Government Engineering College, Thrissur

yes

A Trip to Varkala with My Classmates in January 2025

Just recently a few of us Chemical Engineering classmates of 1974-1978 batch enjoyed three days at the beautiful resort of Varkala at the Hindustan Hotel Resort close to the Papanasam Beach and visited a few great places to commemorate our trip to this exotic South Kerala spot. There were altogether seventeen of us staying at the hotel from 22/1/2025 to 24/1/2025. My husband Sasikumar and I were from Thrissur while most of the others were from Kochi and its whereabouts. The hotel had a check-in time of 2pm. But we arrived some time later at 5pm which was a pity as we missed the company of the early comers on the beautiful beach and the walk along the beach together from one side to the other and climbing up a cliff to watch the sea and the town from the top. Santhosh my classmate has mentioned the glimpse to be phenomenal. There is a canal cutting across the beach from an inward spot of the place to the sea. One has to cross the bridge placed across it further up to go on to the other side. The canal was rather messy as most of our Kerala canals are prone to be. The hotel was six storeys high with us all being allocated rooms in the second, third and fourth storeys. The food cafeteria was situated on the fifth storey. I found the continental free breakfast quite delicious while the dinner there those two nights were so-so. But there was much joy as we talked and laughed together those days.

The whole arrangement of the tour had been done by my classmate Sumangali, her advocate husband Jayaprakash and another classmate Anand quite meticulously. Varkala was Sumangali’s and Jayaprakash’s hometown while it was Anand’s father’s hometown. But even then , in the final instance , the trip to Jatayupura , supposed to be the deathplace of Jatayu , the giant eagle friend of Lord Rama , in his attempt to rescue Sita Devi from the clutches of Rakshasa Ravana due to a cruel cut from the latter's sword which rendered Jatayu lingering on his deathbed to await Lord Rama's arrival for his moksha and to explain about Ravana's capture of Devi Sita. The revered spot had to be avoided due to sudden winds so the cable car to transport us up could not be used. It was quite disappointing to miss it.

As I explained , we arrived late on 22/1/2025 . After checking into the hotel we hurried with our tea and walked down to the Papanasam beach where the others were gathered out on it in different spots. It was pleasant to meet again three months after our get- together at Hotel Luminara in Ernakulam where more of us unexpectedly had gathered for a short reunion there. Then all of us six girls of the batch had been present.But now only three of us- Lakshmikutty, Sumangali , and I could make it.

We walked around the beach watching the beach - fisherfolk throwing their nets to catch small fish and also paddled our feet in the fast moving waves of the sea. We also watched the death rituals being conducted on the beach for the departed ones by their loved ones and final immersion of the remains in the sea. When we watched this, we could feel the inevitability of death that we all face with the passage of time.The surprising fact about the Papanasam Beach was the stretch of the sea to the horizon without any islets or land mass. The absence of boats on the sea was another strange fact. I could not recall any other beaches of this form.At about 7.30 pm we returned to our rooms and freshened ourselves for dinner in the dining room allotted to us. It was a buffet dinner . We all enjoyed chattering about inane matters as we ate our dinner. We also discussed the programme of the trip we would be undertaking the next day in a hired coach from the morning at 9am to the late evening . We were to visit the Anjuthengu Fort, the Sivagiri Mutt of SreeNarayana Guru , the great social and religious reformer of Kerala who ushered in the freedom of lower caste Hindus to enter temples without fear. It was a hard struggle that he led the Keralites of India to attain this freedom. We also were to visit the birthplace of the great poet Kumaranasan at Kayyikara village near the Anjuthengu Fort which had become built up into a great memorial to the well known poet. The poet was a sincere follower of Sree Narayana Guru and wrote such emotional poetry on casteism as ‘Chandalabitshugi’, ‘Durvastha’ etc. Of course there were his love poetry like’ Nalini’, ‘Leela’, ‘Karuna’ by women’s names. My mother , an avid reader of his poetry, used to recite his passionate lines to us her children, who were more familiar with English poetry, having been educated in Singapore. But we were enthralled by his poetry recited by our mother.

