EVOLUTION OF THE PORTER

Ernakulam Railway station : The evolution ( taming ) of the porter

The redshirted porter of Ernakulam is a species apart from others of their race
They carried themselves loftily with a tinge of supercilious pomposity in their demeanor.
They were men of confidence who surveyed the world with disdain.
The passengers who frequented the station had a hard time to locate a red shirted wonder called the porter, and many a time had to drag their horrendously heavy bags by themselves, this was easier said than done taking into account the obstacle course the railway station was, the architect who planned it should surely have had a streak of sadism running in his blood for he had successfully devised all ways to put men and women with bags in trouble,
An over bridge that connected the distant platforms rose steeply like jacks beanstalk.
One needed a certain skill of the mountaineering kind to climb that monstrosity, and its steepness was legendary. Surely somebody who fantasized all Cochinites as Olympians designed this.
And thus for many years the poor passenger was at the mercy of the arrogant porter and the wonder architect. It was a common sight to see weary passengers carrying their bags in sweating silence while loitering porters eyed them with disinterest
The porters never required the passengers for their daily living and thought of them more as an intrusion to their selves. They had all the work they wanted in the parcel office and all they could earn came from the parcel owners. Their daily bread was more than assured .
And so time rolled by until
One fine day things changed, the good Lord opened his eyes in favor of the meek and the weak (passengers buddy).
Porters were all around lounging with a lost look in their eyes, they looked at passengers appealingly and at their bags hungrily their trolleys were oiled and ready and all one had to do was to whisper porter before a bevy of the red warriors appeared from nowhere.
The price was decided in silence, whatever the passenger quoted he got,
Was this a fairytale? Which wand had brushed the passenger that he got the luck of Cinderella ?Why was THE porter behaving like he was ?
How long would this last?
A mystery as great as say the loch ness monster or the Bermuda triangle ones .
Passengers never wasted their time to crack such secrets but continued to pile their luggage’s on the hapless porters, long distances were covered without a murmur, great heights were conquered with a winning smile, huge sacks and boxes were lugged effortlessly, no sound escaped the porter but his wheezy breathing due to his hardy ministrations
Why and how did such a thing happen was the question on every mans lips? time and again every passenger asked the same question to the porter once he had safely deposited their tons of belongings at their perch
The porter himself smiled sadly when asked that question and lifted his mournful face from the ground with vacant eyes slowly lifting his hands to point out at something in the distance, there far away in the first platform was intense activity, focusing on that crowd one could make out a lot of blue shirts lugging heavy parcels into trolleys and weighing machines like honey bees, what was that? Why blue instead of red now?
yas saar ,new appointments ,only for parcels, we back to passenger s and their luggage’s
sic .a silent tear almost rolled down the porters face while the delighted passenger gleamed with pleasure at this unexpected karmic reward
dear friends this is the saga of the taming of the porter as great an epic piece of history as Shakespeare’s celebrated one .

Dr.Harimohan