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| Tryst with Kudremukh - KV Kudremukh |
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Page 4 of 6
I woke up at the crack of dawn. There was excitement in the air that only I could feel. I was enveloped by a sense of nervous anticipation. It was a weird mixture of eagerness and hesitancy. After eight long years, I was going back to visit my high school again, and perhaps for the last time. But first, we had to get there. It was a short drive from the hotel. Took less than five minutes. But when you have to walk the distance, it can seem a whole lot longer. However, if you are five years old, the walk is timeless. In fact, my first memory of school is one of me walking back home on the first day of school.
The bus shelter, for some weird reason (one of them being it wasn't time yet), was empty. There was no bus to take me home. Undeterred, I decided to walk home. I must have been quite a sight to behold that glorious day. There I was, a five year old kid, walking back home in pouring rain, with school back on my back, and a raincoat tucked under my arm. That's right, the raincoat was under my arm! I didnt think it necessary to put it on in case of rain. As far as I was concern, the raincoat was merely an ornamental device. The interesting thing about five year olds is that they have no concept of time and only a rudimentary concept of distance. My house was over 2 miles from the school. I have absolutely no idea how long it took to cover that distance (must have been over an hour), and at that time I didnt even know who far home was. I just kept walking, wet to the bone, until I reached home. When I reached home, I was bewildered at my mom's bewilderment on seeing me all wet, with the raincoat in my arm, back home hours before I was supposed to. A hot shower and some hot chocolate drink later I was told that I shouldnt be doing this again. The location of my school always left me wondering what the town planners were smoking when they drew up the master plan for the town. We have a fairly big school, and next it is the school playground. Now between the school, and the playground, smack bang in between, we have the town bus stand! Wonder what they were thinking: "We'll have school children walking/running from the school to the playground and back all day. So here what we cab do about it. We'll build the bus station right in the path between the school and the playground to maximize the collision rate. It a novel technique for population control." Fortunately, no kid has found him/herself under the tires so far. Across the street from the school we have the town hospital! I can only imagine what the planners were thinking on this one "We need to build immunity among the children. So here's what we'll do about it. We will build a hospital right next to the school so that any virus that might affect anyone will find its way to the hospital, and hence to the school. That way, the kids will be exposed all the pathogens we find, helping them along in boosting their immune system." I am surprised Kudremukh doesnt have a high mortality rate among school kids. Defies logic!
I turned around to go back to the school. Somehow this time, I knew it was time. I had a feeling that this was the last time I will ever get to see the school again. I wanted to make sure that I dont miss anything this time, coz' there may not be another time to come back.
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