Content Life

Thiruvanmayiur felt like a really quiet place. With the Thayagaraya nagar beach adjacent to the suburb, the cool winds from the sea made sure that this place remained at its pleasant best. The roads were made of thar unlike the concrete roads of mumbai. The trees on both sides of the streets made an arch like shape, which seems like as if they are welcoming you.

The rainy season was on the way, but not yet started. There was a cyclone, which was to pass the Chennai city during the weekend I was there. Did not affect my stay a lot though. The share auto's helped me reach places without buring a hole into my pocket. The climate so soothing as compared to Mumbai, made me think twice to leave the city.

I just love this arch formed by the trees!! amazing....


The end of this street is the Thiruvanmayiur beach!!

I went to places like Adayar, Mylapore, Guindy, Madipakkam, Meenambakam, Tirusulam, Triplicane, Besant Nagar, Shoulinganallur and T-Nagar. I walked almost 5-6 kms on the beach from Besant nagar beach to Thiruvanmayiur beach. Went to Marina beach in the night, got some CDs at a local store, visited some temples. The Parthasarathy temple in Triplicane, the Padmanabhaswamy temple at Adayar was another gem of a spectacle; like an icing on the cake of my trip.

The share auto!!

The town bus
Inside the bus

I forgot to mention two main places, one is Kalakshetra in Besant nagar and the another one is the Vani Mahal at T-Nagar. The later was a drama done by "Crazy" Mohan. It was damn hilarious. Made in both English and Tamil. Kalakshetra is something out of the world. As soon as you get into it, you get lost in the music and dance rendering there. Carnatic music and also the dance style which is very much the jewel of Tamil nadu, Bharathanatiyam. I so more than 4-5 foreigners learning it. Totally amazing atmosphere where in you can literally breath music. I saw some classes there also got a chance to talk with the art teacher there. This is one place I will not forget.

Evening time it was wonderful to see school kids return home. Amazingly quite streets, with only the sound of roaring engines of cars and bikes. The temples with religious songs, buzzing buses, cute kids, quiet a site. From coconut cycle to the the onion vehicle everything felt different about this place.

Something that hit me more than anything was an incidence that happened on the share auto. My cousin had a 500 ruppee note and could not get change. We just got down of the share auto and I had the change, just 20 was the fare. Just to get lower denominations of 500, my cousin asked the auto driver for change. What the auto driver said, shook as for a second or two. He said, I would have gone home if I had 500 rupees and still not be driving auto.

My cousin told me something that jolted me to reality of situation. He said, the auto driver has his limit. He is happy with the 500 rupees he has and is not greedy for more. Only software engineers like us, slog it out and still find ourselves unhappy when we get the pay check. Many might say, the auto driver does not think of a better life or he does not dream more or may be even better standard of living. Well I feel he is content with what he has. Some day when we find out the reality of this, we can be contempt. :) :) I still feel I am underpaid :P