what do u do when a teacher asks you, "don't u guys go out?" . we remembered. :P .. we had to
go out.
biked our way to the best chaat place in the city . GANGOTREEE. masala puri, dahi puri, cheese pav bhaji, paneer rolls.... and finally.. to the pani puri-wala with the bestest ever gol guppas ever. we drank 2 extra cups of just the pani. that's one place i'd never be bored of, even if i went there every other day.
simply biked around T.Nagar. and then i walked back home, window-shopping along pondy bazaar platform :D :D . one of the best ways to relax. the bustling crowd, bargaining voices, smell of flowers and fruits, LOCAL ACCENT, street-hawkers.... oh i love chennai.. u see all kinds of people in one place!
there was this snake-charmer with a huge huge python round his neck and was asking for money. a French couple was staring at him and gave him a 100 ruppes :O to have the snake round their necks. i stopped staring, when i felt something around my legs. for a moment i though it was one of the pythons :O i looked down to see a small boy of perhaps 6 years hugging me with eyes closed. apparently he broke away from his mother after getting frightened at the sight of the snake-charmer and clung to me. he started crying "Amma, Amma" . i was smiling to myself because that kid was terribly terribly cute. i let the snake-charmer go past and took the child a few shops forward. his mom spotted him and his sister of about 12 years stared at me, as if i were a kidnapper :|
we decided to go for lunch today, in the morning. i went to college to join the other 3 and we rode up and down flyovers and busy roads of Kodambakkam and T.nagar and found Olive Garden in Alwarpet. its THE place for the yummiest veg food of all cuisines at one place... chinese, mexican, italian, punjabi, hyderabadi, tandoori, south-indian...
when the starters came... it was like these cartoons.. where a cake would be placed on a table and all the characters would swarm over it and in one miute, it would be gone! our quesidillas went, the same way :P ...the yummiest quesidillas after don pepe, i would say :) . we were trying to teach each other table manners and ended up eating with our hands finally. the sunday buffet aroma wafted up our noses but we stuck to our nachos, sizzler italiano and hyderabadi dum biryani :D .
we had finished every drop of the salsa and cream , every corn kernel, every bit of jalepeno and every piece of vegetable. what a spread , we pampered ourselves with. dessert was not too great .. strawberry cheesecake and chocolate mousse..
the best part was the bill. :D
very very nominal price.
we shot off to a small confectionery nearby and did some shopping there.. i wish the afternoon hadn't ended so soon.
i walked a short distance to get home. again i dissolved in the pandemonium of shoppers and traders. a foreigner dressed in jeans and a kurta, going past me, smiled and waved at me!! i wondered if i knew him... quite unlikely. i just smiled back, sheepishly. i was suprised! firstly chennai is becoming home to more foreigners these days. and they adhere to our culture and way of living. and they smile and wave at strangers! feels nice!
apart from the food, biking, walking and strangers waving at me and stuff... its the feeling of togetherness, genuine laughter and pure pure fun that makes me resolve never to wish for being left alone again. NEVER EVER. we celebrated togetherness. we celebrated chennai. its a lovely lovely place to live in. i don't think i would ever want to live elsewhere. not even coimbatore, my hometown. chennai is grooming me into a person who would enjoy life as it comes and not worry about sadness. the spirit of chennaites is so admirable. people are always on their feet. there's never a moment of dullness. as i was walking down the temple street, i was thinking of all the times i called coimbatore a "sleepy little town" because nothing ever happened there. but it was just the age that made me think so ignorantly. now, as i am about to step into my twenties, i am glad to be in chennai, to have found/ find interesting people, great places and also the importance of money and people.
an afternoon well-spent... i think, as i get back to working on our tech-fest preparations :)
december sundays are so perfect for hanging out with 3 other absolute idiots who make you laugh so much that u feel like puking out the yummy lunch u just had :P
yay us!! :)
