Yellow in my life …… the sequel.

 

 I had written a blog titled ‘Yellow in my life’ about 10 years back. And here is how the yellow still continues to dazzle me…..

https://hesh-iyer.blogspot.com/2016/07/yellow-in-my-life.html

 Yesterday, it yet again was a momentous occasion for me when I boarded the brand new ‘Yellow Line’ metro, which was inaugurated by the Prime Minister just 10 days back. This stunning cute little tube was dodging me for over 2 years now. Originally slated to be launched in 2023, I was thrilled at the prospect of going to my office at Electronic City using this metro – as that would have been a door-to-door service for me – without the hassle of catching the only office bus that would leave at 8 am sharp or without worrying about driving through the peak hour traffic that would get worse on a rainy day.

As the launch kept delaying, quarter after quarter, it missing the deadline of 1^st June 2024 was the last nail in the coffin as I was to retire from service on the 30^th June 2024. So, finally I retired last year, burying my long-standing desire of traveling to office on a metro, beneath those mammoth pillars of the double-decker metro line mocking at me.

My love affair with trains goes back to the childhood memories of my long journeys from Kanpur to my native near Kumbakonam, via Chennai, during summer vacations. It used to be a 2-day affair providing us an unforgettable experience of socializing with co-passengers while traveling through half of the country. The fun was in sharing each of these experiences with my school friends, who were mostly local and had either never traveled on a train or had just made a trip of a few hours to their respective native towns. Some of these stories were real and few were pure fiction to impress my friends.

My village was just behind the Tirunageswaram railway station, which was only 6 kms from Kumbakonam town. Most of the village folks and kids would travel to Kumbakonam every day for work or for their schools. As the schools in South would reopen early in June, unlike the ones in Kanpur that opened every year on the 8^th July, most of my playmates would start going to school towards of end of my vacation. Seeing them off in the morning at the station (I am not sure if there was a concept of platform ticket at that station but in any case, my first cousin was the station master there), I used to be amazed and used to feel envious about the fact that one could even go to school on a train - while I just walked to my school back in Kanpur.

Over the years, circumstances forced me to rely more on flights than those chugging beauties for my travels but my love for them never faded. Therefore, it was no surprise that once the metro came near my home in Bangalore, my preferences for the malls or eating joints quickly changed to the ones that were closer to a metro station. I couldn’t go to school or to work on a train / metro but no one could take away my pleasure of riding on a metro for a cup of coffee.

Knowing perhaps my love for the trains and having heard my unfulfilled desire that I expressed on my retirement day, my colleagues invited me for a talk to the office yesterday. And having enviously watched my colleagues traveling to office on the metro last 10 days, I finally had my day yesterday. And true to their style, what a beautiful infrastructure has been created by Infosys for the convenience of its employees. An exclusive exit from the station, a long 200 meter fully covered exclusive corridor hanging on the air, protecting them from rain or shine,  directly landing into the campus on to a large airport like lounge with those familiar x-ray machines and the turnstiles. What a privilege for these employees – who may or may not even recognize that.

Well, the yellow beauty did ditch me by not arriving ahead of my retirement but my first kiss of the beauty will remain etched in my memory – what a great experience it was, traveling in comfort and landing straight into the Infosys Metro Plaza on the campus. And I hope this wasn’t the last kiss.