Memory down the lane.... 24 & counting.... Star 8

Kannan S

He is another person who earned a sobriquet in few days of training. He was nick named as “Discharge” Kannan to avoid confusion among four Kannans. He was very soft initially, and always talked about how to go out of service during those training days. Though we were all like that, did not like the atmosphere, the food and the treatment meted out to us, he was relatively the much affected person.

Once the six months period was over, one could see the slow transformation in him. He joined Guru and both used to come and join us for play, party or for going out together. The moment he was posted to Dinjan (Even today, I do not know if this exists in map), he was again frustrated to find that no one was accompanying him. The east bound guys starting from NJP and Bongaigaon, started alighting from the train.

At Guwahati the remaining entire gang alighted from Train. Guru left for Shillong, Mani to Guwahati (local), Kumar to Kumbhigram. Anbu, me and S Kannan were for waiting for our trains. It was his train first. When me and Anbu went along with him to bid him farewell, he was emotional on two counts that he is leaving us behind and the other that he is going to a strange place. See how the time flies.

Exactly after one and half year when we met again in Jun 1990, I could not believe my eyes. What a phenomenal transformation. On Sep 23, 1990, we had a party and this guy danced like Michael Jackson and showed the world that he is not the same person.. he danced, swayed and sung all the way and obviously he was the master of our ceremony that day. I was very happy for him. He is another supreme athlete of our group, who excelled in every event along with Johny and Sreeprasad. 

He also visited us in Kanpur for three days. Even today, he is transforming himself as India trotter if not globe trotter and a very good organiser. He is the same person for you, 24 years back who felt bad about going to Dinjan and today he is scaling the country across its length and breadth….

To be continued....

Memory down the lane.... 24 & counting... Star 7

Johnson

He is another great sportsman of our batch who was unique who played hockey with certain deftness. He is a supreme athlete as well, who ran so many races to glory and jumped high tasting so many successes.  I had a privilege of watching him ‘live’ at Kanpur and I can say that it was a treat to watch him alongside Robert Selvaraj…

“Johny” is a jolly guy who never bothers about future and lives in the present and it is rare feature. He has visited us at Kanpur in Bengali Colony along with S Kannan and Sreeprasad. Being a sportsperson he was always competitive and had true sportsman spirit. He has a big heart too, to take up the failures in his strides.

He has practically solutions for every problems. A quick impulsive thinker and come up with some bright ideas. It was Johny who arranged a Tata Safari to go to Delhi for final clearance, when we were thinking and standing on the road at Tribune Chowk. His bargaining skills and amenable way of talking to anyone is so convincing.

He used to say this many times that life should be lived to the brim and never worry for anything. How true it is…When he is around, there is no dearth of fun.  The enthusiasm associated with him is infectious. He too like Inba joined me at Chandigarh.  We used to catch up in our work spots and did lot of things together. When I was with him the training days were back again. He was one person who had car at his disposal even during service..

To be continued...