15/4, Gandhi Road Srirangam

A work of fiction is where names and characters, places and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or are used fictitiously. They also safeguard themselves stating that any freaking resemblance to events or locales or people, living and making others die 'or' already dead and making life peaceful for others, is entirely unkowingly coincidental. Oh my god...really? I dont care. If you feel it resembles you, pick up the phone and talk to me dude. It will be a nice way to catch up. And dont even think of putting up a fight with me for what i have written or a stupid lawsuit for what i scribble...after all its just blogging. Take it in the lighter vien and move on...Its one life that you have! Do you really want to waste it? My physics tution ended. And i am not telling some calendar event which changed the face of the world here...so i really dont remember the date and time like all those famous best selling authors do. So..just read on will ya?... Walking down the old wooden creaking staircase was fun, but running down was even more fun. Me and my friend rushed out to grab our cycles. We had very less time. Had to make it to the regular 'Jhi' pani puri stall and then to ayyappan's shop for either a drink of 'pannir' soda (Rose flavoured soda) or lime drink before heading to my friend's house to watch the WWF tournament which featured Stone Cold Steave Austin. After a few lunch crunching pushes on the old 'hercules' second hand cycle pedals, the cycle started flowing with the wind. I let go of my hands and filled my lungs with fresh air. I felt like i wont leave this place. This place was close to my heart. It was a dramatic scene as i still think about it. We used to cycle down effortlessly after the initial push, with the background audio of chanting of 'Sriman Narayana Charanao Charanam Prabhadye...Srimathey Narayanaya Namaha' keeping our spirits up. I am not a very very high end ultra religious personality. I am a practical common man, seeking god's attention when in distress and forget to thank him when i am happy. Every time distress steps in i keep thinking i should thank him probably when i am happy for keeping me happy at that point of time, but fail to do it when i become happy. The abode of Sri Ranga, is not only the most religious place i have seen but also the most entertaining place too. Some people may take this offensive, but i want to state what i saw in the place i spent close to 9 years of the most exiciting years of my life. It is an entertaining place where you can find people of different shades and situations. From a man who keeps lifting his right hand quiet often pointing it to the sky and talking to himself and walking on the road, to a successfull writer who was once born here and later grew up to write stories which entertained many people across the globe. This is the varied levels of people you can meet. You can find people saying 'anything' and also get away with it and join midway in a long queue to get the lord's darshan like what Eddie Murphy does in the movie 'A Thouzand Words'. Jhi, 'Oru Pani Puri, Oru Samosa Channa' i shouted standing behind an old man who was enjoying his cutlet channa and asking for some more 'gravy' to spice up the already spicy plate of cutlet. He was wiping the sweat which was dribbling down his nose, due to the heat. The heat came from a combination of the sultry weather, the heat from the yellow lamp glowing near him which was stationed right in front of the pani puri stall and also the spicy intake of cutlet with 'gravy'. Me and my friend were among the 14 people eagerly waiting to get their small white ceramic plate filled with the locally made delicacies. Crushed puri and little gravy spread over every dish that is served kindles your taste buds. After having our quota of one plate per person and paying 'Jhi' with multiple coins which summed up to the 2 plates of delicacies, we walked down pushing our cycles towards Ayyapan's shop. Today Ayyappan was not there but his dad was there. A regular greeting with a smile the old man gave peeping in between the hanging magazines in tamil and english. Thinking about it even now makes me feel happy. 'Rendu Pannir Soda' (2 rose flavoured sodas) my friend said. Then we started our usual chit chat about the magazines that were hanging with cinema heroes and heroines, gosspis lines written on it and political leaders in some magazines with animated faces and fingers pointing to someone, forgetting what they had not yet done to the society. Then after finishing our pannir sodas we took our cycles and drove at break neck speed (to the level which the cycles could manage at the max) and reahced my friend's house opened the door and switched on the Television set to see our favourite star's entry into the arena... with 'Glass Shatters' - 'Step up! Cause you're the next one in line for the kill. You don't believe me but I'm betting that you will' running in the background and Austin stepping in with 2 cans of beer in his hand. We shouted out loud...we had made it on time To be continued...