Rains in Chennai

To an NRK (Non Resident Keralite), the monsoons in Kerala are a blithe longed for. The greenery plus the chill and wet climate give a coziness like nowhere else. Gallons of water flowing by you in the canals and sometimes even on the roads and footpaths is big time exciting even though some people might turn cynical about this. Of course it hinders travel and outing, and that rainy season brings with it a handful of communicable diseases is a scientifically proven fact. But rains are the lifeline as well, as the whole goodness and greenery that makes the God's own country a better place to live in owe a lot to the monsoons. Now we have every chance of experiencing higher torrents of rain, but fortunately or unfortunately we are not in the North East. It's a bit extreme over there because rather than enjoying the rain, people would prefer escaping the floods and havoc.    

And what happens in the other not-so-rainy parts of the country? Here in Chennai where I live now, rains come as an effect of the North-East monsoons mostly in September, October and November. It does not rain everday, thank god! The enjoyable climate that the rains bring is spoilt very soon by the waterlogs that accompanies every formidable rain. And Chennai does not get help from geographical contours either, the whole town is so perfectly flat that there is no place water can run off even though the sea is a couple of blocks away! Whereas in my hometown, Malappuram, which like what its meaning in malayalam suggests, is made of small hillocks - ups and downs everywhere that you cannot see a road that runs flat for more than a hundred ir two metres. Drainage, however bad it is designed, runs out of eyesight and out of town! Civil engineers, you are welcome to Chennai, and I dont know what drainage planning happens here. Every small street gets flooded, and the drains overflow, bringing out every rubbish in them. 

Rains have started a couple of weeks back, and my house in Chennai is so strategically located that every road to every eat-out nearby gets blocked due to waterlogs! Either I buy a boat or I start cooking. The former is too whimsical and the latter is impossible! Hard times ahead I guess.

What to do at the IITs.... and Confessions of a Rustic True Blue

Part Two: Confessions of a Rustic True Blue

Some things never change. (If you wonder ‘things like what’, read along…)

18^th Sept 2011. The get together with friends at IIT Madras had just got over when Pala asked me what next. It was Super Sunday that day. Manchester United was to meet Chelsea at Old Trafford, and a Champions League Victory against Benefica was a good sign to the Cobham blues. It was an year since I watched a Premier League match, and I decided I will stay back for the night at IIT, watch the match and return the next day morning. The TV at my home was busted in a power fluctuation months ago, so there was no way of watching the match at home either.

A couple of years ago on any weekend evening, the most probable place to find me was the hostel common room where the most ardent football fans flocked together. We showed no mercy – we used to kick all the cricket fans out! Apart from the Premier League, there were less frequent Champions League and World Cup matches to keep us busy round the calendar. The packed common rooms provided a feeling equivalent to that of a gallery. People in your side, opposite side and some indifferent fans of some other team whose boos and roars and sighs of despair and taunts that followed livened up the air.

Of all the football clubs across the world, I found Chelsea FC the most liking, due to their unique style, glamour and relentless spirit. For a decade I have been their fan. Saw the flourish, fame and the recent fall, and the unbelievable losses in the previous season which hammered blows over my hopes on Chelsea. It was rather a gradual decline, as after Roman Abramovic sacked Jose Mourinho, no manager was able to pull off stints of success that lasted for more than half a season. Avaram Grant was the luckiest of the lot yet the most defamed.

At the same time to the fall of Chelsea, the Catalans achieved uncomparable class and brilliance, and the Manchester United, now the richest club in the world, rose to unquestionably the next best football club in the world. In this backdrop my emotions for Chelsea started eroding, and of late, a ‘transfer’ to Barca was imminent. The doubt whether I have become a turn-coat was the only worry that kept me from switching my ‘home-ground’.

But……

CHE vs MANU.. or rather MANU vs CHE, to term it in the right sequence – is an event which revs me up to otherwise impossible adrenaline highs. By the time Pala and I reached Krishna hostel common room, match had started, Chelsea was a goal down, 18 minutes into the first half.

