Seasonz Chapter 1 - Happiness and Beyond It… (Part 1)

The light was slowly fading out as the blanket of dusk began to smoothly cover over the mountains letting out a magnificent sight, a sight pretty much hard to miss. The trees were dancing to the gentle wind, the birds chirping around happily and the cloud raising its curtain to reveal the hidden treasure of the sky, as the planet was getting ready to welcome the approaching night.

It was the time of the day when the heaven opens its glorious gate to everyone, showcasing a spectacular view of the heavenly bodies. However, very few get the time to sit back, relax and relish the beauty of it, as most of us are programmed to move on a fast-forward mode thus ignoring the beauty around us.

These days there are no room for a selfless life, especially with the city dwellers, as their livelihood is tightly packed, leaving room for relaxing and getting connected with the nature. But, amidst this materialistic life, in contrary, the other part of the city, i.e. the rural life witnesses a totally different set of activities.

The countryside was experiencing and enjoying the art of nature as they always get to do so. Evenings were specifically meant for gatherings. Old men were seen sitting in groups with large country made cigars in their hand and enjoying their usual evening chat. Children running around playing merrily while the women had gathered out in large groups, exchanging different recipes and to add some extra spice to their conversation, even gossips too. Overall, the true essence of nature was to be felt there.   

Moving slightly away from the countryside and landing amid the famous Ferguson College road, one could sense the life of the modern world here, with bustling activities happening in 360 degrees around you. And such a sight would be a whole new experience for any newcomer from rural place to this splendid city of Pune, the city well known as the educational hub of India.

Located in the Western Ghats, the city is roughly positioned at around 150 kms from the business capital of the country, Mumbai. It boasts of its inclement weather and the right geographic zone giving a year-round of pleasant living. And not to forget on the back to back festivals that are celebrated across the city by all section of people. Around the third quarter of the year, the air is completely pumped up with festive mood and there is never a moment of sadness filling up into you.

Now with the rising population, the downtown had witnessed constant remodeling of its infrastructure though still preserving the rich heritage of the city. And to mention here, how different the city may transform into, there is one thing that never changes, and it is “Vada Paav”. A street dish that is so popular among the locals and a must try among all the tourists, one can easily lay hand on them almost anywhere in the city. The city never runs out of eateries and local food joints.

Though the city was witnessing rapid change over the years, there is always a watchful eye on the countryside from getting destroyed. The flora and fauna are well preserved with minimal destruction done due to the constant expansion of the city.

Now coming back to the city life, the aesthetic appeal of the bird’s song was nowhere to be heard around. All that one could witness were long queues of vehicle stranded in the evening traffic and the continuous honking of the horn which dominated the area, well apart from the gorgeous women walking over the sidewalk. People were trying to find their best possible way to head home amidst the heavy traffic, but it was hardly clearing out.

A fat traffic constable was sitting lazily at one corner of the road, showing even the slightest interest to clear the traffic. He can’t be blamed as well, since he was aware of the situation and it is a routine happening almost every week. The chaos at the road had no special reason but rather it was Friday evening and the weekend hangover had already taken upon the Punekars.

Gang of stags and couples could be seen thronging the street getting ready for the “Friday Madness”.  Pubs, Bars, Clubs and private party lounges were about to witness a heavy turnover in terms of both people and profit. Also, these places were expecting a very good business, as it was the first weekend of the month and people would be cash loaded.

A week full of pressurized work at the office, anyone visiting the club was ready to shed a good amount of money, just to relieve themselves from the weeklong stress. Hmmm, well they can’t be criticized about spending so lavishly. It’s their work nature that drives them to spend a lot. Each one is literally stripped off by their boss and a mental relaxation is very much needed to come out of the stereotypic life, which they are forced to lead.

(To be continued...)

The Height of Creativity

This pandemic had in fact been a total boon and bane to all class of people in million possible ways and each of them had used it as they pleased. In fact, the last few months had witnessed people bringing out their hidden talents out into work and relishing from doing it. Be it a simple hobby that they had totally forgotten or a newly learnt skill that they earlier thought was impossible were some of the good things that had germinated out of this lock down.  

