My first day in Trivandrum

On the day of Diwali, on 04-Nov-2002, I was to fly to Trivandrum to join my first job and start a professional life. My first day in office was supposed to be 05-Nov-2002, but taking a flight on the morning of 05-Nov would be a risky situation. Hence I decided to fly on 04-Nov itself even though it was Diwali day and I did not want to leave home on Diwali. Its a different matter that during the course of my professional life I had to spend 1 more Diwali away from home, but that's a different thing.

Trivandrum was a totally new destination for me. Having never been there and having no idea of the language, I was clueless. It did not help that my neighbours were from Kerala. Having spent most of my life at their place, I still hadn't picked up their mother tongue. Not that I picked up my mother tongue despite staying at home almost all my life. I am still at sea when it comes to my mother tongue. Coming back to Trivandrum and my stay, I did not know what lay ahead, how I would spend 3 months there, who all would I meet and what will I do. Besides everyone had told me before hand that language will be a problem and that too a big one. Luckily for me (to a certain extent), my father's friend was based out of Trivandrum during that period. And I knew him and aunty well. So it was a kind of relief for me because I knew a localite there. Kind of because, even though I knew him, I wouldn't be staying at his place. Instead, I would be staying at the accomodation provided by my company. And I knew the location of my accomodation beforehand, as against the others who were asked to call up the company office after reaching Trivandrum to figure out where they would be staying.

My flight landed at Trivandrum airport around 11 am. And that was my first flight alone. I managed to collect my baggage and come out of the airport. There I saw uncle waiting for me. I was not expecting him. It was a pleasant surprise for me. He told me that he had come to pick me up and drop me to my hotel. My main worry was to hire a taxi and convey to him that I wished to go to Hotel Libra. With that being taken care of, I was wondering how long would I be able to delay the inevitable i.e. talking to the locals and facing the language barrier. I decided to stop worrying and reach the hotel first. Somehow with uncle's knowledge of the place, his navigation skills and his communication with the junta around, we finally located the hotel. When I went to check in at the reception, another surprise awaited me. As soon as I told the receptionist my name and the location from where I had travelled, he assigned room 413 to me and told me that a friend was waiting for me. I was stumped. I was in a city where I didn't know anyone and I was not even aware of any of my friends planning to be in Trivandrum, leave aside being at the same hotel, at that time. Uncle too was confused and he asked me if I had a friend who had come over. I told him that I was as confused as he was, and we could only resolve it after we reached the room. My room was on the 3rd floor. I reached my room and knocked on the door, still confused and wondering about the 'friend' who was waiting for me. A guy opened the door. We introduced ourselves and I moved in with my luggage. Uncle too was there with me. Once settled down, uncle took leave and I was on my own. I'll call my friend AGS. AGS had travelled by Air India night flight since all the flights for the day were booked. After reaching the hotel, he had told the receptionist that if anyone from Mumbai checked in, he should be sent to the same room. And that is how the mystery of the friend was resolved. After having settled down and shared a few things about each other, I started feeling hungry. I realized that apart from whatever breakfast I got in the flight I hadn't eaten anything. And it was already 3 pm. AGS and me decided to go down and grab some lunch. AGS was telling me about the others whom he had met, who were supposed to join with us and were staying in the same hotel or nearby hotels. Just outside the reception we met another guy, whom AGS had briefed me about. I will call him AR. He too was supposed to be in my batch. AR was with 2 of his friends from another batch, but joining on the same date. That was the first time I met AR, but the way he kept on talking - it was as if he knew me and AGS since ages. My first impression of AR was someone who only kept talking and too much of talking. I am not someone who judges people by the first impression. But yet, here I met a guy whose first impression had me stumped and I was dreading to be in the same batch as him. Anyways, we somehow cut short our conversation and left the hotel assuring him that we would meet again to discuss the stuff.

