The Eve of Deepavali

It was a regular Sunday evening for me. I’d nothing special planned other than to meet up with a friend and go to my second most favorite temple here. I went to his place around 8 PM and we rushed to the temple on my bike because they close the temple at 8.30 PM. We made it in time (thanks to my fantastic driving skills (?) and utter disregard to personal safety) and it was turning out to be a nice evening.

The next in our to-do list was to have dinner and we drove back to Tambaram. We dined at this restaurant which used to be one of our regulars 4 years back. They had a sign which read “Celebrating 9 years of serving quality food thanks to you” or something to that effect. We’d seen that sign when it read 5 years. It’s amazing how time flies by! Anyway, we were chit chatting about crazy relatives, broadband Internet service providers & treadmills among other things as we were eating.

After the dinner, I dropped him over at his house and was on my way back home. I was going over this fly over when I noticed this old lady (must be in her 70s) sleeping on the side of the pavement. I hit the brakes and turned around (driving in the wrong direction) and stopped next to her. The noise didn’t wake her up. She was sleeping with her hands around her chest so as to give some warmth. The sight just pained me. The whole world (OK, maybe not the entire world, but India) is rejoicing and getting ready for tomorrow, people flocking to the shops for buying clothes, kids dragging their parents to buy crackers, people buying sweets when this poor soul is sleeping on the road without a shelter, without spare clothes…. with nothing.

Tomorrow is going to be just another day for her. She will not be wearing new clothes, not eat sweets, not watch any of the mildly amusing TV specials. Nothing! There is something wrong with this world.

She must have realized that someone was standing next to her and woke up. I smiled and started talking to her. She was not very coherent for some reason.

Me  : Did you have dinner?

Her : Yes.

Me  : What’s special for Deepavali?

Her : Nothing.

Me  : Will you take money if I offered? (I didn’t want to offend her but I wanted to do something)

Her : Yes.

Me  : Please take this. (I pulled a 100 Rupees note from my wallet and placed it in her hand)

Her : Where do you live?

Me  : Chromepet.

Her : Pallavaram?

Me  : No. Chromepet; just beyond this fly over.

Her : You’ve to go to work now?

Me  : No, I don’t work in the night. I’ve a regular day job.

Her : Poi thoongu! (In Tamil – Go home and sleep)

Me  : Sari, neengalum thoongunga.  (Ok, please do the same.)

I turned around and started racing back to home. I had tears in my eyes and I started thinking of my Patti (grandma). I miss her so much!! You don’t realize what you’ve until you’ve lost it!

Here comes another Deepavali, the festival of lights. To some it’s the festive fireworks, to some it’s about the sharing of sweets, to some it’s another holiday. To me, it’ll always remind me of the last time I was with my Patti.

I wish you all a happy and fun filled Deepavali!

From Manchester to Madras

A lot of people have been asking me what I miss after coming to Madras. I’ve usually responded with Taco Bell or Hi-Speed Internet or something trivial. I really started thinking about it today and came up with the list below. Although these are definitely not the only things I miss, I sure wish I had all these now. Here goes:

1. My Mitsubishi Eclipse GTS - She was an absolute beauty. It was love at first sight when I saw her on the dealer’s website and went to the dealer’s with every intention of buying without even a test drive. Although she was expensive (burned quite a hole in my wallet) she was worth every buck. I realized how fast street lights disappear at 200 kmph thanks to her. I love that car! I’m so sad to see her go.
2. My Apartment – Agreed, it was nothing extra-ordinary by American standards but it was a beautiful apartment. Conveniently located next to Walmart, the malls, the Cinemas, Grocery Stores, Blockbuster, Taco Bell, Chilies, etc… I couldn’t have asked for a better locality. Not to mention the 24 hours water supply (hot & cold), Central Air conditioning, hooked-up washer & dryer, my home theatre system, the bed.. the list goes on. Above all, it was home!!
3. Organized Traffic, Awesome Roads & Dust free environment – You don’t need to polish your shoes; you can wear whites to work, come back and wear them again the next day (Not that you’ll have to. But you CAN); you don’t have to worry about trucks coming at you in the wrong lane – ‘Nuff said!!
4. Fall & Snow – There can not be a lot of things that are prettier than the Fall colors. It is nature at its picturesque best. Watching a snowfall (when you’re not driving)  at night is incredible. The little white things falling on your face against a pitch black sky, sending a chill to the spot they land  – Simply mesmerizing. Always made me forget all my worries and be happy. Of course, driving to work the next day will be a royal pain in the butt but it’s well worth it.
5. The People @ Work – The people I worked with were just superb. I could not have asked for a better crowd. I’ve learned a lot from each & every one of them and I certainly miss them.

Am I being the stereotypical guy who just came back from the US and bitches about every little thing in India? No. I am just outlining the things I’m missing so far. I’ll probably write a continuation to this post listing the things I missed in the US that I’ve right now.

Today, I killed a crow.

It was 11 ish in the morning; I was Stumbling Upon web pages as usual and basically procrastinating when mom came into my room. She had gone upstairs to hang the wet clothes to dry but had rushed back without doing so for some reason.

Our building is still under construction and we had people working on the top floor. They’ve been using a open barrel filled with water in which a crow had fallen. My mom had noticed the crow struggling to get out of the barrel and had placed small wooden poles and boards thinking the crow will climb out with some foothold.

This was of no avail because the crow must have fallen inside a while back for its wings were completely wet and it could barely keep itself afloat let alone climb out. This is when my mom had come down and told me what happened.

I knew I had to get it out of the barrel myself and took a bucket and started ascending the stairs. As soon as I reached the barrel I peeked inside to see it. There was no fight left in it and it was gasping for air barely able to keep it’s beak above the water. There was no movement in it’s torso and it was dying.

I suddenly realized that the bucket I’d brought was too big to fit inside the barrel and started running downstairs praying to God to keep it alive for a few more seconds. I found a smaller bucket and rushed back up and took the crow out.

All of this had happened within 15 seconds. Yet, 15 seconds too late as it turned out. The crow lay dead in front of me and I felt a sudden rush of anger, helplessness and sadness all at the same time. A flurry of questions raging inside my head:

Why the hell didn’t I kick the barrel over?

Why the hell didn’t I take a smaller bucket the first time?

Why the hell didn’t I use my hands to get the bird out?

Why couldn’t he (or she) hang on for 10 more seconds?

Why……????

There were no answers, only a terrible sense of guilt as I stood staring at the lifeless body of an unlucky bird.

Today, I killed a crow.