And there is a separate class of people who had used this free time to disconnect themselves away from the gadgets and connect themselves with their families. And a few who had even gone the extra mile of posting it over social media saying “Spending Quality Time with Family”.

Dude, that was something that you were supposed to do regularly and rather do not publish it to the world as if it is some sort achievement that you made.

Well honestly speaking this category of people had actually forgotten the meaning of life, as they were busy chasing money. They in deed work for money and do not know the art of making money work for them, which made them totally get disconnected with their very own close circle. Well I do not want to dig in deep into their way of leading life, since everything these days have become cheap publicity and it is more of an artificial life.

Nobody leads a life of their own and rather try to impersonate someone else’s life to theirs.

I am not here to analyze or critique them, but rather to share with you one small incident that I came across during this pandemic.

Well of course all school going kids & parents can relate well to this incident, since you might have personally encountered it sometime. But, if not then keep a tab on your kid, as he/she might use this trick anytime in the future.

Note: To make the interaction more interesting the character names are all fictional

So, nowadays the charm of online classes had almost bit every school and college and the whole educational system is going through some rough patch. The teachers, parents and student are finding it difficult to adjust to the new mode of education system.

I wonder how effective is this mode of teaching for the students, as the teacher will not have control over the entire class, and the students have their own advantage of skipping the classes. And here is one such kid whose creativity actually reflects the amount of dislike towards the new medium of education he is exposed to.

 

**It was the Chemistry class for grade 8, which was taught by Ms. Padma and the online session had just begun

 

Ms. Padma said, “Students please put your mics on mute and as I call out your name for the roll call, unmute, answer and then mute the mic again”

Since it was the start of the session, the students had all obeyed to their teacher and responded accordingly.

As the roll call was over, Ms. Padma had shared her screen to discuss that day’s topic and as usual there were a few students who were adding their comments on the chat section about the connectivity issue that they had.

Well, in India, though most network providers claim of offering lightning speed internet connectivity, only a handful section of the population actually benefit out of it. The rest majority still have to compromise on certain essential factors. Now, since Wi-Fi and mobile data have also fallen under the essential’s category, I had to categorize Wi-Fi under the essential section in the above sentence.

Ms. Padma was slowly helping sort out the issue for each and every student and finally she came over to attend Tharun’s issue.

Tharun had earlier shared a screenshot over WhatsApp to Ms. Padma wherein the image said “Reconncting…”. The teacher tried all possible ways to help him out, but since time was already running out and other students were waiting for the class to begin, she informed Tharun of sharing that day’s content in a recorded video privately.

And so, the day’s session progressed and Tharun received the recorded video from his teacher. They had their next Chemistry session after two days and even on that day Tharun had shared the image of the same issue.

The teacher tried once again but couldn’t succeed and so even that day he received the recorded material. The following sessions were also of the same and the ritual continued over the next few weeks.

Ms. Padma couldn’t understand the nature of the issue and also felt strange since only Tharun had this problem of connectivity. However, she did not want to suspect a thirteen-year kid and rather started inquiring with the network providers of that area if there were any sort of network disruption. But, every single answer came against what she had expected it to be.

After many unsuccessful attempts to solve the issue she totally ignored it after one point in time as she got busy with her other assignments. One fine day when she was accessing WhatsApp via Web, the image sent by Tharun accidentally caught her attention. Casually she opened it and gave a small sigh, as she couldn’t help that poor little boy. She casually scrolled through all the images that he had sent and it remained the same every single day.

As she was above to close the image, something strange suddenly caught her attention. The word “Reconncting…” had a typographic error on it. She hadn’t noticed it all these days as she was in a hurry to sort out the issue during her classes. Her 6^th sense seemed to struck her now and she realized that a thirteen-year-old kid was fooling her all these days.😲

In order to escape from the boring online classes, Tharun had actually made a wallpaper with the message as “Reconncting…” on it and had shared it with Ms. Padma on the first day. And since the teacher hadn’t caught him of his act then, he started following the same strategy every single day.