Our lunch was scheduled at the Vakkom Palazzo Hotel after which we were supposed to visit Jatayupura and to return to our hotel by 7pm.

The next morning everyone was ready to board the coach by 9am after a delicious breakfast. It took about half an hour to reach the Anchuthengu Fort. Anand was explaining about the five coconut trees at that location and how the area had been donated to the first set of Europeans the British to build their fort by Rani Ashure the Queen of Attingal Kingdom.A series of British commanders started their work to build the fort in the latter years of the 17th century and managed to amass wealth in that area by exploiting the native people there and paying bounty to the matriarchal Queens there. There were five coconut trees hence the name for the fort as Anjuthengu Fort shortened by the British conquerors as Anjengu Fort. It was quite a fascinating fort which overlooked the sea and had eight bomber guns fitted to fire at enemies trying to enter it by the sea. There was a tomb which had been built for the first Commander Brabourne ‘s wife , which still remains there today. We walked all over the fort and the grounds wondering over its survival even today. We also took a number of photographs of the site. Nearby a lighthouse had been erected by the British to warn them of approaching ships. We spend an hour there before returning to our coach.

The next destination was the Sivagiri Mutt, the tomb of the great Malayalee social reformerSree Narayana Guru.About fifty years ago , I had visited this site with my parents and siblings. Then it was quite simple in structure and a small guesthouse was provided for visitors to stay in , being fed with rice porridge and cooked beans. But now the Samadhi or tomb had become grandiose in structure with beautiful landscaping of exotic trees planted by the different Prime Ministers of India. The statue of Sree Narayana Guru sat calm and serene within an enclosure while we visitors walked blissfully around it , observing the pictures of him and his followers. Moving outside the space where the samadhi had been constructed , we walked up many steps to a hut in which the guru had been living , his bed and his belongings in spruce condition. We looked through the grilled windows at his statue and other accessories in wonder. Outside this house, there was a ceramic plaque on which the lines of the simple prayer ‘ Deivame Kathu kolgangu’ were engraved. It was a prayer that I recited twice daily at home . Then we walked about the area taking some pictures and also met a priest who wanted to advise us. But there was no time as soon we had to board the coach on our way to the birthplace of the great poet Kumaranasan at Kayyikkara.

Kayyikkara was not far away from Sivagiri Mutt. Since Kumaranasan was a follower of Sree Narayana Guru, he was truly against the bane of casteism in Hinduism as was his mentor. He had written many beautiful poems full of passionate outburst against this evil. Kayyikara was his birthplace where he had studied in the local school and worked as a school teacher . He also had worked as an accountant for a short period of time. It was then that he became acquainted with Sree Narayana Guru. By then he had already started writing his powerful imagery poetry which had touched the readers emotionally and poignantly all over Kerala. Casteism must have received a death blow from his poems. The SNDP association had taken over the whole area to ensure that Kumaranasan would have a memorial . He had been drowned in the Vembanad Lake in a terrible boating accident at forty- eight years of age. Kayyikara had truly been well- developed as a great memorial spot dedicated to the famous poet. Advocate Jayaprakash is an ardent member of the association who had contributed to the creation of the memorial. The employees there welcomed us warmly and provided us with tea and snacks. We posed before the pedestal of Kumaranasan and the wordings etched on it. Somehow or other, the pedestal reminded me of the great preacher Martin LutherKing’s pedestal and his wordings there in Washington DC. Both of these personalities believed thoroughly in the equality of all human beings- the latter one by preaching to his followers while the former wrote poetry to instil the equality concept to the people of Kerala. Kayyikkara is truly symbolic of the mettle and hope of the poet Kumaranasan. We were there for an hour or so taking photographs of ourselves in that fascinating abode of Kumaranasan.

