Living things

I spent around 10 months of my first uni year living in Newcastle UponTyne, UK, which is about 6,036 miles away from Kakinada, India. It is a drastic change because Kakinada is a laid back little town, known for its sugary sweets and calm atmosphere. Well, if you think about it, UK is also a laid-back country, known for its sugary stuff and calm atmosphere. But it was still a change because the cultures are different and the food is bland and it's always cold. So, after almost one year of living with the Geordies, here is my take on life in the Old Empire.  1.Friendly People. It’s a universal fact that the English are polite people, and its a fundamental rule to know your ‘please’ and ‘thank you’s. I once read in a book that a bank robbery in England had been foiled because the perp had skipped the line, prompting an old man to say, “Get back in line and wait your turn”.  Since I lived in Newcastle, up in the North East, which is as British as it gets, I...

I’m sitting at the dining table, with a plate of hot food in front of me, going through Instagram. And there was a notification from Inshots, about something called Kathua. I tapped on it because I did not know what that word meant.  In ten minutes, I knew enough about it to lose my appetite. And in that brief moment, I was ashamed. Rapes and sexual harassment happen all around the world. But we are a country that worships women and female deities in equal powers with the male gods. IS this how you treat your wife and children? No wonder people abroad look at us as barbarians. It took me days to convince my friend that every Indian was not as bleak as the ones they read in the news.  No wonder there’s brain drain and corruption if this is the way you treat your women. There shouldn’t be a women’s day or a mother’s day when the government acts like it cares and gives out funds to the women’s association or something lame. It boils my blood to see people ac...

Day 4  Homebound The alarm went off at 4:30 in the morning and I got up and brushed my teeth. After I came out, Nanna told me that it was raining. The nyctophile in me was secretly glad for a few seconds; but then I was disappointed that we’d come so far, only to be thwarted by Nature. But by 5:45, it had stopped raining, and there were a few people near the place where the sun was supposed to rise. We made our way downstairs and got in the car and went to the seashore. There was a makeshift wall made of rocks, and quite a number of people were sitting or standing on it, waiting for Mr. Sun to make his appearance.  The sunrise in Kanyakumari Most of the people sitting around were Northies, which made sense, because the people down south would be pretty much used to watching the sun rise from the Ocean, and set on the other side. It was past 6 when things started to get interesting.  The sky started to lighten up and the tiny little crown of the sun was visi...

Day 3 22 Wells and the tip of the Country. I woke up to the alarm at 4:45am, and sat up, because the train was supposed to arrive at 5 in the morning, but it was all dark out, and I went back to sleep. I woke up at 5:15, and it turned out that the train was late by an hour or so, which wasn’t really surprising. Nanna and I went to the doors when we came close, because we wanted to see the Pamban bridge, which was pretty famous, and also, the Adam’s Bridge, or, in a more native term, Rama Sethu, the bridge built by Lord Rama and his Monkey Army to Sri Lanka to rescue his wife, Sita. The train was on the Pamban Bridge, and I could see another bridge for the other vehicles on the left, and some floating rocks on the side. The rocks on the right looked suspiciously like the fabled Rama Sethu stones. I wasn’t sure if these were old or new, because they were covered by algae/seaweed. The rocks were there all the way till we got to the mainland. Rameswaram is like a little thumb th...

 Day 2  Ghee Pongal and Periyar Nanna had asked me the previous day to search for a restaurant that would serve traditional Tamil breakfast. I wasn’t so optimistic as I opened Google. There were the routine restaurants on the recommended list, but they all seemed to be very modern, and not like the Babai Hotel we have in Vijayawada. I stopped thinking about it, but then Nanna asked me again and I had the same results. But I happened to spot an article right below the normal restaurants that had the generic “10 best places to eat in Chennai”. I had nothing to lose, so I dived in. I wasn’t particularly satisfied by any of them, but one name caught my eye. ‘Rayar’s Mess’. According to the author, it had been around for 75 years and boasted of the best filter coffee in all of Chennai. Now that seemed like a challenge. So I told Nanna about it, and we decided to just take an auto early in the morning and give it a go.  The humble entrance of this amazing place. W...

In this world of harsh truths and sweet lies, be a cactus.  I’m a girl.  Well that was kinda obvious. I was really passionate about plants and global warming as an early teen. Not so keen now.  Why? Cuz life took over and its a lot more demanding sometimes.  Recently, I moved away from home for University, and so with all the mixed feelings of homesickness and the sudden freedom to do whatever I want, I also got myself a plant.  It was a succulent.  Well, I didn't know it was one, it just looked so cute, with all the overlapping leaves, symmetrical design and of course, the size. Who could refuse such a cute plant? After almost ten months, I now have four more of them, and I don't see an end for this little family. My friends think I might be one of those old ladies who has lots of flowers in her garden. But other than just being in my house, and giving life to the rather depressing English house, I cou...

Day 1 Filter Coffee and Manuscripts It was 6 in the morning, and our train, Chennai Express, stopped at the Chennai Central Station in Tamil Nadu. It was full of bustling crowds, as is usual in India. We were on platform number 9 and were searching for one of those footbridges to take us to the entrance of the station and had to ask a Tamilian in English, who pointed us in the right direction. As we went to the right, my mind made the connection to the Kings Cross Station in London, UK. It was a very pleasant surprise because the station was just a very brown version of the Kings’ Cross station. The first four platforms were halfway in the station, giving way for the passengers to walk in front of them, and there was a wall with spaces in the front and at its end for us to walk to the other platforms. We walked out, already excited with this little discovery, and ready to uncover more.  We found our driver, Shanmugam, who, fortunately, knew some broken Telugu, so we didn’t...