😂😂😂

After hearing this incident, I was like should I applaud the kid for his creativity or should I empathize with the teacher for being fooled by a kid.

 

“Memories”, you are simply amazing

Raghav, the protagonist from the other blog post “She Moved In, But I had moved Out” is now working at a Multi-National Firm somewhere in the foreign land and is quite comfortable with his new relocation. Most of his time gets totally consumed with the office work, as he barely finds some personal time to take off from the hectic & dynamic schedule.

Some turbulent days did pass by him and some gentle ones too, which was well taken care off by him, as he was matured enough to believe the truth that no single day is the same and no single situation is gone stay the same. 

And it was one such gentle day at the office when suddenly a long lost memory of his flashed right in front of his eyes, barely lasting a second or two, just like how a lighting would hit the earth and vanish off swiftly. 

An unsettled confusion turned up within him instantly. How can a long lost event suddenly flash up before him was his question to himself when he had not thought of it anytime now? Thinking of what caused the sudden trigger of the memory flash, Raghav found out that it was from the Radio that was playing out of his mobile phone.

He had this habit of listening to songs while working, as it helped him stay focused, be always connected with Chennai and refine the unnecessary noise surrounding him. And it was this time that over the radio the Radio Jockey had mentioned the name of a small town, which ignited the memory out of his brain.

It was just a town located twenty three kilometres east of Erode, a city in Tamil Nadu, wherein once Raghav had established a close connection with it. Mixed emotions started flowing within him as soon as the name of the town echoed inside his brain. He was no longer able to concentrate on the work that he was doing and the thought of revisiting the place urged within him. 

Thanks to the technological development the world has seen now, one's actual presence is not exactly required at any place. You can be virtually connected anywhere from the Arctic to the Antarctica. Well when tools like Google Maps & YouTube depicts most of the places on the earth so accurately and gives a complete virtual tour of even some of the most inaccessible place on the planet, all that you need to do is to sit and relax while the World Wide Web does it magic.

Coming back to the present situation, it was nearly fifteen years now and not even once did he actually think of revisiting that particular place, in person or virtually. So, what was the connection with the town that Raghav had? 

Well in the early 2000's a set of educational institutions blossomed across the state of Tamil Nadu boasting itself of specializing in giving exemplary training for the higher secondary students to excel in their board exams. Their marketing strategy has a serious impact in the houses of many middle class family, not just within the state but with the neighboring states as well. There were many kids who became victim to it and Raghav was one of them. 

(To know more about the life of students in such institution, please visit the actual blog post - https://krish-thefriendly.blogspot.com/2014/03/she-moved-in-but-i-had-moved-out-part-1.html )

However, today when Raghav was viewing his school after fifteen years, none of those painful moments even showed up because all the good memories had actually overshadowed the bad ones. So, when he was looking at each of those buildings from his school, only those fond memories of it were being played at the back of his eyes and he could actually feel himself reliving those moments again.

The hostel wherein he and his roommates used to spend long nights sharing spooky tales, the assembly area where he and Mithun used to take the last row during the yoga session just to evade the direct view of the warden, the playground wherein they used to show off their sporting skills, as it was right close to the girls hostel, the higher secondary academic block where he and his cousin brother used to secretly meet every day and their secret spot on sharing paper chits containing coded information, the main academic block wherein there were individual stairs for boys and girls, the study hall where every morning he used to pretend studying when actually sleeping with the book wide open and Mithun staying guard to alert him in case of the warden coming by at close range and meeting his first crush, the girl who was totally mad on him despite knowing the school rules, all brought in a big smile on his face.

Staying still for a moment at his work desk, he was still not out of the time travel that he just had, wishing how good it would be to actually revive them. Feeling cheerful about travelling down his memory lane, he was amazed knowing how the brain works and the need to encode more and more good memories into it, so as to have a happy retired life.

A life when you sit relaxed with your partner in the balcony of your high-rise apartment overlooking the beautiful mountains of the western ghats and sharing the wonderful moments with her.

And There Were Those Anguished Long Haul Days

A rough phase of life is definite to hit every single one over their lifespan and how well one reacts to those situation displays one’s willpower and the ability to sustain over the long run. And here is one such period in which the protagonist had to face some really hostile days.