In a second, all my hard-feelings for Chelsea melted away, and I was back to the game again! 90 minutes were up in the flicker of an eye. Man Utd defeated Chelsea by a deceiving margin of 3-1. A true football fan never believes the stories that the scores belie. The main highlights of the match was the amazing passing and intercepts by Man Utd lads (the average age of their first eleven was 23 !!!) and the relentless spirit displayed by Chelsea, spearheaded by Torres. He impressed, though he made an early bid to the miss of the season when he fired a ball out of an open post after deceiving De Gea with a precise dribble.

Albeit the loss, there was a lot of promising moments for Chelsea. I returned to Pala's room as much a die-hard fan of Chelsea as I have ever been. Some things like this, never change. Blue blood, I will claim I have!

What to do at the IITs… and Confessions of a Rustic True Blue

Part One: What to do at the IITs.....

The tech-niches of India, and the source of a good percent of the most wanted brains all over the world, the IITs have always been my fascination. I haven't got into one as its student, but I have a bunch of good friends in IIT Madras, and they have made possible many jovial hang-outs at their campus. IIT Madras, a green campus blessed with affluent natural beauty and beautiful meandering boulevards through the forests linked with the Guindy National Park, is a place that showers bliss. It was a similar experience yesterday when I had a get together with friends from college at IITM.

Faeez Basheer was the reason behind this get-together. From the oil rigs of Saudi, he turned up now two years after we passed out of NITC. By the time GT (short form for Asish George Thomas) and I reached the Café Coffee Day at IITM, Faeez had collected a handful of people there – Anoop aka Palakkad, Chitra, Padmanisha and Aruna. It was a happy unison at the happening CCD where we were the only outlandish lot among the unusually crowded pack of students. Our talks and laughter echoed over evey other clatter, and Pala (short for Palakkad) was the centre-point of all, as everyone wanted to know the secret behind his long, curly and kempt hair. To everyone's disappointment, Palakkad somehow managed to parry away the jeers on him and escaped with a silly reason - he was growing his hair to perform a "head-bang" at Saarang 2012, the cultural frenzy hosted by IITM.

The walk through the woods was much more relished, and Aruna's Canon D1000 would have come of better use if the sun had not been so low. At Gurunath stores, the next best hangout place there, Fayaz Habeeb, Murshid, Arun S and Jayajith (all are juniors from NITC, currently doing MTech at IITM) joined. Everyone agreed to meet at the RECCAA (CREC/ NITC Alumni Association) Onam get-together to be held on 25th Sep'11. A short while later we parted ways, as it was already dark and the girls wanted to reach home early.

Dinner was at the ‘Himalaya’, a hi-tec canteen/mess with swipe-cards for all students, and a token-system-based-serving-counter with digital display of the token numbers. Wow! Walked back to Pala’s room after dinner, and GT jumped on to the guitar in the room. We left him there and went to the common room to watch Chelsea- Man Utd match. A tense match left Chelsea at the losing end. But it reinstated many of my notions, which I have written here. Pala and I returned to his room, and there GT was in front of the PC, immersed in the Guitar tuitorials he was watching. GT had almost finished tuning the guitar, and then we helped Pala with his project work. It was like we were back in college again, and a black tea at midnight beckoned. We walked in the drizzle to Tiffany’s. It remains open till 1 AM. We had black tea, reached back in the room, and then learned from Pala that internet connection to hostels was cut off from 12 midnight to 5 AM. What was that?The most elite of institutions in India not providing internet at night? Unbelievable. I slid on to the floor, Pala on to the cot and GT on to the chair. Some chords escaped into the air and a couple of seconds later we were all singing old songs together. Pala, a good rapper, sparred with his ‘Smack that..’ as well. Not much later I was in deep sleep, and woke up the next day early in the morning. I had to reach office by 8 AM and GT had a training to attend at 9. Setting on a reminder to come back soon, we left for the main gate in the institute’s internal bus service.