I left Raiganj on 04th Oct evening and went to Madurai, and then to my village for the Festival of our Lady of Rosary. It was a wonderful opportunity to be among my own villagers, thousands of them gathered, spending over 500,000 rupees on the festival, with the massive video coverage of TV channels and the delicious Tamil food at every house....! Children have grown up. I could also meet most of my school day friends, as they all come once a year during the festival. It was all nostalgia. But with much less time in my hand I could not meet everyone personally. Even I missed some of my relatives.... I regret that.
However, I managed to visit my favourite other religious destinations : the Church of the Holy Cross at Manapad and the Our Lady of Sand near Periyathaalai. Back at Madurai, I spent some time in visiting my nieces and nephews, some sick persons in the Rajaji Government Hospital. It is something that I do everytime I visit Madurai. Hospital apostolate has not developed so much in North India in general, in West Bengal in particular. I could also enjoy kesari, idly, idiappam, keppai puttu, kudal curry... Oooh! The food was really too good. The most surprising part of the entire travels was, I could go to Pondicherry, to see Selvi, my niece, who is in the Novitiate of a religious congregation. I returned on the mid-night of 13 Oct, after a long-delay on the railway tracks.... due to a derailment of a cargo train south of Malda town.
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