Soon we were on our way to Vakkom Palazzo for lunch. We walked around there for sometime as we awaited the lunch being prepared. About fifteen minutes later we were partaking off a delicious lunch. After that we walked to the boat jetty to watch the two boats there. It was then that Anand received a message from a contact in Jatayupura about the unreliable weather conditions there. All of us were disappointed as we felt it to be the most expected event of the day. The hotel staff suggested that we should take a boat ride over the Ashtamudi Lake for two hours and drop in at one of the islets to glimpse a Devi ksethram and walk around the islet. We agreed to the plan and soon were on the boat safely protected in raincoat gear, moving over the lake in the northern direction. Tuneless songs were sung with much gusto with everyone joining in. The absence of Vijayakumar and Jyothi , two singers of our class, caused the tunelessness of the songs. But everyone enjoyed the session.Soon we had arrived at the islet in which the temple was situated. The whole islet seemed to be a sort of jungle with peacocks, chameleons and mongooses running about at random. There was a statue of a beautiful shapely apsara lying down in a glade with a Gandharva youth statue guarding her. These two statues reminded us of ghostly yakshas and yakshis. We all moved away from the eerie glade in a different direction closer to the lake . Four of us ladies Premalatha, Brinda, Sumangali and I reached a sandy glade where Brinda suggested for us to take some dance steps to create a reel on Facebook or Instagram.Santhosh agreed to take a video of us. The rest of our friends had disappeared. Afterwards we found that they were at the boat waiting to get in. We too got into the boat. Later, Premalatha created a reel of our dancing postures on Instagram which was appreciated by friends with which we shared it. Non- dancers dancing to the tune of ‘ Ashtamudi Kayalile Annanada Cholayeele…’ is quite humorous.
Soon we were back in the hotel for tea and snacks. Each one of us spoke a few minutes on our views of the tour including the spouses. Then back to the coach and on our way to the the Hotel Hindustan Resort. We visited Sumangali’s recently built bungalow nearby looking so attractive with exotic plants surrounding it. Finally the last destination of the Kappil beach which was not as beautiful as Papanasam beach. At the edge, there were large granite rocks to ward off the strong tidal waves . These had been placed after the great Tsunami of 2004 which destroyed many beaches of the countries adjoining the Indian Ocean including India and had killed a vast number of human beings in all these countries.

Soon we had returned to the Hindustan Hotel . After a rest and freshening we got together for dinner. The next morning we would be leaving for our homes by 12 noon which was the check- out time.Sumangali and Somasundaran worked out the remaining amounts to be remitted by us for the tour. Then we all went to bed.

The next morning Sasikumar and I got up quite early to take a long walk along the Papanasam beach , then returned to have a refreshing bath to visit the 2000 year old Janardhanaswamy temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu . It had a smaller Lord Shiva temple adjacent to it. Both of us prayed for our family. I did some rituals for my family members. Then we returned back to the hotel for breakfast. Soon our classmates were evacuating their rooms . A few of them like Balakrishnan and Santhosh were leaving for Thiruvananthapuram for another reunion of their IIT friends , visiting Pradeep Kumar , an ailing classmate on the way. Sasikumar and I returned at 12.50pm by Kerala Express to Thrissur. It had been a nice get- together at the beautiful town of Varkala.

A marvellous trip to three pilgrimage centres of Uttar Pradesh- Prayagraj, Ayodhya and Kashi
I had always wanted to visit some Hindu pilgrimage centres in Northern India and Central India after reading the Ramayana and Mahabharata epics. But engineering studies and a teaching profession moulding youngsters into engineers, besides raising a family of two kids did not allow me space to visit such sites. Only after retirement , could I visualize trying to visit places with my husband Sasikumar. The Somans Leisure Tours offered package tours abroad and we visited Singapore, Malaysia, nine European countries in Central Europe and even the USA and Canada. Soon these yearly trips came to a halt with the breakout of the Covis scourge all over the world . These travel agencies too could not conduct tours to help us the senior citizens to visit places and had to lie low . Two years , 2020 to 2022, were filled with the fear of death due to the scourge and complete isolation within our homes as we waited for vaccines to be discovered by medical centres to curb the dangerous pandemic . Finally by early 2022, with two vaccinations and a booster dose, the pandemic could be curbed . By then, countless people throughout the world had succumbed to this terrible coronavirus. But many of us survived.

