DAY 1 – 20th August 2007)
The train journey was quite weary, bunny and me, both with sulking faces, sitting in front of each other in A2 coach of the Charminar Express [not that we are really rich, A2 courtesy is Satyam’s Travel Plan – Abbreviated as TP J/ In fact both of us come from extreme conditions of deprived, underprivileged, disadvantaged, needy, destitute backgrounds – sorry bunny for telling our asliyat, sacchayi ka dhong karke mein thak gaya hu J] .. Both of us bid our boyfriends and girlfriends goodbye (yea we r bisexual – bunny dnt hit me plzZ). It was one of those very rare moments when we don’t talk , the only time I remember being so quite and sad before this was 23 years back when that ugly nurse cut off my umbilical cord while the sexy nurse went to the baby on the next bed ( hai re meri futi kismat L) , tabhi se jo mu khola,, who ab tak band hi nahi hua.. BLa Bla Bla ..(no no not ba ba black sheep, blah blah wala Bla Bla) .. Sitting in the train, glaring at the endless black expanse of land passing by at a speed of 80kms per hr, I asked bunny – “yeh humare saath kya ho raha hai bhai?”
“Sab Uparwaale ki MAYA hai” is the only answer I got in return !!
We touched Chennai central at around 9am (30 mins delay – Indian Standard Railway Time – ISRT), the heat was getting on my forehead in the form of tiny beads of sweat, while bunny was not at all to be seen in his usual chirpy and hopping self L. Our localite friend Ramee International (her names Ramya, but I like to call her Ramee. U can also call her a SHE_MAN – By the power of GREYSKULL, she is 5’9” and weighs 180 pounds – looks like Muhammad ali’s foster grand daughter ) had come to pick us up in her car and drop us back to our temporary home – CITY RESIDENCY. (No no, donot mistake her with a Valet service, she is really our true friend :P )
The scene at the station as quite unique, wth coolies jumping inside the train talking to us in broken English (yea I forgot to mention we do look like alien foreigners in MACHA Land – Hydie complexion u see) We tried to bargain with the coolie for a combo pack of keeping our luggage in the car as well as getting out my bike from the luggage (thts my better half – her names Karishma). Ramee in her Usual SHE-Man style tried to verbally overpower the coolies and fix a rate that was less than half of their Quotes; end result was we were dragging the 9 bags ourselves towards the car in the Chennai heat L. After loading the bags and literally stuffing them in the FORD, I set back at a brisk pace to check if mah beloved bike had been unloaded from the train or not. Running all the way back to the last coach, I was almost huffing and panting by the time walked by 18 coaches of that longgggggggg train.
My bike was out, as soon as I reached it, 2 chutku guys hopped along my side and started speaking rapid macha language (yea yea TAMIL) , looking at the LOST look on my face, one of them asked “InDi?” .. I was like whaaaaaa>?? , thn I understud that he was asking me if I can talk in Hindi and I nodded my head in their usuall head wagging manner .. He told me that he will do all my work right from getting the gate pass(all the way back from the platform) and then getting my bike out of the stn. With my usual Mumbai instincts, I first asked him how much, he jus patted on my back and wagged his head again – “PehLe kaam karegaa, paisa baadme – aapki khushi sir” .. he asked me to sit inside the coach while his associate ran with my ticket and receipt to get the gate pass. Sitting inside the coach, he then asked me again in his head wagging style, “Kidhar Se?” I replied “MUMBAI” with somewhat pride,,, there was a strange bright look in his eyes when I uttered that word, as if I clicked a button which blinks on NEON lights,, he said “Mumbai ka Log ke Pass Gun Hota !!” , it surprisingly wasn’t a question, he was trying to convince me in his head wagging manner that Mumbai people carry guns and keep shooting around for fun (for once I really hated RGV for his movies, specially SATYA).