                                  

The story rewinds back to a time in the past and is set in the hustle bustle capital city of Tamil Nadu, Chennai, where Vinesh is in his final leg of graduation. Well as I say it is from Tamil Nadu and as the protagonist is a male then for sure you should have guessed it by now that by default he is in the process of becoming an Engineer. Vinesh was well blessed with a great family, amazing friends, had a good paying job offer too, right before he even completed his studies and so he felt that life was being so generous with him. But, little did he anticipate the events to happen in the short run.

Graduation was over and he was eagerly waiting for the call letter to make his move into the corporate world. The initial few days’ right out of college, he gave himself a break and traveled back to New Delhi to spend some quality time with this family who were stationed there. Days flew by and there was no news from the company that had hired him. Very slowly it had started bothering him much and he could no longer accept being idle when most of his friends, who were all working with a different MNCs had already started working.

So, Vinesh packed his bags and decided to come back to Chennai, with a great hope on the city that it would definitely lay a new path for him. By the way that was his initial step towards success & the first lesson that he learnt, i.e. staying confident and having belief on your city, as it will never fail to support those who come seeking for its help. Once again days in Chennai weren’t a piece of cakewalk as day in and day out was a total struggle. Normally his weekday starts off early in the morning, dressed up well in formal attire and packing his backpack with all relevant documents and multiple copies of CVs, as he heads out in searching for jobs, hitting every single tech park of the city.

Just a small packet of biscuit is all that fuels him up for the rest of the day, and stepping in and out of companies submitting his profile across the cities was something that he never even dreamt off doing. But when reality hits you hard, you ought to do certain unimaginable stuffs right. Though no companies called back he never stopped submitting his profile. And on other days when there wasn’t any walk-in drives happening, he would stay back at home happily cooking food for his friends who shall return home after a long tiring day at work. So, over the dinner, everyone used to share their respective stories that happened over the day and Vinesh used to be a silent spectator listening to all the stories of his friends. Of course he enjoyed them initially, but over a period of time, it started having a negative effect within him. Depression was slowly eating him up and he did not wish to bother his friends by sharing his sadness with them. And neither did they understand his plight that they kept continuing with their everyday story.

Months flew swiftly and all those who had promised of helping Vinesh in bagging a job went totally unresponsive. Here is where he learnt his second most important lesson towards success. Nobody gives a fuck about your life, it’s only you who will have to plan and work on chiseling it. It is after all an artificial world, where relationships are all just faking out.

But, little did he knew that it was just a matter of few more month during which he had to go through all the current mental struggles, before which the lessons learnt actually will pay him off, though not permanently but as an interim break from the present situation. So, ultimately the city didn’t fail to support him and neither did his attempts to figure out a way go in vain.

Lesson well learnt is what he understood closing his eyes that night and thinking about the new beginning that is to happen the next morning. 

A totally new life waits ahead with lots of surprises and memories to hold on to.

The Garden City Tale: Part 2 – The Meeting

“Narrating it from first person view”

The countdown was over and my blood pressure was rising fast as if the rocket had just blasted off from its blast pad and searing fast into the atmosphere. Dheeraj was on time to pick us up from the hotel to their home. Though it was a short drive, millions of neurons were fast bombarding against the walls of my brain. The car to came to a halt inside a small lane next to a big lake and I could see Pranika’s father standing at the entrance of their home.

He welcomed us all inside and there we were greeted by her mom, her sister-in-law Anasuya, their pet dog Rover and at the far end of the living room stood Pranika in her Ghagra Choli. Greeting them all one by one, I signaled a short “Hi” at her with a gentle smile on my face, not knowing if she had even noticed it. So, all of us got settled and the elders were having their own set of conversation while I was wondering what my conversation would be with her. This whole arranged marriage setup itself was totally being strange to me and yes, I had never imagined that I would also end up doing an arranged marriage.

