To the People, To my Friends, To Chennai…

I remember when I reached Chennai for the first time. I had two bags with me. But today when I am leaving after spending four beautiful years of my life in Chennai, I can say that I am not leaving with just two bags. I am leaving with a lot of great experiences, stupid mistakes which changed the course of my life and tons of crazy yet wonderful friends. I am going to treasure all those moments in my heart and play in the theatre of my head whenever I miss Chennai. I remember my first opinion about Chennai, it was way too different. I didn’t like Chennai at all for first two years of my college. The hot climate, the language barrier, the food taste (people from north India have a complete different taste) and things like hangout places etc. But today I know that I cannot say anything bad about Chennai and I feel a bit bad when others do that even though I may not tell them.

I am among those people who has pursued his engineering and chasing his dream to become a great writer. However I don’t like the fact that it has become a tradition now that after completing engineering people actually starts thinking what they should do with their life. Instead I want people to explore their talent and choose their stream carefully. It should not be a trend to spend four years of life for something which you may not use as your professional career. It totally depends on how one uses this as a part of life as well. But still if you want to do something different which the main crowd is not doing then I would request them to be a little more straightforward about what they want from your life.

When I finished my 12^th grade, I wanted to pursue journalism. I even did my part of research but then when the time arrived to confront this to my parents I didn’t brought this up. Although my parents have been really supportive, I was not sure how they will react back then. And when I was again clueless in life after getting rejected in fifteen companies (not because I was not deserving, because they needed marks not talent) I decided to tell my parents. It did hit them hard at first as they were expecting another engineer but later on when I cracked every entrance exam for PG course in Journalism in every colleges around India, they understood my thirst for writing, the need for my dream to be alive and engineering is not everything. No one can ever thank his/her parents for what all they have done for us. But we can thank the others who were associated with it.

All my friends in Chennai who always kept me motivated to write more. Although many never read my blog but their motivation helped me to gain many more readers around the world. And I am very glad to say today that in one year my blog views has increased from 1000 to 48065 (as per now). Many people, especially middle class people have a mind-set that we can never go for things which might make us famous even though almost everyone who is more famous belonged to middle class background, many from lower class too. But if you tell them you want to become a writer they will laugh at your stupidity to think beyond your level. How anyone can forget that anyone can achieve anything they want to achieve in their life. I have another great Indian dream and the best part is I am going to chase it. This time it will be very different from how engineering was, but all I know is whatever happens in your life it happens for a reason. When I was not getting a job that happened because it was in my destiny to go for journalism. But we cannot live our life depending on our destiny, we must work hard to get where we want to, we must put all our efforts to make sure the path our destiny shows us we are able to follow it. Once you do your job, the universe will do its job.

I am really thankful to Chennai for giving me so many things. I don’t know when I will come back. It is also very far from where I am going – Delhi. But whenever I will get a chance I will surely come back. It is my second home now after all. Four years is a long time but it passes so quickly that by the time we realised we were at the gate of college. And the sad part is I am the only one in my group who is going so far, the rest managed to bag a job either in Chennai or Bangalore (which is so near). But I believe in the saying,

“Kahin pahuchne ke liye kahin se nikalna zaroori hain…”

And I only want to wish that all my friends do well in their life and make it big (and never forget to give me treats).

