Saturday, March 17, 2007

Happy fish, sad fish

I miss Chennai.

The udupi hotel food, the low priced fruit shakes, the sea and the besant nagar sea bridge, the east cost road, the friends i had there, satyam theatre and Spencer plaza, the rains, the bike rides....

I miss Kerala.

The backwaters, the greenery in lavish abandon, the fish, the food, the underrated malabari biriyani with an egg, onion raita and yummy lemon pickle, the different pickles and fried tapioca, jackfruit, and what not, mashed tapioca, esoteric mallu breakfast of puttu, payar, kozhukatta, ada, jackfruits, various kinds of bananas, elephants, Rs 30 movie tickets...

I miss Jamshedpur.

The running into terabytes online movie collection, the roadside food experiences, the nights where i learnt to dance, the few friends and many acquaintances, the campus dogs, the beautiful streets and the houses, the riverside....

I miss Gurgaon.

The people in that office, the friends I have left there, the movies, the shopping malls, the hep eating and drinking holes, the all night parties, the all night drinking and talking sessions with work friends....


I will miss Kolkata.

College street, city centre, the old dilapidated houses, the white jamun, the roadside snacks whose name I always keep forgetting, the work, the responsibility that made me grow up....

I don't miss Chennai.

The dirt. The lack of water. The sweat.

I don't miss Kerala.

The leching men with hands like the tentacles of Medusa, who grope and grope and grope - till you either hit back or move away if possible. The apathy of the people around me. The pseudo intellectual crap of the arm chair activists which somehow irks more than the blatant commercialization of other cities.

I don't miss Jamshedpur.

The trying to fit in. The trying to be overly loyal and patriotic. The trying to put friendships and personal opinions above what needed to be said and done. The most times phony feeling of belonging.

I don't miss Gurgaon.

The feeling of being shouted at. The conflict between wanting my life back and not wanting to hurt my friends. The inability to again, take a stand for losing a friend. The overpriced everything.

I wont miss Kolkata.

The lack of friends. The people who try to make me dole out more just because I earn more. The selfishness and self centeredness of people whom I have met, interacted with, and who still think that they are doing me a favour. The lack of a shoulder to lean on at time, for sometimes professional and mostly non-professional guidance.

7 comments:

Adi Oso-Groot Finch said...

Oye the one about not missing Cal is totally unacceptable! I'm always there to stand in as a friend and/or to offer my shoulder should you ever need it on behalf of all cal ... all you need to do is place a call / send a return flight ticket.

~how u doin

Unknown said...

u still manage to keep my attention with ur blogposts, even after all this while :) u moving out of cal? where to? email me..

Unknown said...

Visiting your blog after a long time. Read everything in one shot.

I wont ramble on about the effect it had on me. Will just say "it touched me". Keep writing.

kannan udayarajan said...


nice read:)

N A R I YA L C H U T N E Y said...

Hey Extremely nice read since I can relate to Chennai , Kerala , Gurgaon and Kolkata. I am taking this up as a tag . Hope you don't mind :).

Sudeep said...

while not missing kerala, check this one.

Hip Grandma said...

when were you in Jamshedpur?Are you a product of XLRI?O loved your version of the Lord's prayer.