India? Never heard of this place
During my minuscule exposure and interaction with anyone who doesn't replicate human features closely associated to someone having an Indian origin/descent, never have I been prompted by them with the above statement posed at me! (confused tremolo noises)
You didn't understand a word I typed, right? Neither did I :) And that is just how I would like to introduce India to you if you don't know much about it. There is a wide spectrum and combinatorics of cultures/traditions/languages/customs that even one of the millennium problems seems more comprehensible compared to its complexity. Trust me I know how chaotic it is. So much so that they had to include secularism and diversity into my country's constitution! If you haven't read this document, no worries, about 90% of Indians haven't read it word to word which includes me. It might sound like a stretch, but more than 30% of us don't even have a slightest clue of its preamble (questionable metrics stated without any underlying proof).
Now, now, enough of this rather stale introduction to my country. Let's get to the fun bit. In a few words, I will retrace my footprints across India.
Madras
The smoothly tiled surface upon which I first crawled was laid over a region which used to be called Madras until 1996. The government then went haywire (still mad about it) and renamed it to Chennai. Not to brag much about my home city provided I don't actually own it, but it is considered as one of the safest cities in India. Ask me how safe it is? Well, personally I never felt threatened primarily due to my local language skills and keen disinterest in local affairs (politics, religion and social conflicts over celebrity worship). There are some locations I totally love in Madras (it will be Madras in my mind, bear with me) :
Mylapore : This is one of the primary location which strikes my mind. Mylapore stands as the testament of the Tamil tradition and values. This is no way to demean any other city equally contributing to the identity of Tamil Nadu per se. Whenever I visit Madras, I try to fit in a stroll within Mylapore to my to-do list. Anyone who closely knows me, knows that I spend hours admiring architectures and art in general. A stroll without a plan along Mylapore would be a treat to your eyes with all its vivid lights and excellent architecture. But if you don't keep your eyes on the road, it could be an easy roadkill. Indians aren't the rashest of the drivers but perhaps a little too impatient. Being a pedestrian throughout my life I wish motorist can distinguish between what accounts to be a pavement and what doesn't. My mother has lived about half of her life here so it is always a trip down the memory lane for her and more so for my grandmother. There are several shops here which have been passed down over several years and stood despite the test of time.
Beaches : Despite being a Metropolitan city, Madras has a 19 Km coastline. Marina Beach which is about 6 Km long still stands to be second largest urban beach in our world and a specular highlight of Madras. Throwing the vanity metric out of the window, I find Bessy beach or Beasent nagar beach to be more well maintained. I cannot blame the municipality entirely for the ill maintenance of Marina as it serves as a hub spot for several protests and political rallies and what-nots.
Bessy sure has a different vibe. The above picture has a story of its own to tell. During my bachelor's (a very long time ago coming to think of it), we planned early in the morning (read 10:30 a.m.) on a Sunday to play football together. "We" here constitutes to my close friends from college. We have thrived to stay in touch virtually despite the test of time. In our four years of togetherness in college, this was our only "physical" meetup. We usually hangout in Nungambakkam ("New York of Madras" without the skyscrapers and holding a promise to blow a hole in your wallet). To describe the setting, it was peak summer back then which roughly translates to this : a skin exposure to beach sand for more than few microseconds can obliterate your feet. We played for a few minutes despite the challenge imposed at us. Rest of the story is best restricted to private chats. 😉
Nungambakkam : There are several nostalgic moments for me personally here. There isn't anything unique about this place if you are a tourist. You will find stores of many international brands if you are into shopping😑 (but why would you want to purchase something which you can find just anywhere is something you must ask yourself). We met at Nungambakkam to have "communal" food, bowling, billiards and gaming in a very "calm" and "composed" environment (please note the sarcasm if it isn't apparent).
I didn't spend the entirety of my childhood and teenage years in Madras. A good chunk was spent in an oil based country and the other two years in a hostel which was arguably in the remotest part of Madras which makes it less accountable. My experiences in Madras can very well be drafted to be a 250 page book, let's move on to another location.
Guwahati :
Did you notice the date stamps on my photos of Guwahati? I owned a little digital camera from Canon back then which offered decent quality of photos. You can guess how millennial I am while I reminisce the good old days of photos taken solely by a camera. My family owned a Yashica to capture moments of my childhood. The photos were captured over a film and developed later to physical photos. I really loved this concept of only capturing important moments to retain memories. There was no need to take excessive photos to showcase online one's present state of mind or quench their vanity metric.
