Sajan on travelling with Valliammachy to Tiruvalla

From my age of 5 to 10 we lived in Aluva, where my dad was posted. Every year during summer holidays, it was customary for all of us to travel to Tiruvalla to be with our grandparents, uncles, and cousins from both sides. Like all other children, we too looked forward for those days.


During one of those years, before the start of the summer holidays, Vallaimmachy was already with us at Aluva. The plan was that Valliammachy and we children would travel to Tiruvalla as soon as the schools closed for summer, and stay at Parepeedikayil house (the one near Pushpagiri Hospital). Appachen and Ammachy would join us at Tiruvalla a few weeks later or so. (This is how I remember it now. The actual details have left my memory.)

So Valliammachy and we kids started our journey by train to Tiruvalla on a hot and sultry day. We had a steel truck of clothes for all four children for a month of summer holidays. It was the steam engine driven train which used to be slow and dusty and smoky everywhere. The compartment was jam packed with passengers and kids of all hues, presumably travelling to their home town on holiday. We children were small and had no clue of anything and was looking at Valliammachy for all instructions. During this journey I still remember an incident where the steel window shutter came down heavily on a toddler who was fiddling with its latch. His loud scream that followed added to the pandemonium in the bogie.


Valliammachy, as we all remember was a great planner. She had already foreseen the scenario of her arrival at Tiruvalla railway station with four clueless children in tow. So she had written in advance to one of her nephews in Tiruvalla to come to the station to receive us all. This nephew's name was Kunj. I can't remember how he was related. I remember him to be actively involved in some Evangelical works. Maybe Kunjachayan can explain his link.

After about three long hours of journey, we reached Tiruvalla. The train stops at Tiruvalla station only for two minutes. By all probability, Valliammachy would have struggled to wriggle all four kids through the crowded passage and out of the train. She was happy to see her able assistant Kunj on the platform as planned. Exchange of pleasantries followed and the train's loud whistle marked its depatrure to the next station.


Suddenly Vallaimmachy realised that the steel trunk hadn't come out along with us. She rushed to the window side of the bogie asking the other passengers to pass it out. The train was jam packed and the box couldn't make its way to the door. The train had picked up speed by then.


What to do now? Valliammachy and four toddlers on summer holidays without a change of dress even for a day !!! What I am going to narrate next will bring out leadership and managerial skills of Valliammachy. Valliammachy didn't panic. She immediately decided the best course of action.

She told Kunj to quickly rush out of the station, take a taxi and rush to the next railway station, which was Chengannur, about 10 KM away. The taxis of those days were mostly the slow Morris Minor type. Kunj, an able bodied lad then, ran out as directed. We actually didn't see what transpired thereafter.


Left high and dry with no baggae, there was nothing else to do. So Valliammachy and the four kids took another taxi and reached Parepeedikayil house. After an hour or so, we saw a beaming Kunj arriving on his Ferrari taxi with the prized steel trunk. We learnt that the driver had driven at breakneck speed, overtaken the train and Kunj rushed to the platform of Chengannur station. The helpful fellow passengers in the bogie had by then managed to squeeze the steel trunk up to the compartment's door and held it high above the crowd for Kunj to spot it and retrieve.