I spent a few holidays here while growing up; Madras or Chennai as it is now called is a city that unbundles a river of memories. Like walking almost a mile in ankle deep flood of rainwater to post a letter that mom had written to dad, or giving directions to the aquarium to an American tourist at Marina beach. And when we were older, playing all those weird games: How many city buses enter the Purushuwakkam main road in one minute or how many guys turn back if you throw a Loud Karthik into Madras air?
I go through all these ancient images waiting for my cargo baggage to come through the conveyer belt. Meanwhile the legendary Madras heat slowly begins to percolate through your clothes, your bones making way into your being. In Madras, there’s an urban touristy myth that one has to have half a dozen cold showers even while staying in an air-conditioned room. And I can vouch for the story. Anytime. I think that should go on the lonely planet guide.
I go through all these ancient images waiting for my cargo baggage to come through the conveyer belt. Meanwhile the legendary Madras heat slowly begins to percolate through your clothes, your bones making way into your being. In Madras, there’s an urban touristy myth that one has to have half a dozen cold showers even while staying in an air-conditioned room. And I can vouch for the story. Anytime. I think that should go on the lonely planet guide.
As the taxi enters the streets of the city, the smell of long forgotten Madras, a combination of humidity, dry earth warmed by the sun, open drain system, diesel exhausts slowly fills up the air. The besides of the streets is a riot of colours. Almost nothing has changed. They still like their movie stars, their jewellery, their grand sarees and their plump voluptuous women.
Few minutes into the city, it isnt hard to conclude that change in Madras is slow, almost bordering on miss-able. And I soon find out what I had known long back. That there will be, at any given moment during daytime at least one city bus in the Purushuwakkam main road and at any place in Madras there would be a Karthik who would turn back.
