a 10 day break from work. I was excited at the idea of coming back to chennai after what felt like a year in the life of a bonded labourer. The train ride from Eranakulam to Chennai was painful, long and boring and mostly hot!!! except when i reached Chennai i realised, 10 days in Chennai could feel longer than my days on set, i really couldn’t think of nothing to do except off course meet the few people who’s company i enjoy. All of a sudden the idea of waking up to filter coffee and yummy home cooked food that my mum would cook specially to my liking did not excite me. As i was walking down the stinky platform of Chennai Central i was wondering if i could just jump into some train and go back, i love Chennai so long as i don’t have to be in it.
the first few days went by with a stinging cochin hangover, still talking to my workmates, unpacking, telling my folks stories from my time at work… i even asked one of the Assistant Directors from trivandrum if he would like to shorten the 10 day break and come early to cochin so i didn’t have to sit in Chennai being so obviously pained by boredom the city can offer oh-so effortlessly. the funny thing was, he was bored too. OK!!! i agree, its not Chennai i could blame, it was me. As always, its ME. i’m so uncomfortable being relaxed. Before joining work, not liking the free time made sense, coz that was the only kinda time i had, what now? what is it about relaxation that makes me so wrestles? maybe it was the sudden jump from working long shifts to being idle.
Then it struck me, it could possibly be the cut down in nicotine when i’m in my parents house. Did the morning coffee and cigarette routine decide how my day went? possibly, coz i’ve hated being here ever since i moved here and that’s the only activity that seems to be a constant no matter where i go except here. Its a shame.
After those initial few days of Chennai hating, i was right back on track, i made sure i was out most part of the day, met my peeps, gave myself enough opportunities to smoke and finally i was having fun!!! it was not the nicotine i was missing, i just wanted to know i could have my smoke when i felt like it, and being outside of my parents house gave me exactly that.
The next big thing that happened was IPL, i dunno much about cricket, well, at least within India my knowledge of is nothing to boast about. Chennai, my dear hometown, had made it to the semi’s. not that i was still greatly interested in the match, but yea, i knew about it and that’s all it was. That thursday when the match was about to happen, i had already made my plans with the ladies to do a night of Ilayaraja, at what is the only pub in town which plays the legend. off course we knew IPL will be playing on the screens, but that wasn’t the plan really!!! Towards the later half of the evening i saw my cousins loyalty shift slowly but obviously from Raja to IPL. We still went to the only pub that plays Raja and found it to be filled with middle aged men guzzling down beer and waiting for the IPL semi’s to start. What happened to our Raja night? “sorry, its been canceled due to IPL” “sorry, your flight wont be taking off coz of the volcano”. My cousin off course was not too offended by this and actually seemed suspiciously ready with plan B, watching the IPL at another pub, i didn’t wanna waste the night sulking so i decided i would go, but how on earth was i gonna tune my head to listen to anything but Raja? my head was already buzzing with “Inivarum munivarum…. thadumarum kanimaram….”.
To my surprise,i walked in and saw what looked like an english pub filled with football fans, so when did this whole drink and cheer your team thing catch up in a city’s otherwise, turn the “pubs into clubs” culture??? was i the the one out of loop considering i was going to this pub after 2 years or more??? i was pleasantly shocked nevertheless. The place was filled with bright yellow CSK tee’s, known faces and the air was smelling of cricket… and just like that, in a moment, my head (and lips) was screaming GO CSK!!! it was the most excited i had been in a long time… i felt like i was back in college, yelling my guts out for the inter-department cultural. suddenly i was transformed into a fanatic, i was driving myself mental for a city that i just few days back hated so passionately (guilty as charged). we won!!! we won!!! we won!!!
I went back home feeling this weird sorta satisfaction, like i had done the right thing, like i ran a marathon for gay rights, like i pelted stones at KFC, like i gave a speech on the effects of cell phone signals on the lil sparrows. All of these for a sports event that was more about money, less about cricket, more about the after party gossip than sportsmanship… more about the team owners than the team itself. Did i just need something to obsess about??? did i just need something to fight for???
The finals. we were gonna play Mumbai Indians, the best team in IPL2010! now i was at my fanatic best (worst). the bunch that watched the semi’s was gonna watch the finals together, we felt like it was our togetherness that drove our team to victory in the semi’s. we went all charged, this time more fanatic than the semi’s- after all i was a pro at it this time around. i had practiced my want for victory in my head a zillion times… i had imagined the in sync orgasms we would have when CSK hit a six. i was thrilled. this time we decided we would reserve our seats to watch the match comfortably. we sat down with our orders and watched it like a dignified bunch of 20 somethings. we played badly!!! VERy BADLY!!!
We had a lil huddle in the smoking zone and concluded that we had to re create the semi’s positions on the field in order to drive the team to a win, the field being the pub and the players being US (the bunch that watched the semi’s together) we relocated ourselves to space outside the DJ’s pit instead of our seats, we stood exactly in the same positions trying to match our facial expressions and zest to the semi’s… we stepped out for a smoke and what happens? the untimely outing of a CSK boy… “who on earth gave you the permission to leave this spot???” after being threatened to be killed if we budge, we decided we would smoke only in commercial breaks and we would share cigarettes in order to save time. we won!!! we won!!! we won!!!
Damn it… now we’ve won, what now? ok!!! lemme obsess over it on facebook…. fanatic Fb status messages were flooding in and a string of online fights were being sparked off… lovely!!!
A few days left for me to leave… and yes… i do feel like staying back… i feel like i need a lil more time in the city… i barely just warmed up to it…
I wonder why i always wanna come back to Chennai if i need silly excuses to like it… its a strange relationship i share with this city… its like living with parents, after you’ve crossed a certain age, you know its impossible to live with them… if you do muster up the courage to venture out on your won, you’d know what this feels like… when you say you miss home, you don’t really mean you wanna be back with your folks… its just the knowing that there’ll always be this place that’ll always welcome you…
knowing that is good enough!!!