In 2022, I visited my son Vivek and his family in Toronto for a month or so, in April and then Madhya Pradesh in October on a pilgrimage tour to glimpse the three Jyothirlinga temples Mahakaleshwar and Maha Kaal at Ujjain and Omkareshwar alone. I also visited Mandu the historical site of the 11th century kingdoms of Central india mostly Muslim Sultanates. We also visited the great memorial cm birthplace of Dr Ambedkar, acknowledged as the architect of the IndianConstitution of independent India. Sasikumar was reluctant to come with me as the Covid scourge had only just passed.

Finally , after a seven day return journey of Singapore in early March, we decided to visit some pilgrimage centres in Uttar Pradesh with the Somans Leisure Tours group. From 1/12/2023 to 5/12/2023, we travelled to Prayagraj( Allahabad) , onto Ayodhya and finally to Varanasi( Kasi or Benares). We returned to Kerala on the night of December 5/12/2023. It was a wonderful trip with the enthralling company of retired religious couples from Kozhikode, Ernakulam and Thrissur( namely us Sasikumar and Shemeela ) . Our Somans guide was Anek Kumar, a simple quiet young man . In our first stop at Prayagraj , we met our local guide Akash who guided us throughout the three religious destinations of Prayagraj, Ayodhya and Kasi explaining precisely about the importance of each location. He spoke fluently in English so we did not get confused by our scant knowledge of Hindi.

I never thought that we could enjoy a pilgrimage journey so much. But we really did. The Prayagraj city ( Allahabad previously) had the fabulous Anand Bhavan and the Swaraj Bhavan, the two luxurious palatial homes of the Nehru family where the family had resided for many years before surrendering them to the Indian nation as a museum and a girls' orphanage. But the artefacts of the rich family and the struggle for Indian independence remained as showpieces to the present generation to be marvelled at , by us tourists and children from schools in that city. After this , we went to the confluence of the three rivers Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati in a boat. There , people interested in dipping at that point of the confluence, could do so while others could float plates of flowers there. At this confluence, we can see that the water on the Ganga side is light brownish while on the Yamuna side is light greenish. The Saraswati water is not noticeable. It is supposed to have emerged from the depths of the waters from Acharya Bharadwaj's ashram which we had noticed on our way, at a large park of Prayagraj . It was in that ashramam that Sri Ram, Sita and Lakshmanan had stayed for one night before moving onto Chitrakoot for more than eleven years'stay and finally to Panchavadi where the misadventures with Surpanaka and Ravana occurred and poor Sita was abducted by Ravana. Thus the war between the two protagonists occured with Ravana being killed and Sita set free to be reunited with her husband. The boatman guide too recounted the stirring story of how the confluence of the three rivers originated at that location of Prayagraj .But the waters of Saraswati are still not visible at the confluence .

