The Bell

May 31st 2012. After 31 years I was rendered jobless on this day.

Today it's June 4th 2012. I woke up in my bed. The sun was rising in the east. The singing birds were as busy as ever in the morning. The CMS college stood as romantically as ever on the Annan Kunnu (translated as  Squirrel Mount). Nothing has changed. I remained idle in my bed. In nearly two decades ,for the first time, I felt no urgency to rise up. Did my eyes wet? I don't know. At 8 in the morning apart from the morning walkers, one could find only Physics PG students in the CMS college campus. Today they wont be there, I thought.  I shuddered at the thought of the best time of the day for learning  Physics going waste. I remained in my bed with my eyes closed (and welled up too??). This was when I realized that one can see with ones eyes closed. I think I was transcended into the past. Did I fall into a slumber and was I dreaming? I saw the faces of most of my PG students.Did someone sob?? Did someone look wanting to tell me something?? Did someone say "Thank You"?? Did the odd one snub?? Did I hear someone humming.... "Kabhi alvida na kehena...."??

The faces and expressions turned obscure and it was all music and dance suddenly. Yes, the annual tours. I found myself in the Mysore palace with Oomman, Sakthi and Mon (Mohan). In one flash the scene shifts to Kodaikanal. I joined Durga,Joji and Jerry in drumming on the old imperial table of Kenley House which produced the "Nadam" of a Mridangam with the loudness of a "Chenta". Those beats still reverberate in my ears. But I am crest fallen. It is 8 years now......since Durga left for his heavenly abode. The "why " or "how" of it......we are none to question. But I still have a drop of tear for this highly talented boy.

At Kenley House the feasting was like never before with Christina bringing dozens bottles of variety pickles. (Her father Mr George Isaac, an Oxford M.A in Economics owned the prestigious "PALAT" brand of pickles, jams and soft drinks). The talent nights, camp fires, boating in Kodai lake, the jovial Mohan Kurien Sar, homely stay at Alex Achayan's Danny Guest House in Kodai, Songs with Rajagopal and Mathew C Mathew where shruthi and thalam were the only casualties!!!!......    I had turned a vegetarian in 1993. During the 2003 PG tour at Hotel Ambadi in Thekkady I decided to break my lent. I prepared myself mentally to consume some meat and even ordered some chicken dish. Seeing this chicken preparation  beside me this stupid girl called Meera screamed "Sir you eat this?" I couldn't and till this day I remain vegetarian !! The most musical of all the tours was the 1994 one with Durga reciting Hamsadwani, Hindolam and all that and Christina and Liby on the" Top Of  The World" with "Carpenters". All these things of the past.....?? I shudder. Yet it was a cool, sweet thing with these scenes parading through my mind.

From the world of music, dance and ecstasy I am brought to reality by the unmusical 8 o'clock siren of the municipality.

8 o'clock!!! The PG class room in the Woods behind the main Physics block will remain closed on this (early) morning for the first time in so many  years. Shall I christen this room a PG Woodhouse???!!! No class room in any college I have seen is like this one. Simple yet elegant, standing there in the woods like a small canoe in a green ocean.....with the symphony created by a variety of birds always there in the background....

I always considered this room the perfect setting for learning something. All that......

 I sit there in my bed not knowing what to do. Now there are no faces before me. No scenes parading before my closed eyes. Have I gone numb? Or, am I in a meditation?? Or, am I waiting??? Ending my wait, came the 10 o'clock bell from CMS college, sliding down the Squirrel Mount with an unusual ferocity. The Bell that was not for me.......