TREES AND MY CHILDHOOD
The very thought of settling in a lesser known village of Southern Kerala was a shock for a young fourteen years old boy brought up in the urban and semi-urban backdrop of Nashik in Maharashtra. The inevitable shock finally struck on 18 th April 1996 when we boarded the Kanyakumari Jayanti Janata Express from Mumbai CST (the then Victoria Terminus) to Kerala along with whatever we could carry with us. Missing the friends with whom I had grown up in school and at home was sad enough, though the assumption that new friends would be as good as the old ones gave some solace. Vacations spent in the past at home village Pullad in Kerala weren't bad either. The long rocking journey of two days took us to the dusty platform of Thiruvalla railway station – the nearest ‘town’. The station with two tracks and low height mud filled platforms looked deserted contrary to Nashik Road Railway station with concrete platforms, overhead roof, the crowd and ever screaming vendors. It seemed th