Having met all the deadlines the night before, I knew I could have the morning to myself. After a cuppa and a brief chat with a friend over phone, I pulled a book out of the wooden shelf to read.
As I flipped through its pages, I came across this one picture tucked between pages 31 and 32. The picture, taken some two decades back, brought back a melange of memories --- some happy ones and some not-so-happy ones.
To think of it, so much has changed since then. The uncle who made us smile that morning is no longer there, friends have gone places and I don't remember the last time I visited the jetty. But the memories have stayed with each one of us, I believe. That is what counts!
It was one such winter morning 20 years ago, when I, along with the other kids from the neighbourhood, waited on the deck of the launch to bid our fathers goodbye before walking down to the cabin below. It was a customary habit, you could say. However, it wasn't just another day to school.
Our weekly tests had begun and each of us had notes and books in hand. As the helmsman steered the launch, we descended to the cabin below and took our seats. Although I could hear the navigator, Keshav da, shouting his lungs out, giving directions to the helmsman, he could do little to waver my concentration from the last chapter of the history book. It was only when my friend, Ritu, sitting next to me, started panicking, I took note of the situation.
As I craned my neck out to see where we have reached, a cold breeze brushed past my face and a chill ran down my spine. We were in the midst of nowhere. A think blanket of fog had enveloped us and everything around looked fuzzy. The helmsman looked puzzled just as we did and with no rescue in sight, we huddled up in one corner of the cabin.
Mobile phones were unheard of in those days and we knew not how to get help. After much coaxing by some of my friends and Keshav da, the helmsman set sail again. The risks were not too many, just that a bigger vessel could have hit us at any point of time. After wandering around aimlessly for about half-an-hour, the launch came to a still with a sudden thud.
The moments of silence that followed were unnerving. It was only when Keshav da broke into peals of laughter, we rushed to the deck to find out the launch has traced its steps back to the starting point. We heaved a sigh of relief but the feeling did not last long as we were terribly late for school. Surprisingly, dad and uncles were still waiting at the jetty. The little ones among us were teary-eyed and the older ones looked anxious. Just to cheer them up, one of the uncles, a photographer by passion, brought out his analog camera and asked us to smile for him, as if we had achieved a feat.
Thankfully, our school made an exception and we were allowed 15 minutes grace to complete our paper.
That was just one day framed of the 14 winters of my life that I spent crossing the river, sometimes calm and at other times rough, to reach school.
The moments of silence that followed were unnerving. It was only when Keshav da broke into peals of laughter, we rushed to the deck to find out the launch has traced its steps back to the starting point. We heaved a sigh of relief but the feeling did not last long as we were terribly late for school. Surprisingly, dad and uncles were still waiting at the jetty. The little ones among us were teary-eyed and the older ones looked anxious. Just to cheer them up, one of the uncles, a photographer by passion, brought out his analog camera and asked us to smile for him, as if we had achieved a feat.
Thankfully, our school made an exception and we were allowed 15 minutes grace to complete our paper.
That was just one day framed of the 14 winters of my life that I spent crossing the river, sometimes calm and at other times rough, to reach school.
To think of it, so much has changed since then. The uncle who made us smile that morning is no longer there, friends have gone places and I don't remember the last time I visited the jetty. But the memories have stayed with each one of us, I believe. That is what counts!
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