We finally got the bike out and ramya and bunny went back to get the car while I was supposed to wait at some signal that ramee visually explained me to come to!! After dragging the bike for half a mile towards the petrol pump, I filled it up and kicked on the 223 cc engine for its journey on a new city. I was supposed to meet rammees car outside GH – hospital outside central and thn follow her car, I asked her about helmets and she blantly told me its not an issue in Chennai and I can follow ( my mardangi ego cudnt actually tell her tht I am more of a metrosexual and was not asking the helmet for a rule or safety but for avoiding tanning my face :P )
After getting lost in the bylanes around central and after calling up ramee and bunny and asking rick guys for directions for about 30 mins I finally reached the destined GH signal. While I was waiting for them, a khaki pant-white shirt-blue cap clad guy just hopped into my front from behind me and pulled out my keys. I was staring at his face with a surprised look (a traffic cop was the last pain I had expected after getting lost in early morn Chennai heat and getting tanned to a choco brown face). This fella again started in tamil asking for license, papers, helmet … my Mumbai instincts kicked in instantly and I started in a bent manner, “Chod Do Sir, GAlti hogaya Sir, I m new sir, Jus came out of stn Sir, Helmet is in car Sir? Now it was his turn to stare at me with a WEIRD Look, (His mouth was open for so long that I could already smell his morning breakfast from a 2 feet distance). I realized that he neither understood hindi nor proper English and we wer back to good old tribal days of SIGN Languages. He informed me about the Rs 500 fine for not having a MH – NOC for my bike. Having experienced the toughest of the cops in Mumbai for 23 years, I knew that they only understand one language. I ran towards the car, took my helmet and Rs100 note from bunny and hopped back towards him like a kid. Before he cud utter a word, I had stuck that note in his hand, and like a reflex he put on the keys himself in my bike and patted on my back with an immensely father like gesture and gave me the U CAN GO sign.
Dragging behind the car, I showed signs of fatigue and restlessness aftr crossing 11 signals in 1100 metres. I told ramya that I will park my bike in her building and she wud drop me in her car till the hotel (it was already 11.30am, which was way beyond my reporting time in office). So we quickly parked the bike, and set off in the car. Picked up sum Marie Brown (which is some cheap and incompetent imitation of MCdonalds) burgers and drinks on the way (our first breakfast in Macha Land). We finally reached the hotel at 12.30 and said bye to ramya. We took a bath and set off for our new office - Tidel Park office.
I had read in wikipedia (when I was in hyd) that Tidel Park was the second biggest IT park in India and housed several IT companies, bank outlets, food courts, gym, swimming poll – all under one roof. But seeing the gigantic structure in person was quite an experience. The tall glass and steel structure would have put even the Hiranandani’s of powai and Raheja’s of Mindspace to shame. We dint have much time to look around, so we quickly go through the automated security doors (at 3 points) and reached our 3rd floor office.
“I was slowly starting to like this macha land with the kind of
Unexpected crowd and city Aura.”
We spent sometime setting up our temp work stations (yea u got tht right - temporary WS’s…cos Change is the only Constant thing when it comes to IT Ops) Then we set off towards the food courts – Dominoes, Coffea shops, Kebab Express, New Yorkers et all just inside my office. This was like a long time dream come true,, that too of all the places – in MACHA LAND!! Food is sumthng I m soo very particular abt. I had a full plate mutton biryani (which was better than any biryanis I had in 2 months in hyderbad) and a glass of juice. Content with the food, we set off from office around 7 and started towards ramyas house (towards Kilpouk – sexy name na?).. after bargaining and fighting with 8 autos, we got inside one. It took us over 1 hr to reach a place whichw as hardly 15 kms away,, (gues evening time peak traffic is a metro – level disease)
Ramya then took us to this Muslim Kebab Shop (I am a pure carnivorous beast and a huge kebab FAN.. so had around 3-4 repeat orders of the sheek – rumali roll). We then picked up Ramyas best friend from the stn (her names RUTH – but bunny calls her RuthLess. Bunny is her new temp 1015th BF and ruth is bunny’s serios 998th GF). We then set off to Café Coffea day and finally ended the day with freshly brewed Frappes in CCD. The ride back to the hotel was quite smooth.
A very sweet end to a brash day full of cops and coolies…… From tommorow will set off on a new adventure of searching a decent house!!
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