The Shooting Star

ABDULWAJID

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.