Hasta la vista! Sayonara! Au revoir! Goodbye…

#6 The City Of Dreams…

Mumbai has always been known as the city of dreams. So many people come here in the search of their dream. This city has given a lot to so many people; this city has helped so many people to live their dream. There is something special about this city which makes you fall in love at first sight. The energetic environment, the beautiful places and the vintage look which has been preserved from ages now gives a different feel to this city. Busiest as ever, people are always busy in their life. And above all that the Mumbai Monsoon is something you would die for. I always wanted to experience the great Mumbai Rain and this time I arrived at the right time. I am not sure when I will be back but this vacation has been really inspiring for me. And now when I am all set to leave Mumbai, one part of me wants to stay here forever. I feel great about one thing that I am going to do is I am going to chase my dream. Very few people in this world knows what they want from their life, how they see their life in future. And to be one among those people who is ready to take risks in life and follow his heart, I feel as if I am on the top of the world. This feeling often fills me with great enthusiasm and no matter what lies ahead I know I am going to do really well. I have gained back my self-confidence which I lost during the final year of my engineering. At one point of time I was not sure what will I do once my college gets over. I am not a kind of person who can spend his life living in the cage; I am an explorer of my world. And I have spent plenty of time thinking about my life after college. Perhaps my decision has disappointed a lot of people but I know everything will be fine soon. After all in the end everything just falls back to its right places. It is just a matter of time.

I wish to return to this amazing city soon after I finish off my journalism and explore the depth of this city. It feels like I am a part of some movie whenever I go out, while I was admiring the serene beauty of marine drive in evening it reminded me how once Mr. Shahrukh Khan who felt defeated with life almost 30 years before stood in front of trident hotel, cried his heart out and took an oath that one day he is going to own this city. And few years down the line this city owned him. It gave him a family, a home, his dream and his life. We complain a lot about life, that life is cruel, our fate often betrays us and we end up cursing ourselves for what we have done in past. Nobody understands the simple thing about life is that our future doesn’t depend only on what we have done in our past. But also what we are doing with our present. Everyone goes through hard time in life, sooner or later they have to go through hell that’s the rule of nature which no one can evade from. I have known people who were few steps away from their dream and then when life slapped them hard they felt weak and gave up on their dream. The one who stand still in the storm of life always reaches the shore of his/her dream. There was a time when people kept mocking at me that my dream is not practical and I should be more realistic about life. Well there will be people around you who will try their best to distract you so that you don’t live your dream because they failed to do so. All you need to do is keep your ears close, look directly towards your dream and keep walking. You will face a lot of troubles on the way towards your dream, there will come a time when nothing would seem right, there will be a lot of distractions coming your way, people around you will make sure that  you end up giving up but all you need to do is stand still and face it. the moment you will finish your journey, when you walk down the path soon enough you will see the shining sun smiling at you and welcoming you in the world of your dream.

I was watching Wake Up Sid few days ago, the scene when Ranbhir Kapoor took Konkona Sen to marine drive where he explained about the Mumbai Rain like how people complain about flood, electricity, traffic but Mumbai rain is something which he would die for. And when I witnessed that scene from my eyes, I had no words. I was speechless, kept on admiring the serene beauty and by the time I realize it was raining, I was completely drenched. I smiled at the sea and walked back slowly enjoying every droplet of rain which filled my heart with immense joy and pleasure.

I can write whole day whole night about my wonderful experience and I would never get bored of it. I leave tomorrow; I hope that I come back again next year to this city and experience some more wonderful moments which will be treasured in my heart forever.  

P.S- People who have never been to Mumbai, the next thing you should do when you get holiday is visit this amazing place.

#5 The Story Of An Old Man…

I was just strolling in the park; I decided to sit down for a while. I found a bench on one corner of the park, there was an old man already sitting on one corner lost in his own world. I went straight, took my seat and let out a sigh of relief. The problem with humid weather is you sweat a lot and I hate that. There is only one minor difference between Chennai and Mumbai as far as the weather is concerned that Mumbai is a lot more cooler than Chennai but still humid. I was in Mumbai for a vacation and I was enjoying my every evening with vada pao and chutney.

So I sat down on the bench and was busy admiring the beauty of nature. The old man was feeling a bit uncomfortable and he got up to leave. I didn’t pay that much of attention then but when he went a little ahead and sat down on the other bench I felt bad. Why would he do that? I tried not to bother about the same but I couldn’t resist. I needed to know what his problem with me was. What did I do that he did what he did.

I got up, went straight to him and asked,

“Excuse me, what is your problem?”

“Sorry” he said

“Why you changed your seat when I sat on that bench?” I asked again

He didn’t reply for a while, I stood there waiting for his reply.