The next morning , after breakfast , we left on our coach, towards Ayodhya, renowned as the city of Rama .It was in the palace of the Illvashku King Dasaratha , that he and three brothers Bharathan and Lakshmanan and Shatrughan were born to the King's three wives, Kaushalya, Kaikeyi and Sumithra respectively after a ritual performed by a Rishi. Thus, Rama became the heir-apparent to the throne of Ayodhya. His three brothers were very devoted to him. It is strongly believed that Rama was LordVishnu in his seventh reincarnation as a human being while his brother Lakshmanan was Adeshesha, the serpent couch on which Lord Vishnu rested in Vaikunta , while Bharathan and Sathrughan were the conch and the chakra held in his hands . Rama was supposed to be born to eradicate the demons causing havoc on the earth especially the powerful ten- headed Ravana. The abduction of Sita by philanderer demon king Ravana paved the way for his destruction by Rama.The whole city of Ayodhya was fascinating as we walked through the roads to the remnants of King Dasaratha's palace wih its vast corridors and rooms. The walk was tiring but all of us persevered in our quest to know the physical details of that fabulous Hindu epic of Ramayana.We visited the little Ram temple with its sweet little idols of Rama, Sita, Lakshmanan and Hanuman whoch would be placed in the Ram temple built in all splendour at the vast spaces of theRam Bhoomi. The Ram Bhoomi was a fantastic area of concrete blocks placed everywhere being slowly arranged to complete the vast temple which will be inaugurated in January 2024 by Narendra Modi our beloved Prime Minister. There is something poignant as I visualized the magnificence of this dream project for this fabulous temple in Ayodhya.We also visited the Kanak Mahal, lovingly bequested to Sita on her marriage to Rama, by her step- mother-in-law Kaikeyi for her own personal abode. It was magnificently equipped with parlours for Sita and her maids and had a kitchen for Sita to occupy herself with preparation of exotic dishes from her own kingdom of Mithila. But still there were signs of destruction by conquerors.I hope that this old ancient city of Rama will again be renovated to its previous status . There is a sanyasi meditating in one room with fasting and sparse intake of food praying for the completion of the new Ram Temple.Soon we were back in our Hotel Royal Heritage resting for the rigours of the next day trip to our final destination Kasi the next morning for our rendevous with its 84 Ganga Ghats and the magnificent temple of Kasi Vishwanath.

The former one was accomplished that evening from our Varanasi hotel where we had arrived that afternoon, walking first along one ghat along the bankof the river framed with steps going into the deep river. The ghats are bathing spaces arranged for different groups of people to bathe for removal of their supposed sins.None of us dared but walked sedately to the boats provided for us to be driven through the Ganges for two hours . As our boatmen rowed us all around the river, we marvelled at the beauty of the immense river which was supposed to have originated from the heavens down throgh the Himalayas to spread into tributaries of water along the northern plains of Bharat. Parusharama the sixth reincarnation of Lord Vishnu, and youngest son of the Brahmin sage Jamadagni and Renuka , had destroyed 21 generations of Kshatriyas for their diabolical murder of his parents. The doomed Kshatriya kings were cursed with no salvation as a result. It was their 22nd descendant King Bhagirath who managed to grant these kings salvation with the bringing down of the waters of River Ganga with his intense prayers and meditation. By 6.30 pm we had reached the ghat which was to provide the display of Ganga Arati .We were spellbound by the display of the pooja by nine young priests praying rigorously and waving coloured lamps, umbrellas, flower garlands in great coordination. The fascinating event ended at 7. 45 pm.

We all returned hurriedly to our hotel to take some rest to be ready by 5am for our walk to theKashi Vishwanath Temple the next day. We had to awaken by 4am to bathe and dress for this trip by 5am. I wore a Kerala saree and Sasikumar a mundu and white shirt although it was not a necessary custom there. I had seen pictures of this magnificent temple in films and the serial on Lord shiva. But the real temple glimpsed that early morning was so fabulous that most of us gasped in wonder. We got flowers as arranged by Akash and circumvented the shrine of the shivalinga there and offered them reverentially. By 7am our walk through the temple was almost over with some prayers at the shrines of Mother Parvathy, Lord Ganesha and Lord Karthikeyan. We bought some ladoos and other fragrant jelabis to take home to our relatives, friends and neighbours .We returned to our hotel for breakfast and rested a little until an early lunchtime so we could travel onto Saranath the abode of Lord Buddha with his many stupas in renovated structures and many still remaining in dilapilated remnants. The whole area was so breathtaking in its well kept landscape. It is said that Lord Buddha's first teachings to his first five followers were rendered there.The Ashoka Pillar built by Lord Buddha's ardent Maurya king follower Asoka could also be seen there although it was in remnants due to its destruction by Muslim conquerors. I bought an intact model of the Ashoka Pillar to take home as remembered from our Indian history lessons on King Asoka the Great. We know that the chariot symbol embedded on it has also been placed on our National flag.

