Smruti Way!: August 2016

When Mumbai becomes Chennai in Delhi..

Joining blogger in 2010 and posting in 2015 were never my conscious efforts, but this post is. It was my today's early morning thought while having a shower (Exactly! That's where I ponder. My free time I must admit) that somewhere urged me to post something that people will correlate to, where I can vent my emotions that I own and just talk about anything that I love. I love meeting people but somewhere I never have perfect answers to things that they ask when we meet. May be! 'Can we talk?' might help. It is a conscious decision.

Leaving home for Masters in Chennai two years back was never my first preference despite the fact that the metro had the country's top most veterinary university and Asia's first Veterinary and Animal Sciences University. May be the picture drawn by the then Chennaiites for me, who were there or had been there at some point of their lives, of India's first modern city was not too appealing. It's fine. We all have experiences. Thanks to my all India ICAR post graduate counselling in Delhi that brought me here. I proposed Bombay, God disposed. It was the love which bloomed gradually despite an initial cultural shock when 'Namaskar' became 'Wannakkum' and 'Smruti Smita' became 'Smruthi Smitha'. 'Smruti Smita' oscillated between Smriti Irani and Silk Smitha for them. I don't blame them. Infact I enjoyed that. But having stayed in Chennai for the last two years, I miss the city as I am back home now after studies. I prefer calling it Madras not Chennai. I am like that! An old school girl. It's like me, an amalgamation of balance and little restraint, somewhere extremely modern still culturally rooted. I loved the name. I loved the mad rush. I loved the deep seated culture. I loved the Madras Tadka (Rehman's Hindi songs in Tamil and it's no where in India) on radio. I loved RJ Tausif. I loved podi idlis. I loved crispy dosai. I loved the healthy breakfast. I loved Marina. I loved the fast local trains. I loved Thyagaraja Nagar. I loved my confined yet restricted freedom. I loved the vibrant environment. I loved my college. I loved my friends. I loved the weddings. I loved going to Iyiytee (IIT you know). I loved the broken Hindi that simple people spoke to me. I had not seen the city beyond 7 PM. That was quintessentially Chennai for me before my hostel curfew time. More than that, the city gave me so much in form of appraisals, love as 'Social Icon of the Week', identity from 'Chennai's Cutest Vegetarian' to 'Chuttney Devi' (I loved chuttney), amazing people, friends for lifetime, rebukes and learning and life changing experiences, which I will enlist with due course. But with Madras turning 377 years old today, my love for the city which gave India first modern English language school, first modern hospital, first modern municipality, first modern bank, first modern police force, first modern court of law, first modern postal service, first modern printing press, first sky srcaper, first drive-in restaurant, first drive in-bank, first multiplex, first key-club, first ice-cream parlour with forty varieties and first modern university refuses to fade now. I am a MADrasi somewhere. It will always live in me, no matter wherever I go. It's a realization that people are same wherever we go. From having my independence to solo trips, getting my first room mate to a nose piercing, from great career exposure to volunteering opportunities, from my first fashion parade to my first little black dress, from learning little Tamil to having a penchant for Malayalam movies and being gifted with a healthy vegetarian lifestyle to being bald, that's how Chennai liberated me. You are an emotion. You are a great teacher. Romba Nandri! Happy Birthday Madras. Iniya Pirantha Naal Vazhthukal. Happy Madras Day!

Thus take life as it comes. You never know when it turns you into a story teller. But I am not done.