WARM GESTURE

 

The much and long-awaited valedictory function of the Golden Jubilee celebrations of our premier production unit, I C F was held on 24^th December 2005 at Ambedkar Arangam. The hall was overflowing justifying their General Manager’s earlier choice of the stadium as the venue, which had to be abandoned as the weather Gods continued to play the spoil sport.   When Chennai is playing truant can Delhi be far behind?    With fog disrupting all modes of services, the function which was scheduled to start at 2.30 p.m. had to be postponed as Hon’ble Railway Minister’s flight took off only around 4 p.m. As I reached the venue around 6 30 p m, mellifluous recorded instrumental music greeted me, a sure compensation for those rasikas who had to forego the “Kutcheries”  (concerts) in the renowned music sabas. High- tech plasma screen was faithfully displaying the EMU rake meant for Western Railway stabled at Furnishing Division, a good 3 km away awaiting flagging off by the Hon’ble Minister.

 

After exchanging pleasantries with the known faces, which included former Member (Mechanical) Sri K.B. Sankaran who had the distinction of being the helmsman at the ICF for over six months and who was busy trying to kill time by solving the SUDOKU of the day, I met the Secretary (Posts) who was there to represent the Hon’ble Minister for Communications to mark the release of the special stamp on the occasion.   He kept me posted on the latest developments in Delhi. Dr U. Srinivas Raghavan’s abilities as an orator came to the fore in the western region seminar at Mumbai, apart from his commitment to IT innovations to change the face of the equally important and socially relevant another oldest sister organization of the country. (Doctor referred to the same as brother in his speech later but I would prefer the more attractive gender). But I was in for a pleasant surprise when he told me about the impending release of a book in Tamil on one of the twelve Vaishnavite saints of Tamil Nadu known as “Azhwars”. He also penned a four line verse in Tamil while waiting for the function to start off.

 

Smt. Vatsala Raghu, CPMG Chennai who was also present, informed me that my batch mate and her elder sister Smt. Vijaya Mohanram was in town and thanks to the mobile revolution, I could immediately converse with her. Smt Vijaya is one of those ladies who entered service after matrimony. Her little girl Kavita was hardly 3 years, I think when we were at Mussoorie and I used to admire her tenacity and determination. We were in touch off and on, latest one being at Bangalore when I was OSD/SW Rly.    With a promise to renew our contact I switched off the mobile.

 

While all these pleasant interludes were happening, Smt Usha Venugopal was announcing the arrival of the dignitaries in truly trilingual format.   I must admit that the hidden talents of so many of our young officers, got embellished during the Platinum Jubilee and I am really proud of them. Hats off to them!

 

The function started at 8/15 p.m. Hon’ble Minister received a standing ovation from the large crowd, who patiently waited in a disciplined manner, which underscored the importance of the occasion. The usual invocation song on ‘Tamil Thai’ which is a piece written by Manonmaniam Sundaranar and eulogises the greatness of Tamilnadu, is the official invocation song to be sung on all Government functions in the state.   The entire crowd stood up as in customary in south for the invocation song.    After the hymn as I could barely settle down, there was a lot of hustle and bustle in the first row. Suddenly I found some ICF officials and RPF men coming towards me conveying the desire of Hon’ble Railway Minister that I should come to the dais.  I was really moved by this fine gesture of our Hon’ble Minister of Railways. As I reached the dais, he enquired about my well-being and asked me to sit on the dais in the front row along with all the dignitaries. I was so elated that words eluded me to express my sincere feelings. The floral welcome was accompanied by release of stamp and souvenir. Flagging off of the train in a remote control manner was a delightful sight. I enjoyed every bit of it. The financial performance of the Railways as narrated by Hon’ble Minister continued to be heart warming.   The minister of state for Railways Sri R.Velu’s invitation to me for joining the dinner at his residence made my cup of joy full.

 

When the Hindu reporter whom I had known over a decade, right from my ADRM’s days rang me up to convey the feelings of media as to how our honourable MR had captivated their hearts through his warm recognition and fine gesture, setting aside bureaucratic protocol, I could not suppress my happiness!

 

Vijayalakshmi Viswanathan,

Ex-FC(Railways)