Tuesday, February 06, 2007

~Chennai's favorite son's~

Welcome to Chennai. The city in which summer, winter, autumn and spring all invariably mean the same thing. Rains ofcourse being the only relief, invariably accompanied by floods; and most often a cricket match.

It’s in this city, that on one Tuesday afternoon, you find yourself running late for your scheduled luncheon meeting. Its 1:30 in the afternoon, and you need all the signals to be green for you to reach your destination on time. Deep down, you have a feeling that isn’t going to happen, but we very seldom actually agree with what we believe deep down. Don’t we ? Anyway, it doesn’t happen, two red signals and some cursory abusing of passerby’s later, you reach your destination.

A quick search for a parking spot outside the restaurant; it’s quite evident, “another restaurant which expects most of its patrons to use public transport”; 15 tables inside the restaraunt parking space for about 3 cars. (And that’s including the restaurant owner’s car) You turn around the bend; it’s your lucky day! A quiet spot, it even has some shade, and what’s more the watchman there seems to be dozing. A quick maneuver and your ready for your meeting; I guess by IST standards you’re pretty much early.


Just when you are about to get out of your car, out of the darkness (sorry out of daylight) he appears

“ Its him”, you think. Yes, I know, you thought he was dozing. So did I. Pointing his fingers at you, and then at various altitudes, he begins viciously


“ No parking, etha no parking”. “ Where do I park my car then?”, you ask. He replies, Enkeyo Park panno park paana saar, Inkey park panna, puddu Hyundai accent ley, Police kaar vaaro. Tyre ley Yovlo peraso lock podovo( with hands wide apart) ,

aprovo unda window ley

BEWARE ! BEWARE! sticker podho, aadha vokay na park pananga.” Ok, translating that isn’t really easy, anyway in short; according to the watchman, if you were to park your vehicle there, the big men would descend from their white Hyundai Accents, put a lock on your tyre and if that’s not bad enough also put a ridiculous ‘BEWARE’ sticker on your windscreen.

For whatever reason, you believe him. You reverse your car, it’s a painful process, and you are back to where you started. You are back to scanning again, hallaleujah! a car in the allocated parking seems to be shifting out, you seize the opportunity, a quick maneuver and your car has found a parking spot, a sigh of relief, a good lunch, a better meeting and a great day await you.

Not quite.

You get out of your car, lock your door. And then you hear a whistle, it’s him again; he decided to make the walk. He objects, apparently the car has not been parked to his satisfaction. He wants you to re-park it. And then the Da vinci in him comes out , konju left saar, Konju right saar, slighta reverse saar, konju pinnadi, you begin to wonder if so many directions went into the crafting of Shah Jahan’s Taj Mahal. After another good 5 minutes of aligning, adjusting and re-aligning, he is finally happy; you have managed to impress him. Right saar!, he gesticulates with one hand up and a content smile. You get out of the car, there is only one thing in your mind, to get to your luncheon meeting as quickly as possible, and come up with a plausible excuse to your client for making him wait.

Bang in front of you however, he’s back. Standing as forcibly erect as our very own Marina Light house building, with a crisp water tight salute, and a contained smile, well ok, you can see how he’s smiling.

He tells you, Saar, parking ticket – five rupees”. Why on earth, should you pay parking to eat in a privately run restaurant, you wonder. You ask him, he then says something to the extent of Saar, tea, coffee”. He has you confused now, is it for his coffee or is it for parking, you give up. You rummage for change, manage to get 5 bucks put it in his hand, and flee towards the restaurant.

You enter the restaurant in haste, scan it , you can’t seem to spot him. The door swings open, the two of you make eye contact, almost in unison the two of you say, “Sorry, got delayed; was stuck in a meeting”. Meeting with whom ?, it isn’t even important..

‘IST - Indian Stretchable time’, it is part of the Indian mindset, I hear someone say. But let’s assume, we did have wider roads, designated parking spots and dare I say it, less eager security guards, would IST still be as stretched? Maybe, I’m just getting a little too hypothetical.

15 comments:

Ravi Shankar said...

Tha Mamas driving Hyndai accents are far more considerate than the thathas sittling on the Wooden stools :P

P.S : The post is published twice.never knew you were so very annoyed with them

Anonymous said...

you seem harassed. interested in buying a second hand scooty?

sisto

Ved Swaminathan said...

"And then the Da vinci in him comes out , konju left saar, Konju right saar, slighta reverse saar, konju pinnadi..."

This was funny dude ....

And hey ...since when do Chennai Cops drive Accents?

Anonymous said...

oye! been there done that and paid the parking ticket...-Lekha

Abhinav said...

dude... i have the vaguest feeling i've read it before...
but i still haven't laughed this much in a long time...
absolutely rollickingly brilliant!
keep them coming buddy.

Sudhir syal said...

@Ravi,

Yes Sir,

I totaly agree. The thatas seem to last longer as well...

Sudhir syal said...

@ Sisto

But wasnt that scooty, mauled by some people from a lorry on one of those lonely streets ?

Wasnt it...? Cmon Own up. :)

Sudhir syal said...

@Ved

Since the last 6 mnths, I think. There must have been an election or something, or the Koreans here would have needed something.

They dont look too bad though..must admit.

Sudhir syal said...

@ Lekha

Even you, with your new found celebrity status.. ??? Tsk tsk, what has the world come to...

Sudhir syal said...

@Abhinav,

Yes you have read it before buddy, without the juicy photos though.. :)

Good, maybe the 2 of us should team up and give a talk on 'How to get or avoid getting chased by watchmen'at the next un-conference...haha

Gulam Hasan said...

Welcome to Chennai. The city in which summer, winter, autumn and spring all invariably mean the same thing. Rains ofcourse being the only relief, invariably accompanied by floods; and most often a cricket match
Hilarious and kinda true...
Cops in accents???? wow nice..

Schmetterling said...

the police now have accents? outdated as hell i seem to be. And even if you had a seven storey parking structure, and wide six lane roads, IST will remain IST, and that's the charm. The fact that you can leave home at 12:15 from anna nagar to a meeting at 12:30 in t-nagar, and make it 'on time' !

Kenneth said...

cool blog and thanx for your feedback on mine.
wish there was a way to reply to comments directly from my blog ,or maybe i am still a novice at blogging and don't know how.

Prashanth said...

I say :D your version of Chennai seems just as delectable. Oh, what a city! Love it.

Shrinidhi Hande said...

made a good read...