Then we visited the Benares Hindu University with its vast campus where all kinds of educational courses were offered to undergraduate, postgraduate and Doctoral students. There was even a Temple where people could pray. Medical, engineering, agricultural, veterinary coourses flourished there along with arts and science courses. When Chemical Engineering was not available in Kerala, some of our retired teachers like Dr Neelakantan, Dr Mohandas etc studied there.Our last stop was a silk showroom equipped with a powerloom society where most of us ladies bought Benares silk sarees and cloth material. By the time we reached our hotel, it was late evening. We had dinner soon after and went to bed to have a good night sleep.

The next morning we were all ready to go home . By 10am we had boarded our coach and moved on to the Varanasi Airport by 12 noon. Soon we had boarded our Indigo aircraft on our way to Banglore the transit airport. There was some delay for the next airplane to Kochi Nedumbassery Airport. Finally we reached Kochi by 10 pm and soon was home in Thrissur by 12 midnight. We were quite tired after this pilgrimage. But it remains as a great memory of the visit to those wonderful pilgrimage sites in Uttar Pradesh.

A recent Hindi film - Dunki
Just yesterday, I saw the above Hindi film on illegal immigration from India to England and vice- versa many years ago when visas were not granted to Indians by the harsh British after being forced to grant independence to their Indian colony. The hero was depicted by the spontaneous Shahrukh Khan as an Indian soldier and wrestler who got involved with three youngsters seeking to earn money to better the conditions of their families in Punjab. One was Manu, a young woman whose parents and she herself had been ejected from their luxurious ancestral home to stay at the outhouse. This sprightly young woman is depicted by Taapsee
Pannu who is determined at all costs to bring back her ancestral home to her parents. Her brother Mahinder had died recently in an accident.

The three youngsters were working as daily workers at a restaurant, barbershop and a bar to help their families. It was then that Hardy , a former soldier , entered their lives. He had been looking for Mahinder who had saved him from death incurred during a battle and looked after him in the hospital until he recovered. He had then left him with his little transistor radio to enable him to recover fully , listening to the Hindi songs emanating from it. Six months later, Hardy had recovered fully and gone searching for Mahinder to thank him and return his transistor radio. He had reached the little town where Mahinder lived and met Manu serving in her restaurant. In between her service, she also gave tidbits to her starved friends. Her employer did not like this and took up a stick to whack her. Suddenly, Hardy got up and wrestled the fat restaurant owner to the ground. Manu was astonished by his feat and begged him to tutor her in wrestling so that she could take part in wrestling events and finally get a visa to travel to London. But he explained that he had come to find Mahinder who had saved him from death. She understood and quickly brought him to her home. She explained that she and her parents were staying within the outhouse while the moneylender had grabbed their ancestral home as his property. When he entered her home, he saw Mahinder’s garlanded photograph and inferred that he was dead. He returned Mahinder’s transistor to his parents and decided to help Manu to achieve her aim of becoming a wrestler to travel to London. Her determination soon enabled her to become a capable wrestler under Hardy’s tutelage.

