walked all the way to Premium Car Parking lot to find Poochi Venkat who has arrived with his mother and aunt. Senior Loco Pilot Kasi Lingam, Goods Loco-Pilot Vel Murugan were there along with Poochi's friend from The Hindu. Kasi sir was taking Kovai Express the next day so he left early to take rest. We stood there talking for sometime. Poochi told Vimal and Subbu Raman that I am in a 'state of confusion' and I should be really taken care of! And there was a talk about why I board 29C often. MVL Mani believed that I used 29C to see my Girl Friend in Stella Mary's. I wonder how MVL can make such horrible imaginations?

Then we all walked into Central. TN Express was to depart from Platform 10. As we neared we saw the rake being shunted inside by a Tondairpet WDM-7. Poochi was to travel in Coach HA1. First Class A/C. We helped him out with his luggages. This was the first time I was actually entering into a First Class compartment. Trivia question! We came out of the coach and waited for sometime outside. After sometime, Aravind came directly from office. Ramki left at that time as he need to go to college the next day and was having his exams it seems.

Sridhar came last. Sridhar couldn't believe that Aravind was actually at MAS. And ofcourse you can guess what happenned next. Sridhar Joshi took this is a chance to pull Aravind's leg. It was really awesome to watch Sridhar Joshi and Aravind interacting.

The power was WAP-4#22218. And when the signal was given, I switched my camera to video mode and recorded the events as 2621 departed. We all left Chennai Central almost immediately. Vimal agreed to drop me at Saidapet in his bike. Near SIET we spotted a 23 C. We chased the bus and overtook it. We waited at Saidapet till 23 C came. I boarded it and got down at Krishna Sweets. I walked and reached my home. I reached home and called up Poochi and inquired how much distance has the train covered. He said that it was nearing Gummidipondi. So roughly 45kms from Chennai Central. I went to my computer and logged in to access some learning materials and then went to bed soon mentally prepared for the next day.

-Krishna Kumar.S

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-Krishna Kumar.S
(08/09/2009)

Villivakkam with Bharathu kutty

August 22nd, 2009.

It was a Saturday! It was a weekend. My house was a bit crowded with a lot of purohits and Madisar maami's. Yes! You guessed it right. My father was conducting a ceremony for my late grandfather(his father). It is done typically with madi acharam, agni, achadhai with food being cooked on coal and not modern day stoves etc. My house is very well known for its austerity, strictness and discipline. Andha maadhiri kudumbathula dhaan naan vandhu porandhein. If such festivals are conducted, Damien and myself are the people who are kindly requested to go out as we don't follow any madi or acharam. Though I say that I don't follow there is a good chance that tomorrow I would start following it. My inner heart says so as I am losing interest in quite a lot of things.

Introducing my friend Bharathwaj! IIT-big mandai just like my another friend Ramkarthik. Heights of conservativeness! Typical modern youth in 1980's lifestyle(got that?). He knows what is wrong and what is right! I have got loads to learn from him and his lifestyle! If my memory is right, I met him infront of T-72 Indian Army Tank at IIT-Madras on October, 2008. We decided to railfan at Villivakkam, although the original plan was to go to Kavaraipettai.

Villivakkam is one of my favourite stations where I watch trains fly past by. All trains leaving towards Bangalore, Coimbatore, Renigunta and Kerala bound trains take this route! It has got loads of freight action too. Earlier, we thought of going to Kavaraipettai, but later I decided Villivakkam should be the right place for Bharathu.

We were to meet at Kasturibai Nagar. Bharathu was coming from a marriage function directly. Bharathu inquired whether Damien has come? I said NO! We boarded an EMU and soon we started our journey towards Park Town. As usual, I am much more into non-rail topics. We were talking about present day madi, acharam, quota system in India and the standards of IIT.

Soon we reached Park Town. I insisted that subway should be used rather than crossing the road. We had directly purchased a ticket to Villivakkam with return so we walked straight to the MMC complex. As we were entering a Tiruvallur bound EMU left. So we need to wait for some 20 more minutes to board another EMU which was scheduled to start at 1320hrs. But the guy started a bit late. As a result we missed to see the Bangalore Express with WDP-4. We reached Villivakkam by 1340 or 1345hrs. Till 1400hrs there were no trains. I don't remember the train numbers nor loco numbers, but we had tremendous fun later on! All the WAP-4's, WAM-4's were cruising! I could see dust sprayed on onlookers as it blasted past us. The classic moment of the trip was when Kovai Intercity blasted past us and a huge puff of air hit our face though we were standing quite far from the tracks!

We decided to have a break! We went to the small VLR at sub-urban platform and looked at menu. Nothing was impressive. Bharathwaj suggested that we should take "more". It was awesome! Gudur means "Gudur Dosai". Villivakkam means "more" I guess. I thought that foot over bridge should be used instead of crossing tracks. I have an unwritten agreement with my father that I won't cross tracks!!! I thought twice and crossed it! I don't violate rules often... We saw some goods trains doing good speed. I felt thirsty again. So we went back to the VLR and I had another "more"(buttermilk in English?) while Bharathu had cool drinks. Then we settled down and waited for our EMU.

Surprisingly, we saw Sangamitra Express bound towards Patna in slow line, quietly followed by West Coast Express in slow line! I wondered why? As a result MAS bound EMU was 20 minutes late! We boarded an EMU at around 1545hrs and at Park Town we boarded an EMU towards KTBR. We bid goodbye at KTBR and I reached home at around 1715hrs.

-Krishna Kumar.S