Living things

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...

I woke up to the news about the death of 400 people in Syria, including 150 children. The one thing that shocked me more than the news itself was how indifferent I was to it. Deaths have become so common to us that it’s just like the weather forecast now; you make it a point to get the basic knowledge about it and then you just don’t care. That is the way the world is behaving with the Middle East civil war. Imagine if an alien looked down at us at some point in time. We would be the weirdest species they would ever see. I think we are the only race that fights with each other, for absolutely no valid reason at all. We are all slaves to a rectangular piece of paper called money, and get away with a lot of things in the name of power and wealth. We make up a system of beliefs and fight each other to death if there’s s a disagreement. It’s shocking that you have to go to war to prove your point. Can’t you talk it out like sensible adults? We’re not kids, for god’s sak...

It’s one of those nights again when sleep knocks on my eyelids, but my brain has more important things to go through. Rain is pattering on the overhead windows in my room, and I’m snuggled in my blankets. It’s one of those nights when everything in life seems to be pointless, and the romantic in me is shaking her head at the way things are. We all have demons in our head. They’re the ones that will be the death of us all. The ones that whisper negative thoughts into your soul and emotionally crumble you to dust. Just when you think you amount to something, this snake coils around you, going, “you’re useless. No one likes you. You’re all alone in this world.” You can feel your brain becoming empty and getting filled with this one thought that you’re no good. It feels correct for quite a while, and it can lead any sane man to his destruction. They bring you down so much that sitting around doing nothing seems to be the best thing to do. It’s like this story I read as a ch...

I just got off a conversation with my friend who hates DC a bit. Wait. That was an understatement. He loathes DC. A lot. And I like DC. I mean, yes, I do also like the new Avengers: Infinity War thingy, but I prefer Batman and Wonder woman to Captain America any day. So anyway, after the conversation, I rewatched some of the movies (hey, I’m on summer break) and finally came up with some takeaway points for both the MCU and the DCU that might pass along without getting yelled at by the little trolls under the bridge.  And these differences are as different as night and day. And that's what it is, night and day. MC movies have the basic type of plots: Person exists Has an ‘ok’ life (except Iron Man, cuz he was rich AF) Has a really bad week/month Comes across superpower The world is in danger He/she saves it Well, of course, the MC has this mind-blowing tapestry of 18 movies that all came together and boiled down to the Infinity War and the one after that. Geez, ...