One Chota Break

(Long blog after a long time)

I have never been on a beach late in the evening where I haven't seen the Sun set down into the sea. I have never been to the East coast in the evening.

I had the pleasure of going to Chennai last Friday. I went there in the morning to get my visa done. Not having gone out of Bangalore ever since March (the get away being the unforgettable Goa), this was a very nice change, albeit lasting just about 18 hours. I left quiet early in the morning and reached the new BIAL around 7.45 AM. My flight was not up for the next 1 hour. So, I just had my breakfast in the transit and sat there reading Bourne Ultimatum (a must read). I was already feeling relaxed. The fact that I was going out of Bangalore was more preoccupying than my Visa interview itself.

I went to Chennai without any incidents. Our office in Chennai is in Guindy and I took a cab to the place, who ripped me off for sure. We have a single room over there where there is an office of about 20 people - very warm and welcoming. I just felt at home. I was plugged in into the network and all set to work (I have mentioned already I am pretty busy these days). The first half of the day was, well, normal. My interview was at 3, so I packed up and left to eat around 1 with a plan to reach the consulate by 2.30.

The fact that I do not know Tamil did not seem to be of any significance at all to me. I felt like kicking myself - standing in front of the queue, having bought a food coupon and the order placed and being completely ignored by the Chinese dudes serving and the Tamil owner. Soon, my hostility turned towards the owner who was pretending to not know English and the time was 1.45 already(I waited for about 30 minutes. I have serious issues with fighting with people or rather with not fighting - especially when I don't share a common language). I thought chuck it and went to a Subway, got a sandwich packed and went out to get an auto. I was told it would cost me around 120 bucks and take me about 45 minutes to reach the consulate. By the time I reached the auto stand it was 1.55. I was slowly getting concerned. And then...

I found an auto guy who immediately agreed for 140 bucks. Now, I understand Tamil to some extent but cannot speak for nuts. I had to tell him that my interview starts at 3 and I had to be there by 2.45 and to ask him to go fast. God, did I struggle telling him that. Then, out of no where, he started speaking in HINDI! In Chennai! An auto driver! I thought Chennai auto drivers were more fundamental than The Prophet himself! I was so happy that I started speaking in Hindi myself. Or I thought I will. People who know me know that I cant speak Hindi for nuts. Basically, I cant speak anything but Kannada and English. My Hindi is as broken as Shahid-Kareena's relationship. Not that this dude was speaking kick arse Hindi. So, both of us agreed, silently, upon conversing in whatever Hindi we could manage. He kept asking me not to worry, though that somehow seemed a bit of an overkill - it wasn't like I was sitting in the auto and weeping away to glory. I was happily eating my sandwich and looking at a very hot and humid city. We reached around 2.40 - but on the other side of the road than the consulate. Now came the hard part. I was telling him to stop near the sub way but he kept saying he has to go a long way to take the U turn. I was telling him hence he has to stop or else I will be late and he was saying if I get down I will be late as in Late Pavan. Finally I gave up and let him spend another 10 minutes to take a U turn and come back to the consulate. It was around 2.50 and just as I was about to go into the consulate...

A really sorry, sadistic, furstrated son of bitch of a guard just sent me out saying I am not allowed to take my bag inside. I asked him if there was a place where I could keep it and he gave me a sick smile and said "How would I know?". I knew he was enjoying it and just swore under my breath and came onto the road wondering what to do when...

An auto guy from nowhere just came really fast and halted in front of me and asked me if I wanted a locker. I just asked him how much would it cost and he just asked me to sit inside. I asked him where is this place and he was like I was wasting my time asking all these questions. He was talking in English and was just asking me to trust him. I somehow had a bad feeling about it. He asked me to pay 150 and I thought screw it and got in. This bastard guy takes me exactly to the other side of the road to a Pan shop and asks me to keep the bag and pay 150 to the shop guy. I had no choice, it was already 3. So, I just paid him and got into the auto again. While taking the already mentioned huge U turn again, he asks me to pay him 300 bucks - as a gift! He is like I am going for my visa interview and he helped me when I was in need and the least I could do was pay him 300 bucks. I just laughed really hard at this and gave him, much to my dissent, a hundred bucks and went in. The actual interview itself was pretty nice and I got my visa with no trouble.

I reached my office back, packed, bid good bye to the people there and headed to the Besant Nagar Beach. I reached there around 5 on a Friday evening. I was expecting it to be completely crawling with people. It was not as bad as I thought it would be. It was whole of college kids and couples. I played "Shoot the balloons" and shot 7 out of 10 balloons and then found myself a nice place towards the South end of the beach where the fishing slum starts and started reading again. I think I sat there for about 2 hours and read and only finally realized that what was missing was the sunset that I am so used to seeing at this time of the day in the west coast. There were 2 huge groups of college girls, I think in their first PUC but I may be completely wrong, who were making noise in competition with each other. It was interesting to see these kids act kiddish and listen to their banter. It was stupid to the point of being funny. I then went for a walk on the beach road, from one end to the other, grabbed some food and headed for the airport.

All in all, it was a nice day long break from whatever I do everyday. I liked Chennai. The areas I went to looked pretty nice. Especially, I went around on my own after a long time. The only thing I just couldn't get used was the humidity. I kept sweating the whole day. I guess that's how I have always remembered Chennai anyway.