“I don’t even know you. Why does it bother you so much then?” he asked me

“Because it was very rude of you to do that.” I said

“Have a seat.” He offered me

I sat down.

“What you do?” he asked me

“I am a writer. I write stories.” I said

“Good stories? Bad stories? Huh! What sort of stories you write?” he asked me

“There isn’t anything good or bad. It is the deed of human being and their perspective which makes them either a good person or a bad person in the eyes of other people. I write about my experiences.” I said

“You sound more mature than your age.” He said with a glint of sarcasm and then he continued

“You know I was more like you when I was of your age. I was one enthusiastic kid who always jumped to grab any opportunity came in his way. But when life slaps you hard you can’t do much.”

“What is it which is bothering you from a long time? You are not happy, right. You are upset with your life. You don’t talk much with people. Sometimes you are scared of people. Because you are afraid of losing people from your life and you are scared that you will end up alone. What is your story? Tell me I am all ears. I am a good listener and I know when you share you will great about it.” I said

“Why my story interest you so much? I am just an old man. Go home kid; write some story which the audience wants. Or you will end up with regret for the rest of your life.” He said

“A good writer is not someone who write what others want him to write. A good writer is someone who make people fall in love with whatever he writes.” I said

“You are one stubborn kid. You are not going to give up, are you?” he asked

“Never.” I said

“I was a go getter my whole life. Being the elder son I had many responsibilities and I managed to take good care of every single thing in life. I worked harder, earned a lot of money and respect. My idea of retirement was when all of my children are well settled in their life then I will take a break and spend the rest of my life with my family. But that never happens. I have four daughters and only one son. As soon as I took retirement, my son went abroad. That time I was very much healthy and had nothing to worry. I was having a great time of my life with my old friends, family, and grandchildren. I couldn’t ask god for anything more. However my son was still stuck in abroad and he had no plans of coming back. He use to visit us every year but that was not enough. I didn’t care that much since he had his own life and dream I never stopped him from doing something. But my wife had many plans which was failing one after the other. She wanted to spend time with her son and grandsons but they were never here for her. Silently she wept. She always longed for them to come back and live with us but that never happened. Years passed after years and my condition started degrading with every day passing by. I had a lot of stress and worries which I never shared with anyone, I never showed my unfulfilled desires to anyone and faced life the way it came to me. I was never like this. Now I am scared of people. I am anxious all the time. I have lost some good friends as they passed away and it scares me to know that even after some years my time is going to come when I will have to say goodbye to this world. When I look myself into the mirror I can’t recognize the person standing there. I have done so many things and I have achieved a lot in life. But now I am just a helpless old man who feels abandoned by his own son. People think that in old age all we need is money to survive. But no one knows we don’t care about the money anymore because our whole life we were busy running behind money and never spent good time with family. They don’t understand that we don’t want their money all we want is someone to be there for us. Someone to stand by our side and say that everything is gonna be okay. Like how we use to hold our children whenever they fall in life, we want the same thing in return. But that is just a waste of time to even talk about it. You do everything what your children asks for and then they all go abroad settle there and never come back. They will visit you every year and feel good that they have done their part. People of my generation have more expectations from son, in my case my daughters has done so much for me that sometimes I feel blessed. But there is still one part missing from my life and it makes me feel sad. I feel bad about that one missing part from my life. I and my wife had a dream to live with my son and his family. But dreams are just some silly imagination of our mind, which are seldom fulfilled. That is the harsh reality of life.”

I was moved by the story of his life and had no clue how to react over it. I have heard this many times seen plenty times in movies, read a lot of books which had similar story but when I was witnessing it from my naked eyes I had no clue what to do.

