Tag: tamil nadu

An Accidental trip to Chennai..

On July 14, 2013

“uth jaa re… kitna soega? Roz subah aake uthana padta hai” was what was beamed into my ears, early in the morning. Every morning, with an accustomed reply of, “bas aur 5 minute ammi”. The 5-minute of course got snoozed across to many more wake-up calls by Ammi and with each call, the frequency mixture of irritation and anger on her 21-year old son was more and more visible. And finally, it was Morning for me. Although the clock on the wall, said the otherwise by resting both the hands close to the number 12.
This was how the last leg of my vacations at home was being spent. Early morning sleep and an afternoon wake-up. Being at home, without any sort of time-table to take care of is one of the many perks that one can get.
It was time to do the most dreaded of tasks at the end of a long vacation at home. Packing. Arranging stuff back onto your luggage is an art of its own of which I am a novice. Somehow, with Ammi being there, it was done.
Had booked my tickets long back, 29th June was the day and here it was. With all bidaayi sessions completely done with , where no matter how long your vacations seem to be, on your way towards the station your eyes do get moist, thinking of those tears at the doors of your home.
Anyways, it was time for the train. Yes, I was on time. But the train was not. How consistent of Indian Railways to be always not be on time!! After all, coming late is so in vogue.
And finally it came. The train.
With loads of luggage, thanks to Ammi filling it up with excessive snacks and achaar’s so that I may not become dublaa again, I entered into S1 looking for seat number 71. Ended up entering from the first gate, and had to go to the other end to reach my seat. With this entire luggage, it was a task in itself. But finally it was seat number 71!! Phew!!
But.
There was already a couple sitting over there, reading a telugu magazine and seemed lost in their own world. On enquiring about the seats, first they gave a surprised look and then took out a printed ticket from their bag. Even I opened my e-ticket. Same coach, same seat.
The TTE came in only to check my ticket, of same coach and same seat and same train. But. A date which was different from that of today. It wasn’t 29/6/2013 but 29/7/2013!!!
WTF!!!
I somehow got off the train, only to find that there wasn’t any other train directly to Bangalore that day!!
Epic!!
Time stood still, even when the train on the platform did not. The train moved and I stayed still for a moment, and then for moments. With no idea about what I need to do, I just stood there.
I felt helpless. An absent on day 1 of the new session isn’t taken well in college, and the prospect of getting a tatkal reservation for the next day is even scarier.
But there was my best friend Avi, being there to console me. Times like these you feel blessed to have people like these in your lives. A mere thank you is not enough for them, an d I didn’t said that as well.
With train timings for the day being checked upon, and the dreaded bus schedule also looking a possibility, I wondered whether I was almost unsure of what to do, and then it struck, how about a train to Chennai and then Bangalore?
Checking on with the train timings, there were some of them on the same day, but the issue was the chart for them would have already been prepared. With luggage of the size of monsters, I was confused as to whether to take this journey or not. Finally, I decided to do it.
Chennai it would be.
Chennai mail was to be boarded, with the normal tickets and a faint promise by the TTE to be there in s10 (which was the best news that I’ve had that day) somehow the journey began. The first task was to place my luggage securely under some seats and then search a place for myself. having done both of them( wasn’t easy asking people to keep my stuff under their ass, but with having “trained” myself into selling stuff for the last two months, did it).
A day long journey marred with the heat and excessively filled compartment, even being a reserved section and the TTE even after charging me for the entire train journey from Howrah to Chennai couldn’t provide me with a seat, eneded at 4’o clock the other day in Chennai!!
Yes, my first accidental trip to Chennai!
With a confused look and heavy luggage, making my way towards the ticket counter to purchase the tickets for Bangalore, then looking for ways on how to keep my belongings safe, I dumped them in the cloak room and moved out after a while to look up to Chennai, after all I had some 2 hours left for a Bangalore train (2 hours were spent looking out for waiting rooms, wash room and the Cloak room 😛 ).

Chennai ka Masala dosa The subway led me to a series of eateries; with the smell of filter coffee along with the morning eased my nostrils, a glass of hot filter coffee, Chennai style was had, followed by the Masala dosa. Having enjoyed the coffee and somehow the dosa not meeting my expectations, it was already time for the return journey. Just immersed my eyes with the images around, to soak in the magic of a city, which I visited accidentally, and then rushing back to claim my baggage and return where I was supposed to.
It was one of the many crazy journeys that I’ve ever been part of, lots of learning followed by lots of scolding by the near and dear ones on my stupidity. But, it was worth it.

