It
was late February .The mercury was dipping down to subzero in Kashmir. The
wintry cold was harsh enough to arrest me in my warm cozy place. Everything
around was catching the snapping cold. Life was frozen like freezing waters. The
dark shady sky overhead was warning of more snowflakes to fall, making people
lazier because of the winter-blues. I was also a part of this lazy routinely
chore. I started my day late and ended it early only to add to my sluggishness.
I ate and slept and then again ate and slept again. This was my routine.
This
routine of me was making me dumb, consuming my aptitude day by day. One night
as I happened to come out in the open sky to cherish the twilight, I saw a shooting
star falling across the skyline as if asking me to make a wish. I did the same wholeheartedly.
I prayed to live in a little warmer place. Within a period of one week, my wish
was answered. Ironically, I asked for a little warmer place and I got one of the
warmest places, Chennai. Ah! And now I am here.
Chennai
turned me ill at ease. Now I was feeling the butterflies in my stomach. I was
clueless. I had never been to a south Indian place before. I knew nothing about
Chennai but ‘Dosa’ and Rajnikanth.
From last six months, I was like hibernating in my place but now this was the
wakeup call for me. The trouble to bother was that I had to travel from an
extremely cold place to an insanely hot and humid place. “Kashmir to Kaniyakumari”, responded everyone in bewilderment.
As I
landed into Chennai, I was feeling like I have entered a foreign world where
the only way of communicating with others was body language. Interestingly the
architecture around reminded me of RK Narayan’s Malgudi Days. Intricate
streets, modest houses and men in their ‘loungi’. It was feeling like the
characters from Malgudi Days have turned live and performing to entertain me.
For me now
Chennai is a very interesting place to visit. Minus some of the good beaches
and malls, a commoner cannot find anything interesting that makes Chennai a
metro city. But that’s okay. Modestly is what I really admire about Chennai. The
Chennai people are very kind and modest in their behavior and attires accept
some riffraff guys who strictly confine their world to these
five letters ‘TAMIL’. Although language is a big barrier here as the Hindi
speaking crowd is apparently nil but I hope to learn it soon.
Lastly
when I am living in my new home of scorching sun and humid air, I wish to see
that shooting star again and wish for a little colder place.
