First off – a very happy madras day to all!! For people from
this place this day is about celebrating their rich culture and heritage and
the carnatic music and the classical dance and the pride in their lungiz and
gajraz and what not but for me its none of that!! Not being originally from
here or anywhere from the south the criteria for describing this place would be
totally different for me (though gajraz and longiz are a part of it! and come
off it! if these two ingredients are missing from your once-upon-a-time-in-Chennai
story, dude either your story isn’t complete or the place you are talking about
is definitely not Chennai!)
So ya getting back to what Chennai is to me, well to start
with it’s a place for me where all my macchaz and macchiz “peacefully” coexist!
It’s a place where me along with them have had the funnest and the most
terrifical times (I take the liberty to use these non-existent words because I know
for a fact that no word in the dictionary can sum up the amount of fun and the
good times I’ve spent here) and I do realize that the post isn’t about my diz
and daz so moving on to Chennai, it’s a place where a normal Hindi speaking
person would get frustrated to the level of pulling his hair out listening to
the “ingeda pungede” and what not. Yup talking about the language problem here,
but then later these moments of frustrations become one of those jokes where you
could laugh your lungs out and slowly words like maccha macchi Avalon become
your lingo without you even realizing it!
Chennai is a place where every single soul cribs about the weather
but then at the same time the evenings at bessy beach, the coffy and the sundal
and the numerous fun games on that beautiful serene beach are to die for! It’s blessed
with awesome evenings I say (and sadly m cursed with a 6pm in kurfew time!!)!
It’s a place which initially gave me a big time superiority
complex! People here stare or rather ogle at you with those “brainy eyes” like
grey matter oozing out of them and you go all like “I jus wanna cuddle up in a corner
in my warm ball of fur” (get the brainest of the person here and jus make four
tambram give him “that stare” with those “brainy eyes” trust me he’ll have that
deep seated feeling of nothing-ness. There is something about those eyes!) But
then this same place gave me immense confidence and made me the person I am
today. It’s a place for me where I realized my independence and my freedom, thanks
to the Chennai locals. Travelling in them too was a big time problem, details
of which I shall not get into, but then jus standing by the door in a fast
moving local makes you feel free as a bird!
It’s a place where initially dressing up was like a taboo
(not literally) from the scare of “roadside romeoz” {as they are lovingly
called by us). But then it was here that I realized that where roadside romeos
existed even gentleman-george-washington existed too! It was nowhere else but
here where I realized the importance of maintaining my respect and my dignity
and that the bravest savior for me was I me myself, and thats how it should be!
Coming to the gajra part, yes I agree the first time I got a
terrible headache form the smell of it and imagine a girl wearing that to
college, the idea of it was bizarre, I couldn’t believe it! But then I slowly
started to accustom to it, then I also learnt how to make it or rather weave it
and now I even have a pic in it and yes it my fantasy to have one facebook DP
in it! coming to the Lungiz…umm well theres only so much good that can be told
about madras and lungiz don’t seem to come it that so much! I give up here!( I mean
seriously y would someone wear that! Seriously!)
Chennai showed me pretty amazing time and some not so amazing
too. I met some really really great friend whose friendship I know I will
cherish throughout and some not so great too (lesser in the later genre) it taught
me certain lessons beautifully and certain harshly! It taught me when and what
to care about and what not to give a rats ass to! Like it or not, It’s a major
part of who I am today and what I believe in! And that’s what I will celebrate
about Chennai!