Well, I am not against arranged marriages but I had always wanted to break the odds against the common notion that was prevailing with a middle class family about love marriages and prove to them they can’t just go by presumptions. However, as you know, things tend to be always opposite of what I want and so was in this case, as well. No regrets though, I was sure that my parents would have definitely found a nice life partner, since all these years they had offered me the best that they can afford with.

Very slowly each member of her family was having light conversation with me and slowly it made me ease my nerves and feel comfortable with the new place. And then Pranika came serving us some cold beverage and some snacks, which I do not remember right now what it was. All I could do was to grab a look at her face and even before that sight could get register in my memory she vanished off, like a swift bird.

“Uff, tough luck” was my mind voice.

But, her sudden disappearance rerouted my attention towards the side table next to the TV, where one of her portrait was neatly framed. It was just a casual pose and Pranika had a bright smile on it. Wow, that smile is contagious and may be that was the moment when I fell for her. Meanwhile as all the pleasantries were exchanged between both the families, Pranika’s father uttered the golden sentence.

“Why don’t Vikaas and Pranika go and speak somewhere private?”

My mind voice was like, “Thank god, finally!!!” someone spoke it up. Oh please, don’t judge me as a despo, but well yeah that was the sole purpose of visiting their home. To get to know Pranika, her views, thoughts, likes, dislikes, etc and most importantly if she can sustain to my tantrums and lead a life with me. Anasuya, took Pranika and me into the room next to the living room and left us both with two chairs facing each other. The immediate thought that popped up into my mind was, “Am I having some sort of an interview?”.

 

What happened next is to be followed in the upcoming posts.

So, stay tuned folks.

She moved in, but I had moved out – Part 8 (The Movie Night)

Over the next few days Mithun had almost come close to revealing the incident to Kishore, however my timely interruption saved the day. It was not that Mithun wanted to deliberately share it with Kishore, but it was his natural behavior and he can’t be blamed for it, in any way. Moreover he can never conceal even a tiny piece of information with his close friends, and now since I had put him in such a tight spot, he really found it difficult to handle the situation.

While this was happening on one side of my life, in parallel on the other side, the secret cute smiles & glances between Sri and I started rising rapidly, as we couldn’t resist looking at each other even for a short interval of five minutes. We never missed a single moment that gave us the chance of looking at one another and we both seemed to relish it deeply. That was the first real infatuation that we both had in our lives and well of course during the early years of your teens, the hormonal reactions within you are totally uncontrollable. So, we just let it go by the flow and didn’t suppress our feelings. And as I had already mentioned in my last post, she had a fair complexion and every single time that our eyes met, she totally blushes out and her cheeks instantly turn pink, making her look like a Barbie doll.

So, amidst all these happy moments, there were times when somewhere deep down our heart a little fear would pop-up, especially while thinking of the school rules. However, the fun side of the hostel life overshadowed our fears and we continued with our so called puppy romance. And then there was this night, one among the innumerable memories that I preserve from that time, which remains fresh in my mind even now.

As there was no television at the hostel, the school authority used to screen film once in a month. So, as we were in the middle of the academic year, it was one such movie night that we were all so eagerly waiting for. Right since we got back from school, Kishore, Mithun and I were in full-on discussion about the movie and we were so excited about it. It was a newly released Tamil movie called “M. Kumaran S/O Mahalakshmi” starring Jeyam Ravi in the lead role and a debutant actress from Kerala called Asin. The first study hour was indeed busy that evening, as every single student seemed to be heavily discussing only about the movie, which the hostel wardens mistook it as students engaged in serious group study. Well, yeah that’s how stupid they were in real.

Dinner was served early that night and we were all chit chatting merely at our rooms, by the time when the technical team was setting up the projector and the screen. Minutes later, the announcement was made for the students to come and assemble at the hall. The wardens had actually expected students to turn up in an orderly fashion. However, to their surprise every single student barged out of their rooms in such a hurry that they even knocked down couple of staffs who were standing at the entrance of the hall.

But no one cared about it and every one were in a rush to grab the first few rows of the hall. It was a complete chaos and the crowd was being totally uncontrollable. Nobody seemed to pay heed to the warden’s instruction and it was well enough for the staffs be enraged at us. And in that rage they just went and shut down the projector. In an instance the entire hall fell silent and we could clearly sense the anger on all their faces.