I bagged a research fellowship for a month in IIT Guwahati which is situated in the Northeast of India. For someone who has never travelled much east, I was vested (If you noticed the pun, here is a 🍪). I don't exactly know how I remember this but I took a domestic Indigo flight to travel here from Madras. Here is the fun bit - before me on the check-in queue was a young rebel. It was common knowledge that Indigo is very strict on their luggage restrictions. If they mention 25 kilograms, you did better stick to it by the nail. This young rebel before me was creating a ruckus by calling the ground staff names for a mistake she had committed. Her baggage went 4 kilogram in excess! This young rebel was patiently handled even though she was completely at fault. After some confrontation which was consuming everyone's time, this rebel reluctantly paid for the excess baggage. The unexpected bit was when this ground staff uttered sarcastically at her, "Thank you for flying with us. You have made my day."
IIT Guwahati was situated understandably away from urban civilization. It chose to reside along the humble Brahmaputra river. A place of learning must exist sufficiently away from clamour and distraction. But what stayed unwarranted in my mind back then was that it was also an intrinsic beauty. Let me tell you this : the campus is huge, H-U-G-E. So huge that there is a mountain (pretty small one) residing within its premises to hike upon. Though I spent most of my waking hours inside the lab, I thoroughly loved walking around the campus early in the morning and during late nights. The campus was sufficiently empty as regular students were on a summer vacation.
Let me tell you why this particular building where I worked took away my sanity! Do you remember the staircase in Harry Potter which keeps moving? Well, imagine if they were fixed but ended up leaving you equally perplexed. The lab I worked in was situated on 2.5th floor 😶 and there existed several ways one could get there. Being an "expert" with directions, I always resulted in getting lost here. Some sympathetic researcher would always redirect me to my lab!
During my second weekend here, my colleague wanted to have a sneak peak of the real unfiltered Guwahati. As visiting students of IIT, we had a formidable perk. Free bus ride to the city (frugality++) !! Unbeknownst to us, there was a huge crowd awaiting to board this bus. Free ride took a whole different meaning that day. Luckily there were many buses to the city. To add to the mix these buses catered only to IIT folks which resulted in lesser incoming traffic (passengers) in further stops of the bus. We disembarked near our trek's starting point. The crest of this trek is actually a very famous temple. I anticipated a never-ending horde of people to crowd our trekking trail. But to my surprise, there was no one on this trail. This was primarily due to a well established roadway which leads to the top. There were several public transportation options and some private cabs to ensure that this temple remain accessible.
To an acute enochlophobian (fear of crowds) this was a pure delight. We prodded along this trail which simply put was just climbing a never-ending flight of stairs. To add a complexity quotient, these steps were unevenly laid. One can never take their eyes off the trail! This temple was a bit disturbing to me back then for it had a designated spot to decapitate domesticated animals. No hate against their culture and traditional practice, but it was traumatising to see bloodstained walls and loud bleating of goats. Of course, I didn't want to witness this act. After spending a few hours observing the crowd and purchasing some goodies which were unique to Guwahati, we proceeded to the city centre.
A peculiar contrast I observed among the common folk in Guwahati is this - they held a high regard for personal grooming and fashion. Be it a street vendor or elderly, everyone were so well dressed! Of course, you do know about my personal grooming from here. I didn't feel embarrassed, but surely radiated the vibes of an oddball. I felt like a tourist in my own country. The best thing about public transportation here is that you can disembark just anywhere, not just bus stops (could lead to very ghastly consequences coming to think of it). Before we proceeded back to our shell, I purchased some Assam tea after hearing some jaw-dropping reviews from some colleagues. But it ended up being not up to the mental standards that I had set myself. And there ends my only Northeast-Indian expedition.
To be continued....
I failed to realize while conceptualising this article that I have much more to write when it comes to illustrate my adventures in India thus resulting in a continuation post. A little spoiler: sequent post will expand on my trips to Coorg, Dhanushkodi, Madurai, Kanyakumari and a secretive location (undisputed part of every Indian college student's unachievable plan). I cannot particularly weave an interesting story about my brief visits to Jaipur/Udaipur, Kodaikanal, Trichy and Thiruvananthapuram.
Upon a suggestion from a Greek friend of mine who can very well be mistaken to be Japanese for her knowledge in anime and Japanese culture, this series was ideated. I request a short comment from my readers mentioning their favourite travel destination in India or their home country. This could lead to some very interesting conversations!
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