Parables of a Survivor in Chennai : Redemption

As I sit in the train on my way to Bristol from Edinburgh, it is only 5.30pm now but the sun has gone down almost 2 hours back. Generally I like to gaze outside from my favourite windows seat and try to absorb as much as possible of the fleeting by sceneries.  But right now hardly anything is visible apart from my own reflection from the glass. So I thought to pick up the piece that was due for more than 2 years. I tried hundreds of times but fell short of words every time. Let us see how it goes this time.

Time has flown by since I left Chennai. But the memories are as fresh like yesterday. This piece is dedicated to all my friends in Chennai and especially to my room-mates without whom it would be never as enjoyable as it has been.

When we stepped in Chennai for the first time from Mysore on 7^th September 2009, we were all apprehensive of the place. I still remember the grim faces and painful squeals of people when the posting locations were declared in Mysore at Infosys GEC2. But in the 2 years that we spent there, we learnt to love the place & the life there… mostly, the Freedom.

Most of us grew up thinking about getting decent grades in the education system, secure a job with high possibilities and a respectable income. As we move on one step after another, the last step seems less and less relevant as we strain to reach the next milestone. But sometimes it occurs to me, all of these are important, but may not lead to a so-called Happy Life. Happy Life is a very complicated function of health, money, relationships, career and attitude. But mostly attitude.

Attitude triggers & controls everything else. This is one of the foremost realizations that I had so far. When we were in Chennai, all of us were very alert and felt alive. It was not just about going to office and performing good everyday, but you had to think about the other aspects of your daily life that we had never thought of before. From the daily chores, arranging food, turning off the water pump in time, washing clothes, cleaning the house, it taught us everything step by step. We made mistakes everyday and learnt to overcome them. It was as thrilling as learning to walk for the first time! We learnt to appreciate the subtle efforts needed in everything around us that used to go unnoticed when we were at home, leading a selfish life and thinking about only us all the time. The experience in Chennai taught us to adapt & to evolve. We finally got a taste of life, slapped by it, spanked by it and also kissed by it. As I returned from Chennai to Kolkata after about 31 months after I left home, I felt myself to be a stronger, better & more independent individual.

My room-mates were a very important part of my life there. All our lives revolved around each other everyday. We were support systems for each other and stood up for ourselves against all adversities like a single family. The happiness expanded manifold on distribution and tough times got cushioned. Without them, I admit, it would have been very difficult to live there all alone. In fact, I truly believe that all these years were actually a part of my extended college experience. We were trained almost from scratch, started working under the guidance of able team lead and finally learnt to deliver independently.

In Chennai, my typical day would start from 7.30am when I would get up, reach office within 8.45 and work till 12pm and take a long lunch break when all of the roomies will meet together for a daily dose of gossips and food; then resume work till 5.30pm, go to salsa class (my first formal dance lessons!), go to gym (sometimes), jump in the swimming pool and do some quick laps, play snooker for couple of hours, have dinner at the food court and return home by the last bus! Whoa! I did everything that Infosys offered. I had a tendency to jump in the waters of every beach that I went to. From getting the stick of the police at Marina Beach, to Thiruvanmiyur, Besant Nagar, Kovalam, Elliots, Mahabalipuram, Pondicherry, I swam in every beach no matter what season it was, how the weather was or what I was wearing at that time! My most favourite memory in Chennai was of the day when we had lunch at our friends’ place at SP Koil, where we decided to spend the evening to Mahabalipuram (45mins far by bus), and reaching there we decided to spend the night at Pondicherry (2 hours from there). We reached Pondicherry at 2 in the morning and just roamed about in the dark till morning due to unavailability of vacancies in hotels! In the end we felt tired, but happy! With our friends, there was hardly a day without any happenings. As I type this now, I feel a major part of me totally numb just because of their absence here.

Fixing a destination gives you a direction but also takes away the flexibility to stop and relish the present. When we keep on dreaming about the future, the present slips away without notice. When I moved away from Chennai, I started to miss the people who I hardly talked with! The people who I played snooker with everyday, we exchanged hardly anything more than a quick appreciation or a tap on the table, but that is what remains etched in my memory. The pretty girl who used to come to have breakfast at the same time I went and used to sit at the same seat everyday. The rowdy group of boys who used to splash around in the swimming pool for hours, without even completing a single lap. The stout little man who used to lift 80 kilograms in the gym, without even weighing the same himself! All these insignificant memories keep swirling into my subconscious time to time.

People from other parts of India generally have a not-so-correct perception about the life and people in Chennai. Yes, people do not speak much Hindi. But tell me, which English person would speak French with you? People in Tamil Nadu are very protective about their own culture. I do not see any harm in that. Even if you drop by to Madurai or Coimbatore, you would get a flavour of the life and language that is hundreds of years old. Mixing of culture makes the people open but spoils the distinct flavour. In Kolkata, we accept all people as our own. We try to adopt habits that come floating by from any direction. But if you go around Kolkata, how many things in daily life can you find out that is very uniquely Bengali? We are the most adaptive, like a cockroach. We will live long and spread everywhere in the world. But we are gradually losing the ability to retain the uniquely Bengali culture within ourselves.

Tamil Nadu’s strategy is admittedly a bit extremist. They intentionally create a distance between themselves and the non-Tamil people. But that is what made them one of the richest cultural places. From the taste of dosai & sambar, the Tamil language, the gajra on the ladies’ hair, the smell of strong alcohol in every other guy’s breath, the periodic whistle of the train passing by, the hot insufferable summer, the dark countryside of Paranur lit by silvery moonlight, the soothing sound of waves crashing on the Besant Nagar beach, swimming in the rain… all were a part of my day-to-day life and are a savoured memory now.

I have learnt to love Chennai as a whole, as a part of me. As I sign-off the Parable today, all I have is a big smile on my face. Thank you everybody for making the journey so beautiful.