The Lone Traveller - I

The Lone Traveller - I
Life’s hardest lessons start making sense when I travel alone. For someone who never travelled alone till she was in high school, it is funny that I started enjoying being the lone traveller. The need to have a job brought me to Chennai and as a small town girl who hated the city even more every time I visited it as a child, Chennai was intriguing. Life with friends from office in that small den that everyone manages to find for themselves in the city – I was certainly not alone, practically everyone I knew was doing the same thing. And I started enjoying the freedom and independence that came with it.
Also, I had to find my way around the city on my own – office in one corner of the city, CAT classes in another, aunt’s place in yet another , shopping for groceries… One of the first things that struck me about the city was its speed. Everyone on the road seemed to know exactly what they were doing.. Those myriad office goers from all parts of the country, the ubiquitous autowalas, the witty shopkeepers who know how make you buy even if you as much as touch any of the stuff they had, these ladies driving their kids to school , those typical IT honchos with a bald head, paunch and spectacles driving their stylish cars to office, and of course, the native Chennaiites along the IT corridor who often disappear beneath the crowds who have come to make a living here. I missed my dear Scooty Pep, which dad never allowed me to bring to the city.
First up, “autokaarargal” – the smart Chennai autowalas who can find out if you are new to the city irrespective of whether you are Tamil or not. It is amazing how they make out your background, how long you’ve been in the city and how well you know the place and ask a fare exactly proportionate. I took it up as a personal challenge to get my way with these guys. Oh my, do they know how to convince you! My attempts to strike a fair deal always went in vain, those guys invariably got the upper hand in the conversation. Three years on, I am now proficient in dealing with the autokaarar - the trick? Look non-chalant when you go ask him for the rate, give the impression of a know-it-all with a raised eyebrow and glib voice and say “that much is all I can give you” and still not sound haughty..it always works :-)
Travelling by buses in Chennai is an adventure by itself. The milling crowds, sweat and heat, finding which bus to take to go where… (There is one bus 5B that takes you in and out of all areas possible in Chennai to go from Besant Nagar to Vadapalani!) But in all, it is the most fun and cheapest way to get around the city. Nothing like a cool evening and a window seat to travel in a city bus… all the better if you have your earphones plugged in and tune into the umpteen radio stations. The bus conductors are great managers. They juggle tickets, notes and coins and the infamous dirty bag that holds them with super agility. It is a spectacle to watch a conductor in a crowded bus yelling “Ulla vaa vaa.. arivu illa..erangravangaluku vali vidu…. Yaaru ma seetu?” (“Move in…. let people get off the bus.. who has not got their tickets???”) I feel sorry for the chap, going back and forth in a bus that hardly has an inch of space to move, but he always seem to like his job, is grumpy, but outright and honest, cheerful when the crowds get off and cracks jokes with the driver, always ready to give me gyan on how to reach my place if I ask him. One even overheard me talking on the phone and struck up a conversation “Ooru tiruchyama? Naangalum samayapuram thaan..” (are you from Trichy? I am from there too…). Of course there are ones who irritate you to no end, but they are exceptions.