It was for sure that we would be subjected to heavy punishment that night and our guesses turned out to be true in the next few minutes. All the students were sent back to the hostel and were made to kneel down at the assembling point. By now we had spent quite a lot of days at the hostel and we knew there were more aggressive punishments, in line for us. The faculties arrived at the assembling point and had started clearly identifying those miscreants who had behaved wrongly with them. They started filtering them out from the entire lot, and luckily Kishore, Mithun and I were not one among them or to say it on a brighter note, unfortunately we were held up at our rooms and we were among the few to reach the hall last. And therefore the staffs had very well seen us entering calmly.  

But I would say that was not us totally and our starts were shining bright that day to save our asses from the terrible punishments. Every single time the thought of punishments made our blood run cold. So, on one side as the miscreants were being filtered out, on the other side the studious one were also getting filtered out and they were sent to the cinema hall.

Again we were held up in between. Because unfortunately, we did not fit into either of the category and we were actually wondering how come being studious related to not being mischievous? But if that is how the understanding of the educational system is, then we raising voice against it is like an ant trying to pitch its voice against an elephant. So, with the only other option left with us, we started making innocent faces and tried all sort of ways to get noticed by any of our class faculty, as we were so desperate to watch the movie.

And this time our trick actually worked out, as Mr. Basha, our Mathematics teacher noticed us and called us forward. He gave a suspicious look at all three of us, but we still maintained the same innocence on our face and then he asked us to move out to the cinema hall, as he was one among the few staffs earlier to notice us entering the cinema hall late. So, our false act plus our unplanned late entry earlier paved us the way for us this time. We actually couldn’t believe our luck, as our stupid trick worked out with one of the most dreaded staffs of the school. Hiding our joy within ourselves, we maintained the same composure until we reached the hall and then burst out laughing heavily.

Finally getting settled there feeling accomplished we were exchanging excited looks as the film started screening.

The Garden City Tale: Part 1 – A Journey of Thousand Dreams

It was the last day at the office before which Vikaas was flying out of Dubai to attend to one of his close friend’s marriage, back home. The planning for the wedding was well charted out weeks before the travel and most importantly it was the re-union of his besties gang. So, the excitement knew no bounds and it was well amplified on his face, right since a week from his travel date.

Taking the direct flight to his hometown, Vikaas was eagerly waiting for the marriage day to come. Meanwhile, as he had come home on a short break, Vikaas’s parents had planned to visit Pranika’s home, as well. Actually, since the last few months Vikaas’s parents had been actively engaged in finding a suitable bride for him and when they did come across Pranika’s profile, they found it to be a perfect match for him. Vikaas had even looked into the pics of Pranika, and had given the go-green signal to his parents for the process ahead. So, two days from day of landing, the trip to Bangalore was fixed and Pranika’s family was informed of the same.

Having a conversation with a stranger was not a difficult task at all for him, however this time a meeting with the girl and with whom he might have to travel the rest of his life, in case everything goes out well, was making him think a lot. A kind of mixed feeling was going on within him and he just tried to stay calm and not get nervous about the interaction. However, on the brighter side, just to make things easy for him, Pranika was from Bangalore and Vikaas held a very close connect with the city, as he had always loved it and wished to settle down there. So, thinking of revisiting the city after a long break calmed down the storm within him and he was getting ready for the big day.

It was the early morning train to Bangalore that they were taking and was a six hour journey to cover, by which innumerable thoughts were already bombarding within his mind. He was not sure how the interaction would go on and he was little skeptical if Pranika would even like him and if her family would accept him or not. Honestly speaking, the reason for the sudden spike in pressure was that he had always dreamt a lot about how his marriage should be and well of course what sort of a partner she should be. Supposedly if he had been successful with his love life, the story would have been entirely different by now. However, since this was an arranged marriage, wherein he totally had zero knowledge about the girl, a sudden fear does creeps into anyone thinking what if the ideologies and the thought process contradict a lot.

