All I had in my mind was Idli and Dosa when I reached Madras. I chose to do my Dual Degree from IIT Madras for two reasons – first being the course in Microelectronics &VLSI they offered and second being the culture I wanted to “check out” – Pretty wild attempt at an adventure. It was June 26th, 1999 that I reached Madras. I recall clean roads and less traffic on the first day and quite a pleasant evening contrary to what my friends warned about.
I stayed in a place called Egmore for the first two days and after that I shifted to IIT, which was located in Adyar – it was a part of Guindy national forest. The shift was amazing – from the din and bustle of city life to the quiet serenity of a forest. Before I could try anything new … all new experiences plunged at me straight into my face … watery spicy soup-kind-of “daal” – Rasam, the jasmine flowers that adorned most women’s braid, the quaint villages – Velachery and Taramani, roadside idli corners, brash auto-drivers, coffee smell everywhere, temples and the quarter plate of Chicken Biriyani (sigh!)
Madras, for me, was a great escape – escape from the comforts of home and escape from my past. It was a revelation – a preview into the great land of South India. People warned me against going to Madras – bad food, bad people, heat, and of course no beautiful women. They were right in bits and parts. For the first two months I had experienced exactly what people told me and started hating my decision.
Nevertheless, I thought I have come to study and so be the order of the day. The first six months I buried myself in books – once in a while I would sneak out for a movie and sometimes to a cyber café in Vellachery. I would turn a blind eye to everything in the city, reach the cinema hall (Satyam) and would snuggle in the comfortable seat and watch any damn Hindi movie. I used to catch the night shows and usually with the extended drivel of hindi movie lasting for 3 odd hours, I would emerge tired out from the theatre at around 2 am. Lo! No signs of autos or any bus service. Then I would wait for hours in Mount Road. In some crazy nights it used to rain. Drenched, I would find one of those shared vans at around 3 am and reach campus gate. Since my hostel is around 4 kms from the gate, I normally ride a bicycle in the campus. I would then cycle my way from the gate, half-asleep, to my hostel. This continued for another six months.
Then I changed my hostel. I had new friends Ashish, Bhaya, Guru, Sandy and my new bike. Since they were one of those going-out kind of people, I had no option but to venture out to the city. We tried all places, places to hang out, places to eat, places to drink, place to enjoy rock music.
The best places to eat, I would say will be Shakes and Creams, Adyar for Ice creams, Dhabba Express, Kotturpuram for authentic Punjabi, GRT Grand Days and Residency, T. Nagar for an elaborate buffet, Galloping Gooseberries, Greams Road for pasta and strawberry cream, and of course Wangs Kitchen, Egmore for Chinese. These are the so-called up-market places. At times, when we were broke we would sneak out to Velachery and Taramani and have a full plate Chicken Noodles for as low as 20 bucks or we would try Andhra mess or simple quarter plate Biriyani.
Then came Saarang, the annual cultural festival of IIT Madras. My joy knew no bounds when I found out that Madras had a good rock music culture. I found out places like Zarra Tapas, a Spanish bar near Taj Coromandel, Unwind Center (formerly known as Vineyard) where live bands play rock music every Friday. Madras at that time didn’t have the pub culture, there was more of a bar culture and without knowing, I got used to it. I got used to only males coming and drinking and no cute looking girls hanging around. Madras is a man’s place – there is no space for weenies, no place for people with superficial kisses thrown into air. The place/the people/their movies/their life is real. There can be movies like Parrayappa (Rajni Kanth’s Magnum Opus) or there can be something as weird as Rajni cult, yet what the people swear by or stand for seemed very real to me. Days went by in a blink and I found myself more dragged into the crowd, into the heartland of Chettinad. I started liking the snake ride driving in Mount Road up to Washermanpet. I remember Besant Nagar beach where I spent most of my Saturdays thinking about the sea and how huge it is – larger than anything I ever saw or could think of. The breeze once in a while would bring the smell of Jasmine hair oil and then the Bajji and Delhi-Appallam, which would drive me crazy – so crazy that I would fill myself up for dinner with just Bajji and Appallam.
22000kms of bike rides, 2 accidents, 35° C average temperature, 1814 days, 5 Saarangs, couple of good friends and one great Madras. Five years of my life won’t be insignificant coz they had the maximum impact in my life. Somebody said, it seems very easy to move on but what’s left behind is very hard. Endrum Vazgha Madras!
P.S. If interested, please visit http://abeyaby.wordpress.com and get some real low-down on experiences from an insider – an ardent Madras resident and more than a resident a die hard fan!
