Madras Madness: Part 3 – Overnight Drink

A warm welcome to all my readers and here rolls out another fresh memory out of my mind.

Well of course I had mentioned in the earlier episodes of “Madras Madness” on how much I love the city and in-turn how much the city had given me back. So, every single moment spent in the city was well cherished by me and thereby I take pride in sharing with you some scintillating moments.

Note: It is purely my experience and love for the city that I am sharing it with you and it doesn’t necessarily require you to feel the same

So, this episode, as it goes by the name “Overnight Drink” started off just as a trial run, one night by a few guys of the Thiruvanmiyur flat, not knowing that it will later became a ritual for us. As you continue reading and get to know what I am about to share, well may be you might not be much exited or even think what so special about it, as we guys did. But as I said clearly before, this is just a recollection of the moments that I enjoyed the most at the city and you need not necessarily feel the same.

Disclaimer: So if you are not interested to know anything more, you may just skip the rest of the content and close the browser tab. No hard feelings at all. But to those who wish to know more, please continue reading.

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Well definitely your mind might be now releasing too much of dopamine to figure out what could it be. And maybe you might question us as well as to “What made it special for you guys”, since I had quoted it before.

Hmm, to answer that it could actually be a plethora of reasons. And to list a few here, 

it could have been the perfect mood & the flavor that elevated us, or be it the surroundings & the people with whom we shared the moment could have raised the bar. It could have been anything. But, there is no discrete answer to it with me, even right now.

Also, before I begin, a note of caution to you all;

Don’t just blindly come to a conclusion with the title, as many of you might perceive it wrongly, and especially when a teenager drafts out a post with such a weird title, your brain may tend to perceive it wrongly, especially if you were brought up in a conservative society.

So, with the statutory warning, let me straight away get into the main story. During the last few years of my Chennai life, I along with my friends had moved over to Thiruvanmiyur, a friendly neighborhood, mainly known for its serene locality with pristine beach. It was seafront apartment that we had rented and there was no shortage of the sea-breeze hitting our faces every day. We rejoiced moving over to the new place and it was like being in a rejuvenating camp, away from the bustling city crowd.

So, as we moved up there, we guys made it a routine to stroll the beach every night post dinner, sharing that day’s events among us and rejoicing through it. You ask me anytime and I would say that the time I spend with my friends is always valuable and incomparable to anything else. So, I prefer to spend an ample amount of time with them. I totally forget myself when surrounded by them and be the true version of myself with them. Well, a few like the way I am and there are others who take advantage of that and use me for their benefits.

Oops…I am drifting away from the topic!!!

Coming back to the scene of our night walk, one night we did notice a huge crowd gathered up at one particular spot of the beach. Well, usually the Thiruvanmiyur beach is less known among the masses and it is not that commercialized, thereby the film fraternity uses it to their advantage. And also planning a shoot at the most commercialized beaches of the city like the Marina and the Bessy means attracting huge crowd. However, Thiruvanmiyur beach attracts only the residents of the locality and hence it is easy for them to plan and execute the shoot. Therefore, looking at the crowd gathered there, our immediate assumption was that a shoot was going on.

However, our curiosity irked us to make our way towards the crowd. Reaching the spot, we didn’t know as to what our reactions should be. Are we to be surprised or are we to be quizzed or are we to be astonished, I don’t know at all. There was no film shooting happening but it was after all an old man with simple attire selling buttermilk on a bicycle.

Seriously!

So, what’s the big deal if an old man sells buttermilk on a bicycle would be your immediate question. Believe me; we had the same question in our head, as well.

Well it was until we saw the line of BMWs, Mercedes and other premium cars lined up around him, people queued up around him, patiently waiting, just to grab their glass of buttermilk. Looking at this scene totally made us curious and we headed closer to check it out.

Well it is a global say that “You get easily noticed if you are unique out of the lot” and so was this old man. Chennai is known for its hot and humid weather and so road-side stalls line up during summers, selling cold beverages, and buttermilk is the most common among them. But here, this man totally re-engineered the script. Instead of the strong daylight, he sells them after sunset and instead of setting up the same boring stall, he rides around the beach on his bicycle.

And unlike others, his USP was not just to serve plain buttermilk but he adds finely chopped raw Mango and Boondi (Indian dessert made from fried chickpea flour) along to it. These add-ons actually elevate the drink’s flavor and you could never resist it, after a sip. Well looking at the scene around us, we made our order and had the first drink of the night. Well, the rest is history.

It kind of became a ritual for all of us, every single night and even after moving out the city, until to this day, the memories of those nights still linger in my mind, evergreen as before.

P.S. You can google "Moru Thatha" to know more about him