All four of them decided to undergo a study course on spoken English with a humorous Coach depicted by the comedian actor Borman Irani. He often mocked them for their slowness in grasping the English language speech. There is a short appearance of a youngster determined to enter England for just one day to bring back his girlfriend Ruchi who was suffering mental torture from her evil husband who had forcibly wedded her with her parents’ blessings. The role was enacted sensitively by Vicky Kaushal. But before he could go with his friends , he had a phone call that his Ruchi had committed su***de. All the five students went for interviews at the end but only one passed. Hardy, Manu, and the other two failed. Desperate Vicky had committed su***de too after hearing the news of his girlfriend’s death. The others were desperate too but then the teacher came up with a plan to illegally help them to England by the only route left available- the Dunki route or the donkey trail. A complicated hazardous land route over India to Pakistan, then Afghanistan , China, Russia, and finally westwards through Europe and crossing over to London. So many hardships and facing horrible terrorists who murdered their erstwhile three companions, after two months they entered England. Hardy had sold all his possessions and his house to ensure finance to help his friends reach their dream destination. After their terrible adventures, they reached London and realised that this dream destination was not that great as they thought it to be. Just before the Big Ben on the Tower Bridge , they noticed a strange figure of their friend who had got his student visa after supposedly passing the Spoken English interview. Actually he was begging with a hat placed in front of his painted figure standing still from morning to night. He finally got down from his pedestal and took them to the dilapidated hut where he lived with other miserable companions. They asked him the reason to which he answered that the SpokenEnglish course was a fake where people were being cheated of their money to obtain a fake student visa. The others were shocked to hear of this mishap.

Soon, the English policemen had found out their hideout so all twenty of the illegal migrants had to flee and live in hiding .

The four migrants had found an Indian lawyer to help them become legal migrants of England. Finally , after an escapade in a church where Manu was supposedly married to an English dope addict as a last resort for them to remain in England , they were imprisoned in a jail and brought before a judge to explain their predicament. Finally the judge explained that if they were ready to seek asylum, after criticising their homeland of India, they would be granted legal status in England. But Hardy could not criticise India , being a patriotic Indian soldier . Hence he was deported to India while the remaining three remained in England as menial workers to help their families. Twenty- five years were to pass before Hardy could see his friends again. He had loved Manu and wanted to marry her so very much but circumstances had destroyed his hope of ever marrying her. Poor Manu had to sacrifice her love for him to keep her promise to win back her ancestral home for her parents.

Manu and her two old friends had worked hard to improve the status of their parents in India. But poor Manu had suddenly recently become beset with a brain tumour and was given only two months to survive . She desired very much to return home to her parents. The three friends contacted Hardy who was in India that they would meet him in Dubai as they could not procure visas from England to India.

Finally the four friends met in Dubai. Old age had changed each one’s features. Manu and Hardy sadly looked at each other , noting the differences that twenty- five years had wrought in them. He was puzzled by their hurry to return to India. The news of Manu’s impending demise saddened him. He enquired about her husband and family. She in turn asked about his wife and family. They were both under the impression that both had families. Only later, did they realise that both were unmarried. They had only bluffed to each other of their marriages. Finally he resorted to some diehard tactics to take his friends immediately back to India to be reunited with their parents after so many years.

The tactics succeeded and soon they were in India. All of them were reunited with their family members. Hardy explained that he had settled in his friends’ little town to help their families.
They were very grateful to him especially Manu. Hardy then showed her the Big Ben clock model installed on the top of her home. She had always revered the clock in London. He then got down on his one knee to propose to her with the ring he had kept for that purpose. But suddenly she collapsed and passed away. With her death, Hardy and her two friends remained in Punjab through out their lives without ever thinking of going back to England ever again.

This film is quite poignant and an emotional comedy with Sharukh Khan at his best. Taapsee Pannu and the other actors are fabulous too in their roles. Sharukh Khan had always been an incredible actor in most of his films and his starting TV serials. I have always enjoyed watching most of his films because of his piquant style and approach. Even in the tragedies he acted in, the anti hero roles he undertook, he always threw himself wholeheartedly into his roles.Let us hope that he goes on with success in his acting career. Taapsee Pannu and the other character actors too are to be lauded in this quirky film with the editing having been effectively incorporated.