Monday, January 4, 2010

The funny thing is.....

Well, u tell me....
Iv been dying to blog for days and have finally got myself to doing so ! whew.. its been.. well... nevermind how long its been... Iv now been in India for a little over 2 weeks (was in England for the last 3 months pursuing a masters course.. like every 4th Indian my age.. (no clue where I pulled that number from ! ) My first 2 days in Madras (Yes Madras and not Chennai !) I felt like Ian Wright :-).. The funny thing is.. Iv been living in Madras for the past 24 years and 3 months in Nottingham and it leads to this feeling ! Blasphemous ! Iv developed a new found love for this city.. Btw, is it just me or is this city also turning into another city that never sleeps ? !! View of the city through the window of the 23c. One gets to see a million things at the same time. The ragamuffin lying stewed on the pavement right outside the thousand lights mosque at one in the afternoon, completely oblivious to his surroundings, the family of 4 ( or was it 5) balancing themselves on a two wheeler, the auto drivers driving like they are possessed, a pakka south indian payyan selling paani puris (lol !) and and... ok the list goes on.. This is the scene day in and day out. I miss this 'organized chaos' ( oxymoronic I agree). Travel 5000 miles west now.. Hmmm, Nottingham.. I call it the Salem of England. Small city, traffic is very organized. A gazillion pubs in this small city. Fresh air, nice people, studio apartment. I always refer to this as the place I stay at and not the cliched 'back home' or 'back where I came from' phrase that many a pretentious person might use having been abroad for just a couple of months.. Whats worse.. seeing a future destination on the map and referring to that place as home ! ludicrous ! :-) The booze is good there, but then its just water.. Now kingfisher brewed at balaji distillaries ( thats where we Madrasis get our supply of KF from, FYI) is a completely different story.. Iv save the finer details for another post.. Final word on that.. Brilliant. One more thing.. No English 'bloke' can emulate the isshtyle of our Madras 'maaplai' a.k.a 'mama', 'macha' 'maams'.. The dude who wears bell bottoms even in 2010, with his 'seepu' sticking out of his back pocket, sight aduchifying the 'semma figures' at the marina or elliot's beach, or the 'malli poo babes' outside the kabaleeshwarar temple, humming tunes such as 'kangal irandal' or even 'puli urumurudu' !! Madras is Madras.. Its not even Chennai..
Its just "good old South Indian Filter Kaapi in a tumbler and 'davara' in on hand and a fresh and crisp copy of 'The Hindu' in the other hand" Madras...

4 comments:

  1. Nice one da..add some pictures to this blog..

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  2. Good one! you already sound like a friggin NRI who left India when he was still in the womb and has only seen pictures of India and stories that his parents have told him. I still remember how galvanised my 6 year old cousin from Ohio was when she saw a cow on the road! I mean, those kids need to go to a farm/ranch/zoo to look at cows and goats! And think about this, they hardly ever get the joy of riding a two wheeler!

    Anyways! A great start, or should I say, restart? :D Lagey raho!

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  3. Nice blog varun.. I couldn't meet with you this time machi. Actually its been what 3yrs since we've met??? Hope you had nice time in chennai.

    "Organized chaos" sounds like u lifted from somewhere :p

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