But sticking to the reality and going by it was the practical move to take, which Vikaas had also done. So, he just made sure that he was clear about certain things and wouldn’t compromise on them when projecting himself to the other family. Some of them were like not to falsify his character just for the sake of impressing the girl, to be open and honest all the time, and not to play around with his originality. Because he well knew that telling a lie is easy, but to maintain it during all the times is the hardest part of all. And moreover it is okay to earn a bad name by telling the truth than earning a good name by telling a lie. So it was wise to tell the girl and her family the truth, as how it is and not unnecessarily induce false expectations for them.

With this clarity of thought in his mind, he was lazily gazing out through the window of the speeding train. The first few sights of the Kannada script eased his nerves and slowly as the train decelerated into Bangalore, his mood totally uplifted. Pranika’s dad was already waiting at the train station and he received them warmly. And as they exited out of the station they were now greeted by Dheeraj, Pranika’s elder brother. And minutes later they were all now heading towards the hotel, when a sudden strange thought hit Vikaas’s mind.

All these while, right since from his schooling to college to office days he had dated quite a lot of girls, and in all those cases, it was usually the girl with whom he gets along well at the beginning, followed by building a good rapport with her siblings and then finally ending up getting known to her parents. But, here in the case of Pranika, it was totally the other way round. He just got introduced to her dad first, and then now with her brother and well who knows he may even get introduced to someone from her family and finally it would be her. This experience was a first of its kind to him. JJJ

After some ten minutes of drive, the car came to a standstill and so did his thoughts. As he was offloading the bags, he overheard his dad telling Pranika’s dad that they will quickly freshen up and be at their home in the next thirty minutes. So, the countdown has begun and all that he had was a mere 1800 seconds in hand to get himself all set and prepared.

What happened next is to be followed in the upcoming posts.

So, please stay tuned.

Madras Madness: Part 4 – A night not to be forgotten

Let me begin this article with a note of gratitude to all those readers who took their time off their busy schedule just to go through my last post. I highly appreciate it, as your constant support and constructive feedback makes me write more such articles or to put it in a fancy way, to share more of my memories with you J

So, getting into our new post right away, the following event that is to unfold is yet another memory out of my hippocampus. Well it is almost a decade now since it happened and to be more precise, from the late evening of Dec 31^st 2009 to the dawn of Jan 1^st 2010.

Hence, with the above dates mentioned, I am sure that you would have got a clue as to what the rest of the post might be all about. Well your guess is absolutely right, as it was our (me & my buddies) first New Year celebration out of our college hostel. In the last two years, we were totally confined in that so called “hostel” of Sri SaiRam Engineering College, which was of course one of the top-ranked colleges in Tamil Nadu, but was even more known for its insane rules & regulations imposed upon students. And so staying at such a place we weren’t even given the complete freedom of celebrating New Year. Amidst the stupid rules we still had our fair share of happiness and small-small celebrations happening occasionally, and which now brings me to think of putting a separate post on it.

So, right after the end of the fourth semester exams, we all had stepped out of the college hostel and had rented a small house in Chrompet. And the highlight of moving out was that all our parents had unanimously agreed to our decision of moving out of the hostel and they were totally against the cruel treatment of the college authorities. This made our decision easier to implement than what we had initially thought off.

Getting back to our story, on the 31^st evening, ultimately the plan was to head to Marina beach where one could find the best New Year celebration happening. Back then we didn’t have vehicle with us and so our only mode of transportation was the city bus. Aravindh, who popularly goes by the name “Mama”, had also turned up at our place for the night out. So, with the dusk approaching we took the bus “21G” to our first destination, the City Center Mall and from where we shall later be heading to the beach. The mall was just 2 kilometers from the beach and so spending the rest of the night at the mall and having our dinner over there was the best option to us.

As it was New Year eve, the roads were heavily packed and so it took a considerable amount of time to reach the mall. So, as planned we had our dinner over there, spent few hours at the roof top view point enjoying the cool sea breeze hitting our faces while we got an amazing view of the seashore.

