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SAM CLUB DAY ‘16

Our Sunday walks would be by road to Taksal, the next railway sta on towards Shimla. From Taksal we'd return
along the railway track to Kalka. A couple of weeks later Taksal sta on staff started to greet us!

One Sunday we went by bus to Kasauli, a most beau ful place by any reckoning. The tourism official would
explain to us that first thing to enjoy was the unpolluted air and the beau ful surroundings. We finished our
packed food carried in a substan al ffin carrier, spent a few more hours there before returning to Kalka.
AWM's home garden had magnificent rose plants and at the peak Subadra reckoned that there were over 400
blossoms!

Vyas, the foundry foreman, was very enterprising and once arranged an ancient car for a weekend visit to
Chandigarh where it, not unexpectedly, packed up! The breakdown had happened before a home where a
senior, slightly-built sardarji gentleman was seated in a lounge chair. Hesitantly we opened the gate wan ng to
get some drinking water. In a booming voice he'd say that not only would we get water to drink but tea too as it
was tea me! The en re family was duly pleased to meet Subadra, who hailed from a place so far south from
their city! He would despatch a young boy to get a mechanic to fix our car. Subadra was touched by the
wholesomeness of this experience.

Plenty of armed forces personnel were posted in Chandigarh. We once visited a movie theatre where we heard
Tamil being spoken by a few ladies. Subadra beamed and those folks also recognised her as a fellow Tamil. It is
a er all a small world!

She was pleased too to meet 2 AME proba oners viz., S. Ramanathan and R. Subramanyan as they were
returning from Shimla.

Holi fes val happened when we were there. Subadra would experience for the first me applica on of colours
in each other's faces, something she revelled in. But we were so unprepared that we did not have any edibles to
distribute.

ZAM (Zafar Ahmed Malik 1949) used to visit Kalka o en from RDSO and made it a point to spend me with us
during each of his visits. He accompanied us once as we travelled to Barog on a Sunday. A er breakfast we
would walk back partly along the rail route via Solan before catching the last train to Kalka. In all innocence,
Subadra would ask him as to why he is s ll not married. With characteris c tongue-in-cheek candour, he'd say
that girls take one look at him and say no! When she was embarrassed with this response he'd quickly make her
feel comfortable saying that he was not offended.

RDSO was situated in Shimla then. Passenger coaches would have to be subjected to trial runs. We'd both travel
to Shimla and meet senior folks such as the Kodikals (1945), and the Seths (1952) regularly.

This small Chopra/Dogra/Bogra town, as Subadra referred to Kalka ini ally feted her con nuously. The
universal warmth displayed across the board towards her was the reason why she developed a love for
anything to do with the railways.

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