Around the World

Chennai….a city where the seasons are hot hotter and hottest….this is the city that I have visited maximum number of times in my life. 90% of the times the visit has been during the hottest season …as was this time. The month of May is the agni nakshatram (meaning the star of fire)….and we somehow land up in this city around this time. 

This year it was a meet up….our generation decided to have a family meeting…..and so we were there.

Ticket availability from Bangalore to Chennai and back is not an easy thing to get. When we make last minute plans….it is the next to impossible thing. We managed to get tickets such that we spend one full day in Chennai.

Go on Friday night and come back by shatabdhi on Sunday morning… (which by the way is an awesome train…will come to that later) 

We (Hubby, sis and I) were at Chennai central sipping aavin paal (milk of a very famous Chennai brand)……ya… that’s right….it is only our generation…. So no elders of the family…. 

We walked out of the station where we were chased around by auto and cab drivers asking us if we wanted their service. We had already decided to take the local bus. We were not sure which bus stop we had to go to. After some round about roaming….we finally managed to find the bus stop where we could take a bus to Saligrmam…that’s where periamma’s house is.

We had to take 17E and get down at the last bus stop. We spotted the busin 10 minutes….quite empty.settled down and bought tickets for 6Rs each….pretty cheap….so with Bangalore standards we decided that the journey would be short….who would take you in a bus for more than 20 minutes for 6 rs? 

But we were wrong…..we travelled for about 40 minutes (not much traffic)….went through most of the areas in Chennai (saidapettai….T nagar….etc etc) and finally reached our stop. 3 things different from Bangalore ….public buses are very cheap….there are very few speed breakers on the road….and …the buses really rock ( I mean…rock your body…..no shock absorbers and windows have no glasses….)

We got down and had a few discussions about which way to walk….then decided to try a route (as we were not sure anyways)…and successfully reached our destination.

Spent some time with cousins and their wives talking….eating periamma’s idli, adai, kesari, chutney and coffee….ufff…that was a lot of breakfast….especially considering we were supposed to go for a lunch outside in the afternoon…. 

We got dressed and were joined by 2 other cousins….at 12 we left to Tnagar. That was another bus ride….from saligramam to some in between stop and then to Tnagar pondi bazaar (the bus 12B dint stop where we wanted and had to walk back). 

At 1:00 PM….in the hottest city Chennai…we met our other part of the family….(this was after a lot of co-ordination over the mobile phones….god knows what we would have done without this invention)…at the famous Saravan bhavan. 

It was one of my cousin’s treat for his Bday. We went to the Rangoli restaurant in Saravana bhavan…gujarathi thali…unlimited for 250 bucks a thali.

It is always fun to sit with a huge family across the table and enjoy a meal cracking jokes and passing comments….

We had 3 brothers and their wives, one sister with hubby and son, 3 other sisters  (not yet married), my sis, hubby and myself…it was great

Still one of our brother’s was missing….was at school and would join us in the evening. 

The dish names were funny….we had multiple servings (as we wanted to make full use of the unlimited tag ) 

When we finished…we were stuffed…. 

After that was photo session….we posed in different directions…. 

Next was a walk to next Periamma’s house in tnagar. Had a nice resting time playing some cards….

Tried talking to paati (she is too old and bed ridden….felt bad seeing her in that state) 

Evening was planned for the beach….again after a lot of mobile phone co-ordination we managed to get into an awfully crowded bus where my cousin’s wived not only managed seats for themselves but also for us….sooper.

Had some telephone chats with aunt and uncle whom I could not meet in person. 

It was a long tiring journey to the beach…..Marina beach….

The tsunami sure dint scare the people off….. the crowd was too much…

We managed to get some place to sit down. Played in the water for a while….had some eatable stuff…talked about old days:)….thats the best thing in life I feel.. 

Evening had 2 extra participants….my brother and my cousin’s daughter. 

We were tired…..took the bus (2 actually….first to koyampedu…from there to beach)…went back to saaligramam by 10:45 PM.

After that bath (sticky beach sand and sweat really needs a bath) was dinner with some curd rice , chappathi and kootu. 

Next discussion was about if the plan to go to the theme park was on or not….

Of course , we the trio from Bangalore were not a part as we were to leave home by 5:00AM for our train… 

But we were there…giving valuable suggestions:)… 

By 12:00Am we were off to bed. Next morning was a quick get ready with a little cornflakes and tea. We were at the station by 5:30AM. 

My first trip in shatabdhi. I loved it….

Comfortable seats….lot of leg space…completely air conditioned….food comes to your seat like in a flight…very clean….huge windows….luggage racks and hooks for bags…newspaper supply….nice good restrooms (something unusual in Indian context)…and sooper fast.

The only bad feeling was that we had booked this ticket in tatkal which cost us quite an extra amount….still… I loved it…

We were back in Bangalore by 10:40AM (train dint stop at cantonment…which we had not checked before….dad had to drive down from cantonment to city station when we called right after we crossed the station without a stop). 

That was the end of a wonderful family meet….it was worth the tiredness….hope we do it more often…and try and plan it the hot season rather than in the hottest…

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