With half-an-hour left for the clock to stuck 12, we made our way to the beach. It was unusually crowded with the air filled with excitement and people of all classes had gathered over there to share their happiness with the rest. Finally the clock ticked midnight and amount of fireworks display organized at the beach was amazing. People who had brought cakes with them started sharing it around with any stranger that they met over there. And the best part was you get randomly hugged by innumerable strangers on a single night, all wishing and exchanging their happiness with you. This was a new experience for all of us.

With the clock at half past midnight, people gathered there were made to disperse by the law enforcement department and we too made our way to the closest bus station, not being aware that we might be surprised right on the first day of the year. As we reached the bus station, the bus station supervisor informed us that the first bus to start from there was around 5 am only and that we were also not allowed to stay there until then.

WTF!!!

We were little confused and worried, since we had totally ignored the mode of returning home while drafting out our plan. Also, as we were students, we did not carry enough cash to even hire a taxi back home.

Since Aravindh had a considerable amount of experience being in the city, he suggested on checking out at the closest MRTS station for any night service train that might take us somewhere close to Chrompet. But, as we enquired over there, the station master disappointed us again by saying that there were no night service on that day and the first train in the morning was by half past four. Now, both the option of public transport was ruled out. However, looking at our plight, the station master informed us of a night service MTC bus available at the DMS (Directorate of Medical and Rural Health Service) bus stop.

Though it was a long walk from the Lighthouse station to DMS, we decided to take it still, as we were left out with no other option. As we made our walk there was total excitement filled in the air, all through the way and that made our walk even more entertaining. And every now and then we grouped up for a selfie or just find random spots to relax our tiring feet. The St. George’s church on the Cathedral rode had arranged for a special mass and it was so refreshing to hear in that hour of the day. Refreshing ourselves for quite a while, we further made our move towards the DMS bus stop.

The bus stop was deserted and we were the only ones making noise over there, well apart from the vehicles that were passing by the Anna Saalai. Say after twenty minutes or more, a bus made its approach near the bus stop.

Oh fuck, was our reaction looking at it!

The bus was jam packed with people clutching dangerously even on the tiny foot board and totally no room for anyone to even set a foot inside. It was such a terrible scene and we had no interest to put our own life at risk and board the bus. So now even the last hope of us getting back home was also lost. Sitting alone at a deserted bus stop at the early hours of the day, we never felt unsecured or dangerous, as Madras was by far considered to be one of the safest cities in the country.

So, for the first few minutes we were lazing around the bus stop, but after sometime we decided to move ahead as we were getting bored of staying at the same spot. Once again it was Aravindh who came up with a brilliant idea. He suggested us walking to the T.Nagar bus depot and by the time we reach there, we shall be able to comfortably take the first bus departing out of there. His idea did sound right and moreover we guys had nothing much to do, rather than stare at the deserted Anna Saalai. Our route map was to take the Mount Road and then turn right onto the Pondy Bazaar road. And on reaching the Panagal Park junction, we take the North Usman road until we reach the bus depot.

The route was pretty interesting to take and we marched all the way down the Mount Road. Once we entered the Pondy Bazaar area, it was such a rare scene to see the ever crowded road with no activity happening at all. We felt as if we owned the entire stretch of the road.

And one such interesting moment worth sharing here is that on the front yard of one of the houses, we found a strange rangoli put up for the New Year. A rangoli is not strange a sight at the entrance of the South Indian homes, but this rangoli had a strange message on it, which instantly grabbed our attentions. The message was “HAPPY NEW YEAR 20010”.

All of us burst out laughing looking at it and I still remember Sreeni trying his best to erase the extra 0 from it. It was so funny to think how crazy people become in the zest for celebration. So, walking further down the busy shopping lane of the city, we finally reached the T.Nagar Bus Depot and by the time we reached it, it was already dawn. The local tea shops around the depot had opened up for a fresh year of business. Gulping down some tea and biscuits, we saw the first bus getting ready to take us back home.

As we got down at Chrompet and made our way back to the room, we knew that the entire country had woken up to begin a fresh start into their life and here we lazy asses were so tired that we bounced straight onto our beds, later waking up by mid-day.

Wow!!! What a start for the year it was…

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