“I know what you are thinking. I would just tell you one thing kid; you are good and a lot sensible than other people of your age. I know you have your own dreams and you want to fly high above the horizon. Do all of that, never ever stop working for your dream but make sure you balance your life by taking care of your family. They may never tell you in future that they need you. It is you who will have to understand this and take initiative. Thank you for hearing me out. All the best for your future. May god bless you kid.” He said and he left

I sat there for another half an hour thinking about his story. There are so many such stories in the whole world. There are so many unfulfilled desires in the whole world. But still no one cares; people talk a lot about it but never act. If someone can’t take care of his own parents then what they will do in life. And since karma is a bitch it will all come to them when they will reach that age. And the cycle keeps on continuing. Will there be any end of it? 

#4 Have No Words To Thank You Indi-Blogger…

I started blogging in 2010. That time I just passed out from my 12^th grade and I had no clue what blogging was all about. I use to just write and update over my blog. I never knew how to publicize my posts, how to make it available everywhere and how to reach out to the audience. It took my blog three years to reach 1000 page views. And I was happy. For me it was a great deal. I had no clue that it was growing very slowly. And in the year 2012, I came across Indi-blogger community. And then everything changed.

My blog started growing immensely around the globe as it got the tag of Indi-blogger community; many people were actually reading it. My blog audience started expanding from across the globe. People from countries like Latvia, Ukraine, Afghanistan, UAE, Canada, United States of America, United Kingdom, etc started reading my blogs. And within a year my blog crossed 45,000 page views. Apart from all that I got a chance to attend Indi-blogger’s meet that happened in Chennai and met so many fellow bloggers who not only shared their experience with me but also gave me valuable suggestions to make my blog even better. Eventually my network started growing I came in contact with many respected authors, I started getting offers from several blogging sites to write for them and the best thing that could happen with me was I met my fan.

Right now I have more readers in USA compared to India, I feel glad about this but also I feel that if more people from India were interested in reading my blog then that would be amazing. Every day when I wake up all I think about is updating my blog, sharing some good experience about anything and everything. I keep my eyes open all the time so that I never miss some good story which keeps happening around us. My life has changed a lot after becoming a regular blogger. It feels great when your friends and class mates refer you as a blogger more than anything else.  

I have no words to thank Indi-Blogger for all the things I have learnt and every day I have improved as a blogger. And this is just the beginning of something new and I would like to thank all my readers for appreciating what I write. For any writer there is no one more important than their readers. Stay tuned, many more posts are yet to come.  

#3 The Ticketless Train Journey…

I have travelled with train many times in my life. Most of the time my ticket used to be confirmed, many times I have travelled with wait-listed ticket also but never ever in my life I travelled without a ticket. It was the time of October during dussera when after 25 years my college decided to give 10 days’ holidays after everyone from first year went on a strike. For the first time in my life I saw so many people of our college united. And we all were united for a good cause. Dussera being our festival we wanted to go home and enjoy the festival. It was our batch which changed the rule of our college. The seniors kept on praising us and told us you guys have brought something new to this college. In past 25 years the college authority never gave even one day holiday for dussera. But after we all put up a strike they had to kneel down and announce ten days holiday. In hurry everyone from my hostel left the same night or booked flight tickets for next morning. I had no clue what I was gonna do. So I booked my train ticket online which was wait-listed, took a printout and went to the station. I boarded the train and took the window seat. The TC came and asked for my ticket. I showed him my wait-listed ticket. He checked and told me

“Go and check whether your ticket is confirmed or not. If it is not confirmed then get down because your ticket will get cancelled.”

I had no clue till then that if you have booked an e-ticket and it is wait listed then you cannot travel. It is considered to be as without ticket and you will for that. The people around me also kept on talking about the same. I was getting nervous as I had limited cash on myself and no idea what to do. If I get down from this train then I will have to spend ten days of my vacation here alone. So I decided to travel and whatever will happen I will handle it. The train started and so did my heart beat go faster. Every now and then my eye was looking for the TC. All I had to do was keep hiding from the TC and after 44 hours I will be in Patna. It was a tough thing to do but I had no other option. Till Vijaywada no TC came and I was very happy that I am gonna make it. In the bogie where I was, I had no clue it was booked from Vijayawada. I had no clue it was under Vijayawada quota. And mostly all the people who had wait-listed ticket were in that bogie. As soon as Vijaywada station came, a huge crowd boarded the train. Apart from the people who had confirmed tickets from Vijaywada there were more than 120 people who had wait-listed ticket. Overall there were easily more than 200 people in that particular bogie. People here people there people were everywhere. I found a small place on one corner on the floor and immediately I sat down. And for the rest of the journey no TC had the courage to come into that bogie and check others ticket. It was my fate which saved me from the consequences. Technically I was involved in doing an illegal offence for which I can even get imprisonment. However I was lucky to board that particular bogie and reached my hometown without facing any trouble.

