Saturday, September 4, 2010

Musings of a Frustrated Soul

Since a couple of weeks I've been in Chennai... and no wonder that I've been thinking a lot. Before coming here one of my friend gave me an advice about the office.. rather a warning:
"Dude!! the office stinks like shit in rainy season. Take Care...."
I asked him: "But it won't be raining right now na... ??"
"Ya!! It won't be raining. So it'll stink like a dustbin..."
Reason: the office I'm going to is right opposite the dumpyard of Chennai. And it's alongside a marsh.
But once you are in the office there's nothing like it. You have an almost food court inside the office complete with Spencer's, LandMark, a couple of juice stalls, Barista, a couple of other coffee stalls, an ice cream stall, two biryani centers, a shop each for north-Indian, andhra and Chinese food and all this apart from the normal office canteen. And from the windows of a few top floors you can have an awesome view of the marsh which more looks like a lake. And did I mention that this marsh is also a bird-watching area. And by bird-watching I meant literal bird-watching.
Anyways, enough about my office. Now about where I stay. When I say Sastri Nagar not many would identify it to be in Chennai... It doesn't sound south-like.... But here I am, in Sastri Nagar... one of the posh areas of Chennai... and 1 km away from Elliot's beach.. where, as another friend pointed out, most of the people in Tamil Film Industry dwell.
So last weekend, on the suggestion of this friend I went to Elliot's Beach. It was way past sunset. And I was in no mood to spend more than 10 mins on the beach. Coz I've already seen lots of beaches in Mumbai too. So I walked from my house to the beach. I was about a couple of hundred metres away from the beach and yet I could hear the sea. And pretty soon the beach too came in view. It seemed no different from the ones in Mumbai. Similar stalls lined the road. Selling tea/coffee, and chaat-papdi. Not to forget the bhel-puris in typical Mumbai style except that when u neared a stall no one called out to you to sell something and when you heard it was not the smooth Marathi that sounds a little like Hindi but some language which feels as if someone is hitting you with words. Once a Telugu friend told me what they called Tamil in Telugu. I don't remember the word exactly but he told me the meaning and I do remember that: "It meant harmful for ears or not very good to hear" So about the beach yes... Through the sparse distribution of stalls I went towards the sound of sea. Slowly the sound of sea grew... and the sound of stalls dimmed out.... And there I was... a cool sea breeze flowing around me.... Drenched in the noise of waves... Looking out at the waves again... in wonderment... as I've always have... And the beach suddenly was nothing like that of Mumbai... The waves were bigger.... Made more noise and crashed on the beach somehow... unlike Mumbai.... I've always wondered on how the waves crash onto the beach and return only to come recharged with new energy... as if to test the boundaries of sea..... As if to expand the boundaries... And there I stood thinking along those line again... Transfixed by the oncoming waves.... And looking onto the moonlit sea. Have I ever told you... a moonlit sea looks much better than a sunrise or sunset time sea... U can see just a few waves at night... lit by the moon... U have to stare hard enough to see how a wave forms.... and all ur concentration is on that single wave. I stood there for around half an hour... thinking how I am getting late for dinner. Then I remembered I had spotted a Domino's near the beach and I gave up the thought of returning soon. I went in Domino's ordered a pizza with coke and sat there waiting. For some reason I've never come to find out how Domino's serves you within half an hour when you are ordering from home but when you are sitting at an outlet it takes them more than half an hour. Anyways... after around an hour I left Domino's and went back to the beach. Once again thinking that this time I would just gaze once and leave... But call it my love of sea or whatever that it wasn't another half an hour that I could leave.
The next three days.. I was down with fever..... But that's another story....
For now I leave you with a question: Can a person be frustrated and happy at the same time for the same thing?

No comments:

Post a Comment