ON THE WAY HOME…

Many a time, my class mates and I just decide that we can’t take any more in college and mass bunk. As my college is located at the other corner of the city from where I live, I have an hour and a half of bus travel to do!

I LOVE the travel!!!

It’s first of all with the great feeling that I’m going back home, that the way back seems twice more beautiful! People say ECR is one awesome way to buzz past, but I believe even OMR(Old Mahabalipuram Road) is a quaint dear way too! :)

The dear old spots whiz past me and fills me with a very nice feeling…The words written in the ‘House of Prayer’ near Madhya Kailash never go un noticed… the Okkiyam lake in Karapaakkam is my faeryland- a source of perennial joy… the Koovum under Kotturpuram bridge or its distributary under Saidapet Bridge(whichever way I come) fills a strange sense of sadness and silence in me… The sweet smell that emanates from near Dollar Biscuit Company brings in the hunger pang… Oh I could go on!!!

And then if I get down at Thiruvanmiyur junction, the walk till the terminus passing by the thiruttu VCD kadai, the pasha kadai, the pirated book kadai, etc…waiting for my favourite bus M7-that takes a circuitous route via Vijayanagar are things that are dear to my heart. I love the way time starts to go slower when you pass by Vijayanagar, Baby Nagar, etc… sweet memories of mapping entire Velacherry in my first semester floods me. Especially how Ahaladini and I went about baby Nagar, first mapping it and later, knocking at doors and taking a survey of thermal comforts, how few people shut the door on our faces, how some invited us inside and gave water… how the two of us were followed by a mad limping dog that made us run in circles…how her lens dried up and she had to wash her eyes vigorously…how we sat down at the centre of the road and ate jam sandwiches… he he… we’ve done a million foolish things in three days there and best part was our class boys saw the two of us sitting in the middle of the road and spread it to EVERYONE! Not that we cared!

And if I get down at Saidapet, how I walk all the way to the boarding point and catch another bus, get down at the T.Nagar terminus and walk walk walk… :D Sometimes, I take an auto.

Walking is a better option though! I love crowds, people and activity. And t.Nagar has it all in the most vibrant and best of forms!!!

If ever you get to see a salwar-clad girl with a cap over her head, carrying a weird long t-shaped scale and a chart holder, easily balancing a cup of hot Aavin milk or Vivekanada’s coffee(ah…. Yumm!!!), that’s Me!!!:D

Well, I drink my cuppa slowly, watching the crowd, pausing at a shop or two, buying an ear-ring or a book or something, walking, pausing, observing…then dropping the Styrofoam cup into the dustbin opposite Kumaran and then walk on. Then just before my home comes into view, I there’s this junk dealer. I stand there for a while, chat with the owner there or his wife, ask for any second-hand novels or sportsstars or cricket talks. Home comes into view and the pleasant deep happiness-bubble expands!

I love my life… :)