I know there are many people who have done that and they do every day. It is not a big deal but for me that time it was a big deal. The best part was when I reached home after few hours I got a message that the money was credited in my account as my ticket was not confirmed. More than a ticketless journey it was a free journey from Chennai to Patna.

#2 The Tragedy of Missing wallet…

It was the month of September, exactly after two months our college kicked-off. Three of us planned to watch a movie. After the classes I went back to my hostel and we started checking for movie tickets. There was no good movie but we wanted to watch something. So we planned to go for Golmaal-3 for the night show. We left around 6:30 pm and the plan was to reach Skywalk mall, have dinner and then go for the movie. Knowing the fact that it will take minimum 2 hours to reach there we still had ninety minutes in hand to have dinner without missing the movie. So we went to Potheri railway station and waited for the local train to come. But when you want to reach somewhere early, it never happens. We had to wait till 7:45pm to catch a train. We reached skywalk mall exactly around 9:50 pm and we had no time to have dinner. So we decided to go for the movie directly. The movie was crappy and it was 1:00 am when it got over. We all came out nothing was open. Every shop has been closed. There was no local trains now, no bus. And we had no other option than to ask auto drivers. But knowing the fact that they charge double in broad daylight we had no clue what to do and where to go. We decided to go to Nungambakkam station and check if there was any last train. It was ten minute walk from skywalk mall. We started walking. I was feeling the way Abhay Deol was feeling in the movie Ek challis ki last local. The difference was we were in Chennai and he was in Mumbai. So we had no hopes. On our way to Nungambakkam station, we were busy talking to each other and didn’t realize from where 7-8 prostitutes hovered around us. We got panicked and a wave of chill went down our spine. We had Goosebumps.

“Just look straight and keep walking.” I whispered

Me and Mayank (my roommate name was also Mayank) kept on walking straight down the road. But Ankur was busy in his phone and he didn’t realize what has happened there. After a while when he got into senses and realized he was in the middle of so many prostitutes all he could do was run the fuck out of there. It was a funny visual which I can never forget in my life. The way he screamed and started running was something I can never forget. Somehow we reached to Nungambakkam railway station only to find it was closed and there were no trains coming up until 5:00 am. I checked my watch; it said 1:30am. There was no way we can wait at the station for the next four hours and especially what happened few minutes ago, we decided to take an auto to marina beach.

“But he will charge minimum 200 bucks at this hour.” Mayank said

“I don’t even have that much.” I said

“Then what do we do?” asked Ankur

And after a while a wicked smile flashed over my face and I knew how to handle this situation now.

“Lets take an auto.” I said

And we stopped one auto.

“Inge??? (Where???)” He asked us

“Chennai Central anna.” We said in unison

“150 rupees.” He said

“Anna no wallet. Wallet lost. All three wallets lost. Only 30 rupees irke anna. (Brother we lost our wallets all three of us and we have only 30 rupees on us.” I said

He thought for a while.

“Anna please anna.” I pleaded with and made a sorry face

And after a while he signaled us to hop in.

“Thank you so much anna.” We said and got into the auto.

He dropped us to Chennai Central railway station and we gave him 30 rupees. We felt a bit bad for him too but we were just having fun. When we came here, many auto drivers took advantage of us being North Indian and charged us a fortune. So it was payback time. And from Chennai Central station we took another auto for Chennai beach. We again told him the same story that we have lost our wallets and we have only 30 bucks on us. Even he was a nice guy and dropped us at Chennai beach railway station.

