VANAKKAM CHENNAI

Radio has been an indispensible commodity in our family since time immemorial. This is despite the fact that radio was an essential in every household then. Everyone loved music but in during late nineties television had took over that position a radio held in each home. But charm that the radio possessed in our family did not fade away with the new comer.  A switched on radio was required to get their feet on the move. It was the signature tune of All India Radio that woke all of us except my mother. She used to wake up before us and switch it on the first thing in the morning. It helped us indulge in our chores and also helped us to keep a track of the time, which went way ahead of us during weekdays. The program chart was known by rote, news, music and a whole lot of information was loaded on the go.

So we were exposed to music of regional languages mainly all the upbeat Tamil songs that we fondly call “kuthu paat” through radio. It was roughly around 2004 when my uncle bought a Sony handy cam. When was on his vacation he would simply switch it on and record whatever was happening in and around the house. Stating that he could watch it when he returned  to Saudi Arabia, his place of work. We used to sing, dance and simply show our faces to the camera so that it would be recorded. It was much later; during these years after college we rediscovered through these old videos that how enthusiastic we were whenever Tamil songs were being played in the backdrop. We would just make our moves with any of those upbeat numbers. So watching those videos again reaffirmed that we were meant for Chennai. ‘We’, my cousin and my self were almost of the same age, the video dance partners and ended up in Chennai with an year’s difference, me being elder landing there earlier, she accompanying after a year.

 Being alone in a new place was demanding. What helps you to get through the tough times? Through my hot and humid Chennai days, I was lonely girl in the city. The city that I was unaware of, which I slowly learnt over the years. New place, people and atmosphere, apart from the friends I earned, the first best partnership I made, was with The Hindu the daily newspaper. It may sound geeky, don’t be judgmental.

It was just before pre whatsapp, data boom era, so the only thing that helped me get to know the place more was this dear newspaper. They had Metro plus, that has the most detailed as well as exciting descriptions of whatever new was happening in the city. For a small town being, understanding the pulse of the city was through those lines. That in fact helped me acclimatize to the busy happening city. It was during my stay there that they introduced ‘Metro plus Mélange’ many columns were introduced and taken away. The one such was ‘Nxg’ a column that would fetch its writers a gift voucher worth rupees thousand. Its readers wrote them, usually about anything that they observed or which occurred to them in the city. This weekly column came on every Thursdays and I too send an act of kindness that touched my heart for the contest and voila! Next Thursday I see my article being titled ‘The Joyful reminder”(Joyful reminder… - Chennai - The Hindu) published in the paper. This could be counted as the next reason for my fondness towards the paper.

I would wait for Metro plus that had restaurant reviews, human interest stories, start-ups and a lot more. I would visit the restaurants within manageable price points and recommend those and others with good reviews to my friends. Then came Zomato, the app. But I enjoyed being some of their Zomato till then with the help of Metro plus. The writers were very familiar to me, Shonaly Muthalaly, Esther Elias, Raveena, Deepa Alexander, Akila Kannadasan, Bishwanath Gosh and many more were dear to me. Some of the articles were so earthy and organic, that are being read and repeated as they are stuck neatly in my scrapbook. They gave me a hope that my words too would come in print one day. That was one of the best things that happened to me in Chennai.

One down, many to go. Roads of discovery in the next post.