It pissed down with rain during the night and it was still raining when we were awoken at 09:30 hrs. by the Sergeant doing his rent-collecting rounds. We moved into the Shangri-La Restaurant where we found the Danish mob were still as full of beans as ever, juggling and photographing each other, squealing, and chattering together. We had a mammoth breakfast and struggled up to the bus stop with bulging bellies. Luck was with our timing and we leapt aboard just as the bus was pulling out enroute for Trivandrum.
We booked our train ticket to Madras for 1st January 1984. It cost us 65 Indian Rupees and the journey involved a change at Quillon. The train for Quillon left Trivandrum Railway Station at 18:30 hrs. on New Year’s Day 01/01/1984. Along with Muziris, Quilon was an ancient seaport on the Malabar Coast of India from the early centuries before the Christian era. The city had a high commercial reputation from the days of the Phoenicians and Ancient Romans. Pliny the Elder (23–79 AD) mentions Greek ships anchored at Muziris and Nelcynda.
We were on our way back towards the rum purveyors when I noticed a long, but orderly queue. This was so rare as to attract our attention and when we noticed that the line led up to the cinema box office for the “Battle of the Bulge” we tagged along behind. The film was billed to start at 13:00 hrs. and it was already 13:15 hrs., but after we had paid our 4 Indian Rupees we walked in just in time for the opening credits. Immaculate timing again!
‘Battle of the Bulge’ is an American classic war movie, it was made in Spain and hit the screens in 1965. It was directed by Ken Annakin. The starring cast included Charles Bronson, Telly Savalas, Henry Fonda, Robert Shaw, Dana Andrews, and Robert Ryan as well as many other familiar American actors. The film cheered us up as usual, providing movie escapism for a couple of hours.
We got our rum afterwards and joined another orderly queue, enforced by the police, for the Kovalum bus. We stood out the swaying journey on the packed bus and steamed into the Shangri-La Restaurant for sustenance. When we got fed up of sitting inside we went for an evening dip in the sea.
A few rays from the dying sun escaped from behind a screen of dark, angry clouds and the water positively boiled. We splashed in the turmoil, sparring at the white spume and tumultuous waves with Kung Fu and Boxing assaults. We emerged tired and dripping at 19:00 hrs. and grabbed a bottle of rum to brighten an evening at the Shangri-La.
There were a load of new arrivals so we had plenty to be appalled at. We chatted to the staff: Ambi (Surindran), Mohanan, Chitran and “Roti”, who’s real name sounded something like Shish Kebab. Most of the other diners disappeared at about 20:00 hrs. and we sat there with a warm glow as the rum level went down in the bottle.
A fruit bat kept flying in crazily to snatch at the huge bunch of bananas suspended above Ambi’s desk, but it always darted away empty handed. Occasionally a newt-like lizard darted from behind a framed religious picture to snatch at the small moths fluttering around the adjacent light bulb.
The Cindy’s came in late to sign the visitors’ book because they were leaving Kovalum tomorrow. “You’d never think that ten Danes could make so much noise”, Pixie translated her writing to Ambi. Our sentiments exactly, we told her!
We vacated the tables, which doubled as the staff’s beds, as they were standing about impatiently waiting to retire at about 23:00 hrs.
No comments:
Post a Comment