The plan was to spend the night at marina beach. We thought marina beach is at Chennai beach. But it was just a name of local station and it was harbor area where entry for non-officials was restricted. So we enquired and then a police guy told us to take a train from Chennai beach to Chepauk or Light house and walk opposite to the railway station you will reach the marina beach. And we did exactly the same and at around 4:15 am we were at marina beach.

We sat there for an hour and witnessed the best sunrise ever of our life. It seemed as if the sun came out of the sea. This was the first time I ever witnessed a sunrise and this one was the best one of my life so far.

#1 That nostalgic moment…

It is always amusing to explore more about the human psychology. When I joined my college four years ago, I had just one feeling about it. How I am going to spend the rest four years of my life in Chennai?

And today when everything is over I feel bad about it. I also feel good about it. But I don’t exactly know how I am feeling. Am I feeling good because I completed my graduation or am I feeling bad because I am leaving a lot behind? I have a mixed feeling about everything and so I decided to explore all those feelings by sharing those moments which kept me going throughout my college life all over my blog. So the coming few days I am going to share all those colorful moments of my college life.

My first day in college is still so fresh and vivid in my mind as if it was yesterday when I was standing at the gate of SRM University, this time I was pretty confident as this was not my first time staying alone. I already experienced that bachelor life when I stayed in Hyderabad for two years. So I had already overcome those feelings and I was just looking forward to an adventurous four years of my life. However I never thought it will actually turn into some masala movie in the end. I don’t know why but my life always has a story to tell.

I was new to Chennai and I had no clue how I am gonna survive here. In Hyderabad it was not necessary to learn Telugu because every people over there spoke Hindi. And I managed my days in Hyderabad quite well without even learning the regional language. But the case was not the same in Chennai. Here very few people knew Hindi and I use to be speechless and expressionless at times. That was one major challenge for every north Indian of our college. That was the reason initially I had such hatred for the place. Apart from that the climate condition, the food issue and there was no meter system in Chennai auto. They all use to ask almost double the rate for anywhere we wanted to go. First three years of college I never bothered to even ask any auto guy to drop me anywhere. Bus or local trains were the only two transport system which we decided to rely upon. And both of them use to be crowded as hell. Even sometimes when we were damn tired we had no other option and board a train or bus. Sometimes being amidst that crowd use to be fun, helping someone unconditionally in a bus always gave me immense pleasure and happiness.

The morning 4’o clock tea with hot vada or bajji was always amazing. The sunrise from marina, getting stoned at broken bridge, walking endlessly to find something to eat in afternoon, the lectures, the bunks, the fest, the night studies, the results, the placement drive, the backlogs, the politics everything had its own value and fun which I feel now when I reflect on all those moments. There were times we kept on bitching about Chennai all over the country telling everyone not to come, and now I suggest people to live in Chennai. Except of the heat it is a good place to live in, you get peace of mind, it is safe and it has a lot more which most of the people have not explored yet. The best part which now I like about Tamil Nadu is people over here have preserved their heritage, culture and tradition. I don’t want to offend anyone but with the advancement of technology and western culture influence many people have lost it. But in Chennai doesn’t matter you are a millionaire or billionaire there are certain things which is common among everyone.

This city has taught me to remain calm in the worst situation of life. It has taught me to follow my dreams and never give up. The four years of my life here was amazing, though I ended up disappointing many people again but what I have learnt about life in these four years of my life, I can’t explain all that to anyone else. It’s my own experience which is going to help me in life. And yeah doesn’t matter what kind of situation comes I know one thing for a fact that I can handle all sorts of situation in life and I am gonna come out of anything with flying colors.

The friends, I made here, I don’t know till when we all will be in contact. But I know one thing the time that I have spent with every one of them was epic and I have treasured every single memory which I replay every now and then. And whenever I do, it brings a smile on my face.

As they say every beginning has an ending and every end has a new beginning.