A Reply….

By farooq

On November 7, 2012

In Politics & Social Issues

It’s all Very calm and quiet.(so, unlike my mind for the last 2-3 days). Most of them in the floor are already asleep. From room no.24, I am writing another blog. (Don’t be scared, no controversies this time.) this is not just a blog, but an Apology. Yes, I need to apologize to the people who got hurt by my previous post

Specifically speaking, my intention was not to hurt people but to get a message across to all and start a healthy discussion on this issue, which many feel but don’t talk openly. After that blog got posted, many came to me and said:”Dude, good job”, some openly supported me when people were criticizing me. Others chose to be on the safe side, by saying that without getting into anyone’s attention. Nevertheless, I didn’t felt great when they did that, but yeah each criticism (even the harshest ones) and each support equally meant something to me. Thanks for both.

In the process of writing, my idiotic mind generated some kind of language that appeared to be offensive. Also, it ended up targeting people from just one particular community or to say a particular part of a country which is linguistically and culturally different from where I come from.

The reasons why I ended up writing that blog were—-

Start a discussion on a very important issue of how language barriers are actually hampering many of the communication processes.
Get things out for everyone to see as to what I think about an issue, instead of keeping it close to my chest.
That left out feeling you get when people start talking in a particular language, which you don’t understand, culminating into weird mood sequences.
Getting the feeling that people don’t want you to be part of their conversation because of some differences.
Trying to make people understand, how a little empathy can go a long way in solving it out very easily.

Lesson learnt it’s not just about the message; it’s how well you convey the same.

What the blog actually ended up doing was

1. It got directed to particular communities because of direct use of names. Instead, I could have generalized as this, as it isn’t limited to one. Like one community may be at the receiving end of this barrier, but may also be the one doing that as well. Sometimes, even Hindi speaking people may do that with the non-Hindi ones.

2. It created a feeling that there is a certain sense of hatred in me regarding a certain community. Well, I can sense that many might have started feeling like this.(instead of smiles, I get that “WTF-were-you- thinking-when-you-wrote-that-look). I never intended to justify, but to keep things in clear perspective, I should say.

Some of the very good friends, including my two roomies, which I have made after coming here, are the ones who are from down south. All my grief, homesickness, sad stories(which are way too sad :P, sadder than this)are only subjected to their ears only. Since I’m on a convincing spree to show-off my south-connect, I would also like to “brag” that my grandfather was actually a south Indian, quite fluent in at least two Dravidian languages. For some strange reasons, people who have some connection with south India and live in the Hindi-heartland tend to be known as “madraasis” (a little crazy, I understand) mainly because of the food preferences and ingredients that they use (like tamarind). (I am bragging too much. Right? 🙂 )

3. Someone mentioned stereotyping. Was I?? Don’t many do that while talking here in groups?? But yes, I only took into account the people from the college whom I saw and included the whole south Indian community all into it.

4. Posting a sensitive content on the web. With a place like India, with diverse cultures and rich heritage, people have their sentiments attached with everything from language to religion and region. Maybe, the way it was all written appeared to be accusing that attachment they had and also raising the sensitivity of the people. The web is becoming a place where one should be careful enough as to what they speak. I wasn’t Maybe something that would hurt me might get the same amount of criticism that I received or even more than that.

I don’t know whether you people will even read this blog, going by the fact that blogging and my name would be negatively subconscious-ed into your mind based on my last post. But, if you are reading then I would like to just say, when I talked about south Indians starting to being more empathetic, I forgot the fact that I wasn’t actually being one.

As someone mentioned to me that maybe because I didn’t tried enough to be someone important, for whom anyone can “switch” to any language that I understand. May be some introvert-ness, some “opening-up” that is still necessary. Or instead, I should try actually learning any of the languages 🙂 I should be the one making the change, if I want to make something happen and not complain to others about not doing that. So, cheers. Let’s kick this controversy out, podaaa :). (Oops, i Did it Again 🙂 )