Searching for a restaurant was a task in itself. We were located near Medical College junction and the area has quite a few hotels. And we were trying to identify a restaurant to eat only by the looks of it. After all, who wouldn't... Even though there was a restaurant bang opposite our hotel, we roamed around and finally settled for a restaurant that goes by the name - Hotel Ganga. It seemed to be better than the other restaurants that we had seen. Both AGS and me did not want to try typical South Indian lunch on our first day. So we decided to opt for something light and/or palatable. I opted for Dosa and he opted for American Chopsuey. The food was decent enough. We had successfully managed to eat something overcoming the language barrier. Now to drink some water. Thankfully I knew the malayalam word for water, and could quickly ask for it. But what the waiter said next, had me clean bowled. The water asked me - 'Choodh vallam, tanat vallam?' I hadn't anticipated this question. AGS and me were looking at each other trying to figure out what to say. We decided to opt for 'Choodh vallam'. We later realized that it was hot water. When the waiter got us water, it was maroonish brown in colour and had quite a few floating particles. We were aghast. In Mumbai, we had never come across any restaurant serving water like this. Instantly we decided against drinking that water and opted for a bottle of mineral water. After having filled our stomachs we went back to our hotel. It was nearing 4 pm. We rested for some time and unpacked our belongings to arrange it in the room. Around 5:30 pm, we decided to go down again for a stroll. We met a few guys at the reception. During our course of interaction with the receptionist, we came to know the rooms where all the guys who were in our batch were checked in. We also came to know that there were 4 girls who allotted rooms in our hotel. We met a few guys in and around the hotel who were to join with us. We came back to the hotel around 6:30 pm. There was some commotion at the reception. But we did not bother ourselves much. And there was a power cut too. Which means, no elevator to take us to the 4th floor. We had to climb the stairs. The staircase was in one corner of the hotel. There was very faint light in the staircase, primarily due to the twilight coming in through the windows at each level near the staircase. At each level, after you reach the level, a little ahead to the left was the elevator shaft. And after the elevator shaft, there was a small passage which led to the first room on the floor. All other rooms were to the right. The corridor was small and rooms on the right were on both sides of the corridor. Apart from the staircase, it was pretty dark in the corridors, especially towards the right, more so towards the farther end of the corridor, which had another staircase. We were having a general discussion about everything including power cuts while climbing the stairs. We were in our own world not concerned about our surroundings. As soon as we reached the 3rd floor, our heart skipped a beat. We saw a girl clutching a burning candle in both her hands appear suddenly from the right side of the corridor and coming towards us. She had left her hair open. And she was wearing a red flowing kurta and salwar. We got a shock of our lives. Neither me nor AGS could look at each other or around. We actually stood frozen on the 3rd floor unable to move to the 4th floor. As the girl reached near us, she stopped about 2 feet away from us. She suddenly asked - "Light chali gayi kya?"
We were still in a shock, unable to move or say anything. Somehow we gathered courage to speak something.
I blurted, "Haan, light chali gayi."
Then she asked, "Kab tak light aayegi?"
AGS said, "7:30 tak..."
She said, "Oh 7:30 tak light nahi aayegi..."

AGS and I nodded our heads. She turned and started walking towards the place from where she came. As soon as she turned, we ran and started climbing the staircase to reach the 4th floor. We quickly unlocked our room, closed the door quickly and heaved a sigh of relief. Whoever this girl was, she had nearly killed us with fright. We were hoping against hope that she should not be joining our batch the next day. (Later we came to know that she is indeed our batchmate and the next day we learnt that her name is Ms AJ...) The day was not too exciting, except for an encounter with this lady, but we had managed to meet up a few guys. Around 8:30 pm we again went down for a light dinner with a couple of other guys and this time we opted for the restaurant in our own hotel. But the highlight of the day was our ghostly encounter with our batchmate. Later while thinking about it, we were having a hearty laugh over the entire episode. Primarily because of the question - "Light chali gayi kya?" I mean, there is a power cut, all rooms are without power, there is no light in the corridor and yet this question comes up. That was enough excitement for the day. We kept our stuff ready for the next day which was to be our first day in office. And there was a lot of excitement, fun and adventure that lay ahead during our course of stay. But more of that later. Till then, take care and enjoy life...